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Was Ahmad Zahid Hamidi the “mastermind” behind the removal of Mahathir Mohamad from the prime ministership? Or did Mahathir resign because his advice was rejected?
Romen Bose, FMT
I found the war of words between former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad and UMNO president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi over the reasons why the nonagenarian fell from power in 2020 quite fascinating.
On February 24, 2020, Mahathir’s controversial resignation and the self-disintegration of Pakatan Harapan 1.0 led to the seizure of power by an unelected coalition of ultra-nationalist MPs led by Muhyiddin Yassin, chairman of the United Malays National Organization (UMNO), of which Mahathir is the chairman.
Soon after, Muhyiddin Yassin became prime minister and joined forces with several political parties including UMNO and PAS, further exacerbating the political chaos in Malaysia.
On August 10, 2024, Zahid, speaking at an UMNO delegates’ meeting in Sungai Koyang, Cameron Highlands, claimed that he had masterminded the plan to overthrow then-Prime Minister Mahathir in order to save UMNO.
“I must admit that I was the mastermind behind the overthrow of Mahathir at that time, for the benefit of UMNO, (to prevent the party from being) banned, insulted and brought down by slander,” he was quoted as saying by Daily News.
Within days, Mahathir refuted Zahid’s claims, insisting his resignation had nothing to do with any external pressure on the UMNO president.
“I resigned from Bersatu because they rejected my proposal.
“Zahid is not a hero. He is a man who was accused in court for being willing to allow Umno to collaborate with its arch-enemy DAP to become deputy prime minister so as to avoid facing court for criminal charges himself,” Mahathir said.
So, was Mahathir forced to resign, or did he resign voluntarily?
The downfall of PH1.0 actually began with Mahathir’s reluctance to hand over power to Anwar Ibrahim after his victory in the 14th general election.
As part of his plot, he asked Muhyiddin to form a Greater Malay Alliance, or coalition of political parties, including Bersatu, Umno and PAS to ensure that Mahathir had enough seats to form a government without Anwar and his supporters in PKR and DAP.
To get UMNO in, Mahathir allegedly ordered Zahid to abandon the party and get its MPs to join Bersatu. Zahid clearly needed to do something to save UMNO, and the ultimate solution seemed to be this movement, the precursor to Perikatan Nasional.
While Mahathir’s vision for the movement meant that UMNO would be swallowed up by Bersatu, Muhyiddin’s more pragmatic approach meant that UMNO would eventually be accepted as a separate coalition member.
Interestingly, in late 2019, UMNO, as part of that movement, strongly supported a confidence vote in the Dewan Rakyat to allow Mahathir to complete his term as prime minister, rather than handing power to Anwar. Not much of a pushover here, then.
However, Mahathir soon lost control of the situation when the movement — eventually controlled by Muhyiddin, Zahid and then-PKR deputy president Azmin Ali, who was purportedly defending Mahathir but in reality seeking to seize power — began to take on a life of its own.
After a heated meeting of the Pakatan Harapan presidential council on February 21, 2020, which allowed Mahathir to choose when to resign after the APEC meeting in November of that year, Muhyiddin and Azmin felt they had to act quickly to stop Mahathir from handing power to Anwar.
Therefore, on February 23, Bersatu and all its other future coalition partners held separate party supreme council meetings to form a new Perikatan Nasional coalition that same day, while Muhyiddin and other leaders tried to convince Mahathir to authorise a coup.
Although Muhyiddin told Mahathir that he had enough support, he refused because he did not want to work with UMNO.
The Bersatu supreme council then agreed to give Mahathir until the end of this week to decide when to announce the party’s withdrawal from PH1.0 and the formation of PN.
Later that day, PN leaders Muhyiddin, Azmin, Zahid, Hadi Awang, Abang Johari and Shafie Apdal came to Mahathir’s residence and tried to persuade him to form a new coalition immediately, but Mahathir still refused.
Yet momentum for forming a coalition was so strong that some leaders agreed to go to the Sheraton Hotel, where the new alliance would be announced.
Mahathir learned of the plan and sent then-Cabinet Minister Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman to the hotel to ask the plotters to stop. Syed Saddiq arrived at the hotel in time and stopped the plan. But only temporarily.
The next day, Mahathir assured Anwar, Wan Azizah, Mohamad Sabu and Lim Guan Eng that he had nothing to do with the previous day’s plot. But after they left, Muhyiddin met with Mahathir and told him that Bersatu leaders insisted on withdrawing from PIL 1.0 that afternoon.
He said the withdrawal plan would only lead to the collapse of the PH1.0 coalition, although Mahathir still has the confidence of the majority of MPs to remain prime minister.
Realising that he had been defeated by Muhyiddin and Azmin, unable to implement the plans he had all along, having lost control of Bersatu, and believing that he still had the support of the majority of MPs who would eventually demand his return, a glum Mahathir resigned as Prime Minister, Bersatu Chairman and PH1.0 Chairman on February 24, 2020.
But unexpectedly, UMNO and PAS later withdrew their support for Mahathir and called for new elections as they disagreed with Mahathir’s idea of forming a coalition government including DAP and PKR.
The other partners of the Hope Alliance were also unable to accept Mahathir’s coalition government plan as Mahathir wanted to have sole decision-making power over cabinet members, thereby eliminating any influence of the coalition parties on the government.
At this point, Muhyiddin and his team realised that the position of Prime Minister was within reach, so they secretly negotiated with Zahid, Azmin and Hadi to gain enough support to enable Muhyiddin to surpass Mahathir and take over the position of Prime Minister.
Zahid played a crucial role in bringing the parties together and reaching a deal that would see Muhyiddin become the head of the Prime Minister’s Department.
So, was it some mastermind who overthrew Mahathir from power, or did Mahathir resign because his advice was rejected?
Like many politicians, as American writer Mark Twain said,
“Never let the truth get in the way of a good story.”
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