ALOR SETAR (CNA) – Gerakan Tanah Air (GTA) pro tem chairman Mahathir Mohamad said he was willing to forget Muhyiddin Yassin’s “betrayal” so that GTA and Perikatan Nasional (PN) can work together to face the 15th General Election (GE15).
Dr Mahathir said the opposition parties could only defeat United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) by working together and for that reason, he chose to propose the matter to Muhyiddin but was rejected by the PN chairman.
“I thought, it is okay even though he had stabbed me in the back before, for the sake of our people, country, and religion, we are willing to humble ourselves to cooperate with Muhyiddin, even after he had betrayed me, I am willing to forget about it.
“But … he said he did not want to cooperate with anyone, how arrogant,” he said when speaking at the GTA rally on Friday.
The Parti Pejuang Tanah Air (Pejuang) chairman claimed that Muhyiddin is confident that PN can win GE15 without cooperating with any party and is still interested in becoming prime minister for the second time.
Dr Mahathir said GTA never refused to cooperate with any party to defeat UMNO in GE15.
“I know people like to see opposition parties unite so that we can defeat UMNO, but when we asked them to cooperate, they refused. We are ready, even in GTA we have four parties, we are united but they don’t want to cooperate,” he said.
In the meantime, GTA pro tem deputy chairman Mukhriz Mahathir said the coalition aimed at contesting about 120 parliamentary seats and the candidates will be announced on November 2.
He said the actual number of seats that GTA will contest will be finalised later, adding that it will field candidates in no less than 10 parliamentary seats in Kedah.
The “betrayal” Dr Mahathir was referring to is also commonly known as the “Sheraton Move”, which led to the toppling of the Pakatan Harapan government in 2020.
Then, Muhyiddin’s Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia withdrew from Pakatan Harapan while several Parti Keadilan Rakyat lawmakers also quit the party.
The king then determined that Muhyiddin and was sworn in as prime minister.
