Dr M: We'll oust Najib should he pick corrupt cabinet

The country’s fourth prime minister, Dr Mahathir Mohamad, today vowed to work to oust incoming premier Najib Abdul Razak should he appoint corrupt leaders in his new cabinet.

Mahathir said this during the Q&A session after his lecture on “Democracy and the Future Leadership of Malaysia” at the Tun Hussein Onn Memorial in Kuala Lumpur today, adding that it is widely known who the corrupt leaders are.

“Najib will choose his cabinet members and if he chooses this type of people, then he is signing his death warrant. We will make sure he loses,” he said at the lecture organised by the Former People's Representatives Council (Mubarak).

Mahathir had waged a campaign against his successor Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s administration for several years and has been increasingly critical of Najib of late.

Najib will officially be declared Umno president on March 26 during the Umno general assembly, but it is unclear when he officially takes reign as prime minister.

Najib is expected to take over from Abdullah as part of a succession plan, but Mahathir is still not convinced that everything would go as planned.

Will Pak Lah stay on?

Mahathir said that it is purely a party convention that the Umno president is appointed prime minister, but this is not required in law.

From his own experience, Mahathir said, third Prime Minister Hussein Onn did not relinquish his post until two weeks after the former was appointed party president in 1981.

“The chances of this happening (now) is possible. He may say: I still got a lot of work to do (crowd roars with laughter) and I will continue as prime minister.

“If this happens, then we are in for a big problem. We can try to eliminate him with a vote of no-confidence. But if half of the BN MPs support him and the opposition fully backs him, he will win and continue as prime minister for the opposition.

“Moreover, lately he met Anwar. Not just met, but it was a ‘coincidence’ and they had a four-eye meeting. We don’t know what they discussed. Let's just wait for March 26,” he said.

To a question on whether Najib is capable of stabilising the country, Mahathir said that it would depend on how vigilant the public and Umno members are in scrutinising the former’s actions.

Dr M on unity government

Mahathir added that Najib was a “good administrator, but politically weak”.

“He didn’t come up from the bottom (grassroots). Suddenly, he came back from Europe (after his studies) and was chosen to replace his father. We are sentimental towards his father, so we support him.

“But he does not know the ins and outs of grassroots politics. He only knows politics from above,” said Mahathir.

Mahathir also scoffed at PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang’s suggestion that BN and Pakatan Rakyat should form a unity government.

He said that it was not possible because PAS had a different mentality from Umno and past experience had shown that the two parties cannot work together.

“For 50 years, we manage to rule without a unity government. Why only ask us now?” he said.