PETALING JAYA: Muafakat Nasional is open to working with anyone including Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad (pic) as long as there is no clash of ideologies, says a source in the non-governmental organisation.
Bernama quoted Muafakat supreme council member Datuk Seri Khairuddin Abu Hassan as saying on Saturday (Feb 11) that Gerakan Tanah Air (GTA) pro-tem chairman Dr Mahathir will meet Muafakat president Tan Sri Annuar Musa this week to discuss the direction the NGO should take.
Khairuddin said the meeting was arranged on the understanding that it was based on the same fundamentals as GTA in an effort to strengthen unity among the Malays.
When contacted, however, Annuar remained coy about the meeting.
On Friday (Feb 10), 13 Pejuang members, including former chairman Dr Mahathir, quit the party.
Dr Mahathir equated Pejuang’s rejection of GTA to a rejection of him.
"This is because I am in GTA, but Pejuang does not want to be in GTA,” the former prime minister said.
“So, I have to choose whether to be with Pejuang or GTA. I chose to be with GTA,” he told the press at the Perdana Leadership Foundation on Saturday.
Annuar had said on Jan 7 that, while Muafakat’s organisational structure resembles that of a political party with state, parliament and state assembly liaisons, it will remain an NGO.
“We have a lot to do. We believe we can contribute in our way without having to transform ourselves into a political party.
"In fact, one of our missions is to encourage our brothers and sisters who are running political parties to move in the right direction.
"We have more than enough political parties,” he told the press here on Monday (Feb 13) after the Muafakat supreme council meeting.
Annuar added that Muafakat chose to follow the organisational structure set by the Registrar of Societies (ROS) with state, parliamentary and state assembly liaisons.
He claimed this was because it had received overwhelming response, with some 25,000 members already joining from the 222 parliamentary constituencies in Malaysia.
