Salleh: Mahathir doesn’t hire or fire PMs
Umno man reminds former premier that Bapa Merdeka accused him of fraud in 1987 party elections
(Free Malaysia Today) – Dr Mahathir Mohamad was described today as being delusional in believing that he could decide on who should lead the country, and was reminded that his own premiership was described as being based on fraud.
Communications and Multimedia minister Salleh Said Keruak, writing in his personal blog, accused Dr Mahathir of stating a lie and a fallacy in believing that he had a right to remove Najib Razak as prime minister, after having put Najib in office.
“This sounds like what they say in the US: if I can hire him, then I can fire him,” Salleh said, adding that it was untrue. Dr Mahathir was not Najib’s boss or employer who could just sack him as he pleases.
Salleh’s comment came in response to Mahathir’s remarks in his own blog yesterday in which Mahathir had reminded his critics that he fought hard to have Najib appointed as Prime Minister. “But now I want him removed. It’s nothing personal,” Dr Mahathir said.
However Salleh pointed out that it was Abdullah Ahmad Badawi who had appointed Najib as his deputy and if anyone could claim to have made Najib the prime minister it was probably Abdullah.
He said Dr Mahathir could probably only claim to have made Abdullah the premier, having appointed Abdullah as his deputy before eventually resigning and handing over power to Abdullah.
Salleh said that Dr Mahathir’s line of thinking might even be described as “delusional” by some, that “one man can think he decides who should or should not lead the country, as if the democratic system in how we choose leaders and governments no longer exists”.
