PETALING JAYA: PAS president Tan Sri Abdul Hadi Awang admitted that he started the move in 2020 to cut short Pakatan Harapan’s tenure as the ruling government in the country.
He said he had also proposed that Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia president Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin be the new prime minister in Malaysia at that time.
The move to topple the Pakatan government is popularly known as the "Sheraton Move," referring to the meeting held at the hotel in February 2020 between various factions before the change in the Federal Government.
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Abdul Hadi said he initiated such efforts after some parties in Pakatan wanted to remove the special position of Islam in the country, the privileges of the Malays and bumiputras, among others.
Claiming that some Pakatan leaders were against Islam, he said PAS decided to stop working together with the coalition.
"I believe the people already know which Pakatan leaders are anti-Islam.
"During the early days of their reign, they wanted to ratify the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC), which the rakyat opposed," he was quoted as saying in Harakah Daily on Saturday (Oct 22).
In 2019, there were plans to ratify the Rome Statute, but Malaysia later withdrew after many expressed concerns on ICC’s impact on the Rulers’ power and Malay privileges.
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Following these events, Abdul Hadi said he began his effort to negotiate with Muhyiddin to topple the Pakatan government.
He said that after Muhyiddin agreed, discussions were held with Umno.
"The results of this then led to the move where Muhyiddin announced he was leaving Pakatan.
"I then suggested that he became the candidate for our new prime minister.
"Umno also agreed to this at that time, and soon, the Perikatan Nasional government was formed to replace the Pakatan administration," he said.
Denying that the Perikatan government was a "back door government," Abdul Hadi said Muhyiddin’s appointment was approved by the King.
