SHAH ALAM (THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK) - Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) president Anwar Ibrahim on Monday (Feb 18) brushed aside an opposition party's claims of an impending Pakatan Harapan (PH) coup against Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, saying such allegations are lies.
Datuk Seri Anwar said the motive behind Parti Islam SeMalaysia's (PAS) claims are aimed at covering up the furore over the RM90 million (S$30 million) the Islamist party purportedly received from Umno.
Mr Anwar, who spoke to reporters after delivering an address on education at Universiti Selangor, said the other PH parties had also dismissed the coup allegation.
He also said that in his interactions with Dr Mahathir, the matter of the alleged coup did not come up at all.
"Nobody wants to comment because they think it is a non-issue and a PAS attempt to deflect the focus on the money taken from 1MDB," he said.
PAS secretary-general Takiyuddin Hassan said on Sunday that Tun Mahathir had indicated before that he would be betrayed and there may be a vote of no-confidence initiated against him.
Datuk Takiyuddin said the alleged betrayal could come from "two component parties" within PH, but declined to reveal which.
PH is made up of four parties, namely PKR, Democratic Action Party (DAP), Parti Amanah Negara (Amanah) and Dr Mahathir's Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (PPBM).
Mr Takiyuddin added that PAS pledged to support Dr Mahathir in the event a vote of no-confidence is taken against the premier, and had even signed a draft letter pertaining to it when his party president Abdul Hadi Awang met Dr Mahathir last Friday.
In his meeting with Dr Mahathir, Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi said they discussed administrative matters, while the premier said they discussed "politics".
Meanwhile, Mr Mujahidin Zulkiffli, a social activist and blogger, is also alleging that a plot is being hatched from within PH to oust Dr Mahathir via a vote of no-confidence.
Writing on his Facebook, Mr Mujahidin claimed that he first heard about the plot to oust the premier a few weeks ago from "his sources".
"Some factions are covertly planning to pull a coup most likely via a vote of no-confidence in Parliament on Tun M's (Dr Mahathir) leadership," he said, without naming the persons involved.
Mr Anwar on Monday however believed the draft letter mentioned by Mr Takiyuddin may be false.
"They have koshered (halalkan) lying, so we don't know if it's true or not. As they said (recently) they can lie if need be to save the party, so we don't know if it is true or not," he said in reference to PAS' leaders assertions that it was permissible for their members to lie if it was meant to protect the party.
