KUALA LUMPUR, April 23 — Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (PPBM) supreme council has come out in full support of Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad in an emergency meeting last night over the unwelcome new Johor exco line-up.
PPBM supreme council member Datuk A. Kadir Jasin said there was a ‘general understanding’ right up to the Cabinet level that there would not be a reshuffle of the state excos even after Datuk Dr Sahruddin Jamal was sworn in as the new mentri besar last Sunday.
The veteran newsman said the meeting, which went on from 6.30pm to 11pm at the party’s headquarters in Petaling Jaya, ended with the party leaders giving Dr Mahathir, who is PPBM chairman and the prime minister, their ‘100 per cent’ support.
“We will stand by the rule of law, and that nobody is above the (Federal) Constitution,” he told Malay Mail when contacted.
When asked if the meeting also discussed whether the exco lineup had input from the Johor Palace, Kadir said it did not come to that, and that Dr Mahathir will probably find out from Sahruddin later on.
Asked about the supposed rumours that Dr Mahathir wanted to resign as prime minister over the reshuffle, Kadir said: “No such rumours have reached me.”
Kadir also said that the meeting was not tense but held in an open manner.
“The meeting was not tense, but very frank since the chairman allowed everyone to speak out if they wanted to and speak openly as they could, to the extent that if they wanted to bang on the table, they could do so,” he said.
On April 13, outgoing Johor Mentri Besar Datuk Osman Sapian had told reporters that Sultan of Johor Sultan Ibrahim Sultan Iskandar wanted a reshuffle of state exco members.
“During my audience, Tuanku had also expressed certain conditions, including a reshuffle of the state executive councillors as part of an agreement to appoint a new menteri besar,” he had said after presenting his resignation letter to the Sultan.
Three new state exco members were sworn in before the Sultan at Istana Bukit Serene in Johor Bahru yesterday morning. They were Tosrin Jarvanthi and Mohd Solihan Badri from PPBM and Tan Chen Choon from DAP.
At the same ceremony, the Sultan awarded Dr Sahruddin with a datukship.
