Why did Mukhriz contest the UMNO vice-presidency in 2013?
MUKHRIZ MAHATHIR’S STATEMENT:
RESPONSE BY PRIME MINISTER’S PRESS SECRETARY
1. Dato’ Seri Mukhriz Mahathir told a foreign newspaper yesterday that he has no ambition to be Prime Minister. Why then did he contest to be UMNO Vice President in 2013?
2. Everyone in Malaysian politics knows that only someone who wants to be UMNO President, and then by default Prime Minister, would stand to be Vice President. It is a key step on the ladder to the top.
3. Maybe it’s because he lost the contest that Dato’ Seri Mukhriz contradicts himself by saying he didn’t want to climb the ladder. Or maybe because he was told to say this by his father, Tun Mahathir Mohamad. But we all know that he or his father did want him to climb the ladder, because he stood for election as Vice President.
4. Yesterday, Dato’ Seri Mukhriz also said that he will sue me if I don’t retract my comments about his father promising Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin the post of Prime Minister, with the understanding that he groom and handover to Dato’ Seri Mukhriz.
5. But there is a faster way for Dato’ Seri Mukhriz and his father to stop all the speculation that Tun Mahathir is paving the way for his son. Tun Mahathir just needs to announce who he wants to be Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister. Why does he always avoid answering this one simple but essential question? Why is he consistently evasive about his plans for Dato’ Seri Mukhriz’s political future?
6. If Tun Mahathir wants his attempt to unseat the Prime Minister to have any credibility, he must at least give a straight answer on who the alternative candidate is. If he still refuses, he should stop this distraction for Malaysia and quietly retire with the grace people expect of a former statesman.
7. It is the people, not one man, who under our Constitution are entitled to democratically choose their Government and Prime Minister at the next General Election.
DATUK SERI TENGKU SARIFFUDDIN
PRESS SECRETARY TO THE PRIME MINISTER
