Difficult for Tun Mahathir to topple PM Najib - Shahidan Kassim

Former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad will find it difficult to topple Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak even through the 14th General Election (GE14), said UMNO Supreme Council member Datuk Seri Dr Shahidan Kassim.

He said this was obvious because Najib was the leader of Barisan Nasional (BN) which has 132 seats in the Dewan Rakyat compared to Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (PPBM) which has just one.

"To topple Najib through the general election...he has 132 seats and if you want to wrest all that, it is not easy. Dr Mahathir 's PPBM has only one...so it would be difficult for it to happen," he said after launching Maran UMNO's Wanita wing's Delegates Conference here today.

Shahidan, who is also Minister in the Prime Minister's Department, was commenting on media reports of Dr Mahathir's admission that he had planned to topple Najib since 2014.

Shahidan added that it would be difficult to implement the plan as Najib had strong support not just from UMNO but also from all BN component parties.

Commenting on the three heads in the leadership of Pakatan Harapan (PH), Shahidan said the party was only playing a game with the people as there was no DAP representative in its top leadership.

PH made up of opposition parties PPBM, DAP, PKR and Parti Amanah Negara (Amanah) just released its new leadership which sees Dr Mahathir as the chairman, jailed former opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim as the de facto leader and Anwar's wife Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail as president.

DAP, the strongest party in the alliance, was only given a deputy president post.

In PUTRAJAYA, UMNO Supreme Council member Datuk Ab Aziz Kaprawi echoed the same, adding that Dr Mahathir was just using the 1MDB issue and excuse to "get his way".

In a statement here, the Deputy Transport Minister said Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin who joined Dr Mahathir after being sacked as Deputy Prime Minister and Dr Mahathir's son Mukhriz, who was dropped as Kedah menteri besar, were all traitors to UMNO as they were all insincere in their struggle.

-- BERNAMA