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‘A ship can only have one captain’: Bersatu to do away with chairman post in the future, says Redzuan

Bersatu supreme council member Datuk Seri Mohd Redzuan Md Yusof speaks to reporters at the Parliament building August 10,2020. — Picture by Ahmad Zamzahuri
Bersatu supreme council member Datuk Seri Mohd Redzuan Md Yusof speaks to reporters at the Parliament building August 10,2020. — Picture by Ahmad Zamzahuri

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 10 — Datuk Seri Mohd Redzuan Md Yusof has confirmed that the leadership of Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) is looking at doing away with the chairman post.

The Bersatu supreme council member said this decision would likely be made as part of the leadership’s plans to amend the party constitution.

“Yes, God willing, as we have seen the problems caused by that post (chairman).

“A ship can only have one captain,” he told reporters at the Parliament building today after his winding up speech for the debate of the King’s speech.

Redzuan, who is also special functions minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, was responding to reporters’ questions regarding perceptions that the party is losing support in several divisions after former Bersatu chairman Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s announcement that he is setting up a new party.

Redzuan further clarified that the chairman post only existed because the party leadership created it for Dr Mahathir when he joined the party.

“Bersatu was founded by Muhyiddin (party president Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin), and Dr Mahathir was invited to join as a member.

“He (Dr Mahathir) said he only wanted to be the party adviser. But out of the party’s goodwill, we made way for the statesman and included the post in the party constitution which we call ‘chairman’.

“But we now know the problem of having two captains on one ship,” he said.

In May, Bersatu organising secretary Muhammad Suhaimi Yahya sent letters of termination to Dr Mahathir, Bersatu deputy president Datuk Seri Mukhriz Mahathir, Kubang Pasu MP Datuk Amiruddin Hamzah, Bersatu Youth chief Syed Saddiq Abdul Rahman and Simpang Renggam MP Maszlee Malik.

In it, he informed the five that their memberships were terminated as they sat on the Opposition bench during the May 18 parliamentary meeting when Bersatu was part of the ruling coalition.

This was following Bersatu’s split after the February political crisis following Dr Mahathir’s resignation as the prime minister and the party’s chairman.

Despite the Bersatu supreme council’s rejection of his resignation at the time, the party’s leaders insisted that Dr Mahathir has no executive powers until he is officially reinstated in the position, despites his claims that he was the Bersatu chairman and had plans to bring a motion to sack Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin at a party meeting in the near future.

Commenting on a related matter, Redzuan said Dr Mahathir’s new party will not threaten Bersatu, but instead strengthen it despite talk about party divisions being purportedly paralysed due to the latter’s move to form a new party.

“We see this as something that can strengthen the party.

“We need to explain to our members who may want to leave Bersatu.

“But those who want to leave because they don’t understand the party’s constitution, we don’t want them sitting in the divisions,” he said.

He added that there are no issues of divisions that have become non-existent, although some committee members may have left.

“Just because some committee members have left, it does not mean that the division does not exist anymore.

“They are still registered under the Registrar of Societies. We will reelect these committee members, but it will not be done in a hurry as it is not an easy task,” he said.

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