KUALA LUMPUR: Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has revealed what transpired behind closed-doors in the hours before the results of the 14th General Election (GE14) were officially announced six months ago.
The Prime Minister said Pakatan Harapan (PH) encountered “difficulties from within” on the night of May 9.
He said there was an attempt by leaders from Umno and Pas to woo the Malay-Muslim elected representatives from PH to form a Malay-Muslim majority government.
“It had to do with racial and religious politics. There was a fear that our coalition was not going to respect the position of Islam as much as the previous government had.
“So there was an idea that if the Muslims from Umno, Pas and PH all came together they could have the majority and form a Malay-Muslim government, but they were advised against that,” he told the Mekong Review in an interview published in its latest issue in October.
Dr Mahathir said the shock election result caused leaders from the Barisan Nasional (BN) to initiate desperate measures to stay in power.
“If they (Malay-Muslims PH elected representatives) could be persuaded to cross over to the side of Umno and Pas, these people would have the majority to form the government. This was what caused the delay in announcing our election victory.
“So the transition was smooth from the outside, but it was not very smooth from the inside. We had lots of difficulties, including attempts from within to reject our success, but in the end better sense prevailed.”
Dr Mahathir said the political maneuvering caused a delay in the official announcements of the GE14 results, which was heavily criticised by political analysts on election night.
“We knew we had won by 8.30pm, but we didn’t get the official announcement until about 2am, because during that short period of time there was a lot of maneuvering, which was not visible to the people. We knew, and later we learnt even more about it.”
He declined to reveal the names of PH elected representatives who were approached by Umno and Pas on election night.
Dr Mahathir said that PH had expected to lose in GE14 as it thought that the previous government was very powerful, and that it managed to cling on to power due to “improper” activities such as bribery and threats.
However, Dr Mahathir admitted that BN was equally shocked when they did not emerge victorious and they were at a lost at what to do.
“I thought that if they (BN) lost they would not accept the result, but they lost by such a big margin that they were caught off guard and did not know what to do.
“Great numbers had supported the opposition, and there were also people who advised the (previous) government to accept the results,” he said.
When talking about challenges that the newly-minted PH government faced since May 9, Dr Mahathir said it continued to strive to implement changes and avoid the mistakes made by the BN.
“When a country suddenly becomes democratic, it cannot really handle the kind of freedom that comes with democracy. And because of that it tends to slip back into its old ways.
“Malaysia succeeded because, though we tried to bring down the government by other means, we didn’t become violent, we didn’t take to the streets, we didn’t sabotage things, we didn’t assassinate people. We were forced to wait until there was an election,” he said.
While admitting there was corruption during past administrations, he said it those intances were not as damaging as during former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s time.
“Under Najib there was total destruction of the government. First, there were huge borrowings, which we now find great difficulty paying back.
“Second, the entire government machinery was subverted – senior officers were won over by money to become loyal to the (former) prime minister, even to the point of campaigning for the ruling party during the last election,” he said.