PETALING JAYA: Denying any links to the so-called "Dubai Move", former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has trained his guns on Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim instead.
“First of all, I haven’t been to Dubai in a long time," he wrote in a post on X on Friday (Jan 5).
“Secondly, as far as I can remember, making political moves and (forming) back door governments is the specialty of the Prime Minister.
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“I’m sure many remember the Sept 16, 2008 move to form a back door government. Then there was also the Kajang Move to appoint his wife to be Selangor (Mentri Besar).
“There (was also political manoeuvring) based on (statements like) ‘I have the numbers’ and ‘strong, formidable and convincing majority’,” he said.
Dr Mahathir questioned why such political moves were not regarded as treasonous or likely to cause instability.
“Only his (Anwar's) back door governments are halal (permissible) and holy, as long as he gets to be Prime Minister,” he added.
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The Dubai Move first came to light after Community Communications Department (J-Kom) deputy director-general Datuk Ismail Yusop claimed on Dec 30 that there was a plot organised by Perikatan Nasional leaders and government backbenchers vacationing in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
According to Ismail, a meeting took place to assign specific tasks to “agents” responsible for identifying MPs who may want to switch their support to the Opposition.
Dr Mahathir's references in his post referred to a reported attempt in September 2008 where Anwar and the now-defunct Pakatan Rakyat attempted to get 30 MPs from Barisan Nasional to switch sides.
However, the move did not go through as his proposal to call for a special Dewan Rakyat sitting was rejected by then prime minister Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.
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The "Kajang Move" refers to PKR’s plan in 2014 to trigger a by-election in the Selangor state seat and subsequently make Anwar the Mentri Besar as a stepping-stone towards Putrajaya.
The strategy was changed, with Anwar's wife Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail standing for election. Although she won the seat, the plan to appoint her as MB ran into problems and eventually, Datuk Seri Mohd Azmin Ali was named to the post.
Dr Mahathir's "I have the numbers" comment refers to Anwar's Sept 23, 2020 announcement at a press conference that he had obtained "strong, formidable and convincing" support from MPs to form a government.
This was shortly after the Sheraton Move in February that year which saw the collapse of the Pakatan Harapan administration, Dr Mahathir's resignation as prime minister, and Perikatan Nasional's Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin securing enough support to become premier.
