KUALA LUMPUR (May 9): Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim have vowed to return the people's mandate to the rightful party in a joint statement today commemorating the second anniversary of the Pakatan Harapan coalition's win in the 14th general election (GE14) on this same day in 2018.
Dr Mahathir, who signed off the statement as Bersatu chairman, together with opposition leader Anwar, said the people's mandate was betrayed in February when the Pakatan government was toppled with the formation of a back-door government just as the Covid-19 pandemic hit the country.
By now, they said the people had come to realise that some efforts of legal, economic and institutional reforms that Pakatan had tried to put in place had been thwarted by certain parties who had their own agenda.
"The current government is willing to do anything to accumulate power. Big posts have started to be assigned as power and ranks continue to be craved.
"Knowing this situation, we don't acknowledge this government of the day. Our principle has been clear from day one this government was formed, that it stands without the people's mandate. It did not legally [come to power] through the ballot in an election. It is founded based on the greed for positions and ranks. And not a single one of the leaders of this government has pledged to serve the people," the statement read.
The duo said they do not want to give up their morals and ethics to support the current government. They also do not want to betray the people who spent hours, money and time to vote in the past general election.
May 9, 2018 is not an occasion to commemorate the unification of Dr Mahathir and Anwar, the once-long-time-enemies-turned-allies said, but one to remember how the people's fate and future were put above all else as Malaysians battled injustice in the country.
"The voices and hopes of the people could not be smothered by the fairy tales weaved by the Barisan Nasional (BN) government then.
"We never gave up trying two years ago. It remains the same today. We have long rejected differences and disputes for the people. We are old and we don't have much time. But the spirit of our struggle remains in the hearts of every young man who dreams of reform. The time has come for us to rise again and strive to restore the mandate of the people to the rightful parties.
"Let us not forget the sacred date of May 9, 2018. The date of the fall of the kleptocratic institution. The date of the people's victory. The date that Malaysia Baharu was born," they added.
Dr Mahathir will be tabling a motion for a vote of no confidence against his unplanned successor, Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, in Parliament on May 18, the first sitting of the house since the collapse of the Pakatan coalition.
Dewan Rakyat Speaker Tan Sri Mohamad Ariff Md Yusof announced yesterday that he had allowed the motion. It will be the first time that a vote of no confidence is moved against a sitting prime minister in the country.