Malaysia’s former PM Mahathir to announce new party on Friday: Sources

Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad speaks during a press conference in Parliament December 3, 2019. — Picture by Miera Zulyana. Sketched by the Pan Pacific Agency.

PETALING JAYA, Aug 7, 2020, The Star. Malaysia’s former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad is expected to announce he is forming a new political party on Friday evening (Aug 7), sources have said, The Straits Times reported.

The new party will be registered as Parti Bersatu Rakyat Malaysia, a strikingly similar name to his former party, Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu), which expelled him earlier this year.

According to sources, a news conference by the former Bersatu chairman and MPs who were former party members will be held at a hotel in Bangsar in Kuala Lumpur to announce details.

Aides to Tun Dr Mahathir, however, were tight-lipped when contacted and said that any news conferences on the matter has yet to be confirmed.

Checks at the hotel, however, showed that preparations were being made for Dr Mahathir to hold a meeting later in the day.

The sources also said that the announcement was entirely due to the decision by the High Court earlier on Friday on the application by Prime Minister and Bersatu president Muhyiddin Yassin and three others to strike out a suit by Dr Mahathir and five other people.

The High Court accepted Tan Sri Muhyiddin’s application to dismiss a lawsuit filed by Dr Mahathir and five others over the revocation of their party membership.

Judge Rohani Ismail concluded that Dr Mahathir and the other plaintiffs have no legal standing to sue over what they claimed was the unlawful termination of their Bersatu membership.

On July 23, Dr Mahathir said that if the court decision was not in his favour, he would form a new party.

Dr Mahathir and PM Muhyiddin founded Bersatu in 2016, but they split up following the collapse of the then ruling Pakatan Harapan coalition at the end of February, after Mr Muhyiddin and some 40 other MPs defected to form a new alliance that includes Umno and Parti Islam SeMalaysia.

Dr Mahathir, 95, the MP for Langkawi ward, and five other MPs had filed a legal challenge after being automatically relieved of their Bersatu membership for sitting in the Opposition bench during the May 18 parliamentary meeting.

The other five MPs on his side are his son Mukhriz Mahathir, former Cabinet ministers Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman and Maszlee Malik, former deputy minister Amiruddin Hamzah and MP Shahruddin Md Salleh.

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