PETALING JAYA: Datuk Seri Nazri Abdul Aziz confirms that he was among the Umno leaders who signed the statutory declaration (SD) to support Parti Keadilan Rakyat president Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim as prime minister.
However, Nazri told The Star that he signed the SD to save Umno from being dissolved.
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He said when Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad was the prime minister he wanted to dissolve Umno.
“I was the Barisan National secretary-general, so I wanted to save Umno.
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“One of the ways is, I called Anwar because the agreement was for Dr Mahathir to be the prime minister for two years before he passed the baton to Anwar.
“So I went to see Anwar, I told him “Datuk Seri, when you become prime minister, don't dissolve Umno”.
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“He said: Nazri ‘Umno is Pak Ibrahim’s (Anwar’s father) party, so I won't dissolve Umno,’ claimed Nazri.
Given the guarantee, the Padang Rengas MP said he decided to support Anwar and even informed his other “friends” to also do the same.
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“However, not every leader agreed to sign the SD. There’s only four or five of us who signed the SD.
“We signed the SD to save Umno, so it is true (referring to Datuk Seri Tajuddin Abdul Rahman’s expose’) but in the end, Dr Mahathir didn’t give the position (prime minister) to Anwar so the SD expired,” he said.
