I criticise Najib because he brought down the Pakatan Harapan govt, says Dr Mahathir

(FMT) – Former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad today defended his right to criticise Najib Razak, saying the latter is the cause of the fall of the Pakatan Harapan government.

He said he named Najib when explaining his resignation as the seventh prime minister in the Dewan Rakyat because he (Najib) was the previous premier.

“If he is not a former prime minister, I do not have a problem. That is why I have the right to mention his name,” he said when Ahmad Tarmizi Sulaiman (PN-Sik) stood up and asked him not to mention specific names in Parliament with the intention of criticising the person.

Earlier, Mahathir said he was disappointed because his previous party, PPBM, which was formed to bring down the Barisan Nasional government, led by Najib, had believed that DAP would destroy the Malays.

“This has no basis. It is only to create fear among Malays to reject PH,” he said.

But such sentiment worked, he said, and PPBM members decided to exit PH. “Because of that, I resigned as the prime minister.”

He said Najib had used DAP as the “bogeyman” to weaken the PH coalition.

The Langkawi MP also touched on racial polarisation in the country, saying the only way to reduce racial tension was to understand the reasons behind it.

“Avoiding this topic will not reduce the problem, but it will get worse,” he said.

He said unlike violent revolutions in Russia and China, Malaysians would reject violence, “but this does not mean that there is no racial polarisation”.

On the 2021 population census, Mahathir said it should also include the roles played the people and their contributions to the nation as well as identify the right plan of action.

He said the data could also be used to reduce the gap between the rich and poor that may have contributed to the racial polarisation.