Former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad today formally brought together an alliance of unlikely forces to sign a Citizens' Declaration in his bid to oust his protege-turned-nemesis Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak.
His sudden willingness to unite with his long-time enemies and concede to the reforms called by his opponents in exchange for their support has raised a myriad of questions.
These questions were thrown at the former prime minister, who answered some of them but also provided non-answers to others.
The following are 11 selected questions posed to Mahathir at the press conference at the Universiti Malaya Alumni Association club house in Kuala Lumpur after the signing of the declaration and his answers.
Question: Are you fighting to save Umno or Malaysia?
It has nothing to do with Umno or any parties. It's about the citizens of Malaysia. About the future of Malaysia.
Q: Are you prepared to campaign for the release of Anwar?
We are concerned about removing Najib.
Q: Is it part of your campaign?
The reforms will come later; it's about system and methods of administrating the country.
Q: Will you resign from GLCs?
We are not asking anyone to resign (from) their posts. We are only asking those people to join forces to ask Najib to resign.
Q: Do you trust the opposition?
The question of opposition doesn't arise here. We are here as Malaysians.
Q: Do you have enough support? We cannot even see PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang here.
We will find out.
Q: If Najib leads BN in the coming election, will you campaign against Umno?
As long as Najib is not there, I can campaign for anyone. If Najib is there, useless lah; he is the one who destroys the party. All machinery is destroyed, including the police, attorney-general, and so on.
Q: How can you actually contribute? You couldn't even gather 40 BN MPs to defeat Najib's budget or mobilise Umno members for Bersih 4.
I am not campaigning with or for Umno, I am campaigning for the citizens in this country to remove Najib.
Q: Do you need more Umno support to get rid of Najib?
People who support Najib in danger of having legal action taken against Najib if he is no longer the PM.
Q: Given DAP has the most MPs in Parliament, if this succeeds, will DAP (leader) take over as prime minister?
We will have general elections free from cheating. If the people want to choose DAP, that's their choice. If the people want to support, it's their right to receive support.
Q: How do you convince Umno members who are against DAP?
It seems in our head that still think this party, that party. We move as Malaysians. There is party movement and people movement.
-TheMalaysiakini-
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