Prime Minister-to-be Anwar Ibrahim says he is aware there are a lot of traitors who are intensifying speculations on who will be the next PM of Malaysia.
He was addressing his party, the Justice Party, members in the state of Sabah at the party’s convention at the ITCC Penampang on Monday, Oct, 28.
Anwar, the party president, also said he was fed up of talking about the issue of power transition.
“That’s why I don’t really like to talk about it, but the problem is that there is a lot of orang khianat (traitors),” he said.
On questions by the public asking him whether he will the next PM, he replied, “I have waited for 20 years, so it’s okay. Don’t worry.”
“If God wants to make it happen, it will happen,” he said, adding that he was not pushing for the leadership transition and urged everyone to continue supporting the federal and state governments for pressing development needs.
Anwar did not say who the traitors were but speculation is rife as he was mentioning both people in the party and the opposition members who have given public support to Dr Mahathir to stay on as PM.
The Islamists PAS created waves of anger and support recently when it declared its support for Dr Mahathir and indicated it did not want Anwar to be the next PM.
Some members of Umno are also saying publicly they prefer the man who brought their party down in the general elections in May last year as a full-time PM.
Justice Party deputy president Azmin Ali has also given his support to Dr Mahathir to remain PM as he openly bickers with his party leader Anwar.
Azmin is supported by at least 20 MPs from the Justice Party, reports say.
Dr Mahathir’s party, the Bersatu is also in favour of their leader remaining in power, but before the last general elections, Pakatan decided Dr Mahathir will be PM for a few years before handing over power to Anwar.
There are disagreements on when Dr Mahathir should resign as some say there was an agreement for a two-year timeline.
Dr Mahathir, his party and some Justice Party members including Azmin Ali deny there is such a timeline.
There is also speculation that former Umno vice-president and Sembrong MP Hishammuddin Hussein is engineering a coup within the Pakatan (though he is not a member of the coalition) to oust the Democratic Action Party and Parti Amanah Negara from Pakatan to form a new coalition government.
This has prompted the Pakatan secretariat to issue a statement strongly denouncing the plot and Anwar to make a statement in parliament on the perceived plot and the need for all parties to support his leadership if he is designed to be the next PM. -/TISG