Dr Mahathir Is Party-Less But Why Is He In The News So Much?

Dr Mahathir snipped off a bit of Papagomo’s hair to symbolically mark the end of the latter’s vow.

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Former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad is officially party-less, and has been for quite some time now after he left the party he founded.

Dr Mahathir was formerly an Umno man. He was prime minister for 22 years under Umno. After retiring in 2003, he returned over a decade later to helm the country once again, this time under Pakatan Harapan (PH) in 2018.

This happened after he formed a new party called Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) and joined forces with former rival Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim (former Umno man who formed PKR).

Under the PH umbrella, they wrested the federal administration from Barisan Nasional (BN).

Internal issues saw Dr Mahathir resigning as prime minister. He was also sacked from Bersatu and by the time the 15th General Election (GE15) was held last year, he had already formed another party called Pejuang.

Pejuang, including Dr Mahathir suffered defeat in GE15. Later on, Dr Mahathir left Pejuang and also left the coalition he founded where Pejuang sat under called Gerakan Tanah Air (GTA).

So now Dr Mahathir has no party. He does have a mission though and it is called the “Malay Proclamation”.

Now why is he in the news so much for someone who not too long ago hinted he was going to retire and focus on writing.

Questioned by cops

Earlier this week, Dr Mahathir had his statement recorded by the police on insulting royals and his “Malay Proclamation”.

Pejuang information chief, Rafique Rashid in a video statement said he had accompanied the former prime minister to the AlBukhary Foundation where the statement was recorded.

Rafique said Dr Mahathir was being investigated under Section 124 (B) of the Penal Code for carrying out activities detrimental to parliamentary democracy. Rafique asked if talking about the Malays was deemed as detrimental to parliamentary democracy. He informed that Dr Mahathir was prepared to answer in court on the accusations.

Ready to reunite

When Dr Mahathir resigned as prime minister during his second stint, and was sacked from Bersatu, there was a fallout between him and Bersatu president Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.

After Dr Mahathir stepped down early 2020, Muhyiddin was appointed as prime minister.

In an exclusive interview with MalaysiaNow, Dr Mahathir said he was ready to work with Muhyiddin, who is the chairman of the Perikatan Nasional (PN) coalition.

He said this would be dependant on them having mutuals goals and that the main goal was to champion the cause of the Malays and reject corruption or criminal misconduct.

Muhyiddin later responded that he too was prepared to work with Dr Mahathir, saying that he welcomed the latter’s statement.

As a Muslim, I am personally ready to work with all Malay and Muslim leaders, including Mahathir, in order to defend religion, race, and country.
Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, as reported by MalaysiaNow

Who else is with Dr M?

In a rather unexpected turn of events, political blogger Wan Muhammad Azri Wan Deris (Papagomo) officially announced continuing his political struggles with Dr Mahathir.

Papagomo who was suspended from Umno since September 2021 said he had vowed not to cut his hair and beard until there was an official avenue for him to continue fighting for religion, race and country, according to Sinar Harian.