Bersatu’s Wan Saiful insists Dr M and co were not sacked but dropped from the party

KUALA LUMPUR, May 28 — Bersatu Supreme Council member Wan Saiful Wan Jan has clarified that the five MPs including former chairman Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, his son Datuk Seri Mukhriz Mahathir and three other MPs were not sacked but were automatically dropped from the party.

In a statement following the party’s decision, Wan Saiful pointed out that Article 10.2 of the party’s constitution clearly stated that any member automatically loses his or her membership the moment they “join any other political party”.

“Whenever any Bersatu MPs choose to join any group that is not part of the party in Parliament, automatically their membership will be dropped. It is nothing surprising.

“I want to firmly state here that they were not sacked. But they were dropped as a result of their own actions. As a comparison, when a person leaves his own home of his own volition, he is not being kicked out of the house.

“Instead, the person’s action has automatically caused him to be outside of the house. This is what has happened in this case,” said Wan Saiful.

He pointed out that there are no political party in the world that will allow their MPs sitting in a position that opposes the party’s position.

Wan Saiful said that anyone, from the party’s top leadership down to the grassroot members must be supportive and sit together with the party in Parliament.

“It’s all right to have different opinions but it must come from the same bloc, not as an outsider,” he added.

Wan Saiful then made the call to strengthen the party and not forget the contribution made by Dr Mahathir and his supporters.

Earlier today, five letters were sent out to five Bersatu MPs, namely: Langkawi MP Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, his son Jerlun MP Datuk Seri Mukhriz Mahathir, Simpang Renggam MP Maszlee Malik, Muar MP Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman and Kubang Pasu MP Datuk Amiruddin Hamzah.

The five letters stated that Dr Mahathir and his four federal lawmaker followers had been dropped from the party for sitting with the opposition during the recent one-day Parliamentary sitting on May 18.