Muhyiddin: PN chairman Samsuri not necessarily coalition’s PM candidate

Muhyiddin: PN chairman Samsuri not necessarily coalition’s PM candidate

KUALA LUMPUR: Pas vice-president Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Samsuri Mokhtar’s appointment as Perikatan Nasional chairman does not mean he will be the coalition’s choice for prime minister should it come to power.

Bersatu president Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said the choice of PN’s prime ministerial candidate should it win the 16th General Election (GE16) was not tied to the chairmanship.

In fact, he said, the issue of the candidacy had not yet been discussed between Bersatu and Pas.

“This is an appointment to the chairmanship, not for the choice of prime minister. I quote (Pas deputy president Datuk Seri Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man), who said that this (Samsuri’s appointment) is as the PN chairman.

“If you want to talk about the PN candidate for prime minister, that’s a different issue.

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“That hasn’t been discussed yet… when it was asked whether I was (the prime ministerial candidate), the Pas leadership said no (and that) they didn’t want to talk about that yet. I think that stand still holds,” he said in a press conference with selected media recently.

Samsuri, who is Terengganu menteri besar, was appointed PN chairman in an extraordinary meeting of the PN supreme council on Feb 22.

He replaced Muhyiddin, who stepped down as chairman as of Jan 1 this year.

Muhyiddin said that his party believes the PN chairman position should be held by a more senior leader, noting that Bersatu’s own stance previously was that the president of one of the parties should be appointed to lead the coalition.

He said, however, that his party respects Pas’ firm position in wanting to elevate Samsuri to head the coalition.

“(However) the PN constitution does not stipulate that requirement (of a party president being chairman). It only says… if one wants to become PN chairman, one must be more senior, not a junior,” he said.

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Meanwhile, Muhyiddin said he would not work with former Bersatu deputy president Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainudin, who was sacked from the party recently, for the foreseeable future.

He said, if Hamzah were to join another party which wanted to jon PN, he would make his objections known.

This, he said, was because the right to accept any party into the coalition did not belong to just one person, but all the component parties.

“If he wants to find his direction, that’s his choice and I won’t get involved. But if he wants (his new party) to join PN, I will say no, because ‘once bitten, twice shy’.

“In my personal opinion if in the next year or two, he doesn’t seem ‘OK’, then I’m sorry (we can’t accept him into PN)… we are all human and it’s not that easy,” he said.

On another matter, Muhyiddin said he “would not helm Bersatu forever”, but would make way for a younger leader soon.

He said he believes Bersatu has a sufficient line-up of successors, including vice-presidents Datuk Dr Mohd Radzi Jidin and Datuk Seri Ahmad Faizal Azumu; secretary-general Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali; Youth chief Muhammad Hilman Idham; and, supreme council member Dr Afif Bahardin.