Ku Li proposed to change government, but that did not happen - Tun Mahathir

KUALA LUMPUR: Former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad tonight revealed that he had been told by Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah that the Gua Musang MP could find a sufficient number of MPs to change the Federal Government.

However, the Langkawi MP explained, what happened was the opposite and at this time the prince from the Kelantan royalty was seen trying to convince the people that the Perikatan Nasional government led by Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin has no legitimacy.

“He (Tengku Razaleigh) is on the government side. He has a proposal that would seem we should change the government.

"He thinks that he can find enough people from the government side to leave the government. But that did not happen," he said in the ‘Exclusive With Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’ interview on Astro AWANI tonight.

On October 16, sources informed Astro AWANI that Tengku Razaleigh, better known as Ku Li, had openly stated to Dr Mahathir that he had lost faith in Muhyiddin's leadership.

According to sources, the matter was personally informed by Ku Li to Dr Mahathir, in a dinner meeting between the two veteran political leaders at Ku Li's residence, about a month ago.

On November 23, Ku Li wrote a letter to the Dewan Rakyat Speaker Datuk Azhar Azizan Harun that he would not participate in the 2021 Budget debate in the House because the legitimacy of the current government could not be determined.

The chairman of the UMNO Advisory Council explained that participating in the Budget debate without ascertaining whether the prime minister and the Cabinet are legitimate or not in office, would affect one of the important principles of the Constitution.