KUALA LUMPUR: Pas president Tan Sri Abdul Hadi Awang has implied that his party orchestrated the infamous Sheraton Move, which led to the fall of the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government in February 2020.
Hadi said Pas initiated a movement to shift the nation's political landscape as the Islamic party was concerned with the way PH government was running the country at the time.
He claimed there were efforts by some parties in PH who wanted to remove the special position of Islam as well as the privileges of the Malays and Bumiputra in the country by pushing for the ratification of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD).
"We persuaded Bersatu (Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia) leaders, who were at the time were with the then government, to make a political change by gathering Muslims and non-Muslims member of parliament.
"After they agreed, (Bersatu president) Tan Sri Muhyiddin (Yassin) expressed his readiness to leave PH.
"He (Muhyiddin) helped to arrange a meeting (between Pas and) Umno leaders, who later agreed to join the movement for shift in the country's political landscape," Hadi said in his speech at the 'Penyatuan Ummah' ceramah in Kota Baru on Friday night.
He maintained that the then Perikatan Nasional (PN) government under Muhyiddin's leadership was neither "kerajaan pintu belakang" nor "kerajaan tebuk atap" (backdoor government).
Hadi said the change in the federal administration two years ago, which saw PN replacing PH, was done according to democratic practices.
"Pas proposed Muhyiddin as the prime minister (for the PN government). Alhamdulillah, our proposal also received the support from Umno at the time."
Hadi claimed Umno started "buat pasal" (caused troubled) when the party alongside Pas and other parties in PN were the government of the day.
At the same event, he also addressed the meeting between him and Umno president Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi on the cooperation between the two parties for the 15th General Election (GE15).
"He (Zahid) was the one who invited me to meet and not the other way around. He (Zahid), however, told the media that I was the one who had invited him for the meeting," said Hadi.