AMPANG – Sick and tired of being labelled a traitor, Datuk Zuraida Kamaruddin has shared her version of events that unfolded behind the scenes leading to the Pakatan Harapan (PH) administration’s eventual toppling in February 2020.
Now with Parti Bangsa Malaysia (PBM), she trained her finger back at PKR, DAP, and Amanah, whom she blamed for the rise of the Perikatan Nasional (PN) government then.
The PH component parties, she said, are the true traitors.
Recollecting, Zuraida told The Vibes that when Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad resigned as prime minister on February 24, 2020, following internal bickering, PH had later agreed to back the nonagenarian for his return to the top post.
This agreement supposedly took place ahead of a voting process among all MPs to determine the next prime minister, as decreed by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong.
However, she said PKR, DAP, and Amanah later turned their backs and instead nominated Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim who obtained the support of 90 MPs as opposed to Dr Mahathir’s 65.
“Who didn’t vote for Tun (Dr Mahathir)? It was PKR, Amanah and DAP. They voted for Anwar, I voted for Tun. So who are the traitors? PH. They were supposed (to vote) for Tun,” she said in an exclusive interview here.
Zuraida is defending the Ampang parliamentary seat in the 15th general election (GE15), which she held since 2008 under PKR.
She added that after the deadlock – with no one MP being able to secure the support of a minimum of 112 lawmakers to form a new government – Dr Mahathir later agreed to back Bersatu and make way for Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin to rise to power.
This prompted her and the 10 other PKR MPs led by Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali to pledge support for the Bersatu president in the so-called “Sheraton Move” – only for Dr Mahathir to make an eleventh-hour U-turn to return to PH’s fold.
“We had signed statutory declarations supporting Muhyiddin. But the night before the second round of voting, Tun hopped back to PH. We said (that) we’ve already done this (signed the declaration), so let’s just follow the original plan, and Muhyiddin eventually won.”
That’s the story. I want you to highlight this, that the traitors have nothing to do with the Sheraton Move, but it is PH that betrayed Tun Mahathir so that he couldn’t become prime minister.
During the political crisis, Bersatu left PH – supposedly due to pressure from component parties for Dr Mahathir to relinquish his prime ministership to Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, who is PKR president.
The 11 PKR MPs who backed Muhyiddin were also sacked from the party. They later joined Bersatu to form the new PN government, ending the weeks-long turmoil.
Zuraida also claimed the real motivation behind PH’s decision to not back Dr Mahathir during the crisis was due to his intention to form a unity government with cabinet members consisting of lawmakers from across the divide.
“I was very happy with the proposal. I don’t agree with having unintelligent party presidents as ministers. So, they were not happy when Tun announced that. That was the reason they didn’t vote for him in the first round,” she said.
‘I worked under three governments, PH was the worst’
Zuraida was among just a handful of lawmakers who had the opportunity to be in the cabinet under all three administrations led by PH, PN and BN.
The government led by BN took over in August 2021 with Muhyiddin being replaced as prime minister by Umno vice-president Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob.
Zuraida shared with The Vibes her thoughts on how she felt about each administration’s performance.
Without mincing her words, the PBM president designate said the worst of the bunch was PH. This was partly why she decided to support Dr Mahathir during the vote casting – having seen how the coalition had operated while in the government, she explained.
“The reason why PH only lasted 22 months was because most of us never had the experience as ministers, so we struggled to understand the government system and the civil servants.
“The four PH component parties were also not able to blend and integrate, as each had their own agenda,” she said.
“Separately, they didn’t know how to behave like the government. They behaved like they were still the opposition. When in Parliament or overseas, they didn’t speak well about the government and kept blaming the previous administration.
“On top of all these, one individual kept pushing to be prime minister, adding to our headache. These are all the disturbances we had to endure, disrupting us from doing our job.”
Nonetheless, Zuraida said, PN and BN administrations were also no beds of roses, each having its flaws that were largely the result of political instability at the time.
Chiefly, the two coalitions were so desperate to cling to power that they had to resort to populist policies that were detrimental to the country.
“You had to look at the financial situation, and they should have been more policy-driven. But they didn’t (the former), and they could not do that (the latter) because of the political situation,” she said.
On why she decided to apply for PBM to join BN as a component – a coalition that she had long fought against when she was in PKR – Zuraida said the decision was motivated by the fact that the political entity was already going through a “cleansing process”.
“I evaluated that with Datuk Seri Najib Razak going in (to prison), Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor going in, and Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi going through the court process, there is a movement towards cleaning up the party.
It also looked like BN was going to form the government after the 15th general election, so that was why we tried to join. But along the way, with all the messes, we were not too comfortable with them.
Zuraida added that PBM had also disagreed with certain conditions set by Zahid, who is Umno president, for the party to join BN, which effectively meant its application was rejected. – The Vibes, November 9, 2022
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