Dr M still refuses to take responsibility for 'egregious blunder' - Kit Siang

DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang has ticked off Langkawi MP Dr Mahathir Mohamad for accusing him of refusing to accept responsibility for his mistake despite almost a year after the collapse of the Pakatan Harapan government.

"It is indeed unfortunate that Mahathir still refused to assume responsibility for his egregious blunder in resigning as prime minister when he had retained the support of the majority of the MPs, from Pakatan Harapan, Warisan and even Bersatu MPs," Lim said in a statement today.

This was after Mahathir lamented that the Perikatan Nasional (PN) Plus government would not have come to power if Harapan continued to back him after he had resigned on Feb 24 last year.

Mahathir still had the support of many MPs at the point of resignation, partly because they believed that he would lead them when the PN Plus government was formed.

However, after Mahathir resigned and denounced the attempt to reconstitute his government, MPs supporting the effort, including from Sarawak-based GPS, abandoned him.

In a closed-door meeting with Harapan leaders, Mahathir had apologised to them, acknowledging that the resignation was a mistake.

However, the former PM maintained that he had "no choice". Mahathir had consistently believed that he no longer had majority support.

However, Mahathir's former Harapan allies, particularly PKR, were angry that he unilaterally resigned and did not consult them.

They believed that had he not resigned, it would have bought Harapan time to prove its majority and that they would also be on stronger grounds for negotiations.

Mahathir's resignation triggered a flurry of negotiations, culminating in a victory for PN which only had three MPs more than the other side.

During the negotiations, Mahathir had once again sought to prove his majority despite resigning.

However, Mahathir had wanted a free hand to appoint his ministers should he return as prime minister, including from outside of Harapan.

Harapan could not agree to this and eventually decided to back PKR president Anwar Ibrahim instead, but he fell short.

In a blog post yesterday, Mahathir lamented Harapan's refusal to back his idea for a government of bureaucrats.

"But I failed because Kit Siang said I was trying to become a dictator. He supported Anwar as the Harapan candidate. Had the 92 votes gone to me, I would have 154 votes.

"You can imagine what direction the nation would take when all parties put the nation first," Mahathir had said.

However, Lim said the reasoning is Mahathir's own conjecture.

"To put the record straight, Harapan's decision to support Anwar as prime minister after Mahathir's shocking resignation was made unanimously by all three component parties of Harapan – DAP, PKR and Amanah.

"Harapan made the decision after Mahathir refused to continue as the Harapan prime minister as well as abide and be bound by the Harapan general election manifesto.

"There must be a Harapan prime minister and government to uphold and respect the people's mandate granted in the 2018 general election," Lim added.

Despite leading Harapan in the 2018 general election, Mahathir had at times downplayed the coalition's manifesto by claiming they overpromised.