KUALA LUMPUR, April 19 — Working alongside Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad to remove Datuk Seri Najib Razak as prime minister will backfire on Pakatan Rakyat (PR), a DAP lawmaker warned today.
Bukit Gelugor MP Ramkarpal Singh Deo stressed that Dr Mahathir’s desire to oust Najib was not fuelled by a need for a clean, transparent government, but only to “save Umno”.
“The question of working with Dr Mahathir is an unimaginable disaster waiting to happen.
“There can be no doubt that Malaysia needs to be saved. While I agree that Najib ought to go, I cannot agree with the means by which Dr Mahathir proposes to do so,” Ramkarpal said in a statement here.
“Asserting pressure on a democratically elected prime minister to step down cannot be democratic and it is high time that Pakatan Rakyat come together at this very critical time against Umno and the Barisan Nasional (BN),” the DAP MP added.
Ramkarpal said that working with Dr Mahathir would mean that PR would just be maintaining the status quo and allow “corruption to continue”.
“I am firmly of the view that saving Malaysia can only mean a new clean, accountable and transparent government.
“Pakatan Rakyat must live up to its promise to Malaysians of being that alternative and democratically oust Najib and the BN through the ballot box,” Ramkarpal stressed.
He was referring to a statement made by DAP’s Lim Kit Siang yesterday — in which the latter said he is willing to work even with his nemesis Dr Mahathir in order to “save Malaysia” from the current policies that might plunge the country “down a slippery slope”.
Speaking to Malaysian students in Alexandria, Egypt yesterday, the Gelang Patah MP said the country is heading towards a “failed state” in a variety of areas, including nation building, politics, economics and education.
But Dr Mahathir has said he will not work with PR to achieve his goal.
“I’m not working with anyone to take down Najib, not the opposition.
“The problem is within Umno itself,” Dr Mahathir told reporters when met at the sidelines of an anti-war forum this morning.
On Friday, former Umno minister Datuk Zaid Ibrahim suggested that Dr Mahathir and jailed Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim should bury the hatchet on various issues, and work with senior Kelantan Umno lawmaker Tan Sri Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah to boot Najib from government.
