Major component parties rally to Mahathir's side
Major component parties rally to Mahathir's side
KUALA LUMPUR (AFP): Major component parties of Malaysia's ruling National Front rallied to Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's side to voice their undivided support for the premier, reports said yesterday.
"I am going to tell Datuk Seri Mahathir that we are 100 percent behind him. We will not run away just because the foreign media want to tarnish his image," said Ling Liong Sik, president of the Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA), reported Bernama news agency.
Ling, who is also the transport minister said Malaysians would not forget the contributions of Mahathir.
"We Malaysians are not the kind of people who easily forget all the good things Mahathir had done for Malaysia," the president of Malaysia's second largest component party said.
"Malaysians are such people that we don't run away when friends are in trouble. In the light of a national crisis, we stand together," Ling said in Kota Kinabalu, the capital of Malaysia's eastern state of Sabah.
Another component party, the Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC) is expected to pass a resolution in support of Mahathir's leadership at its party's meeting on Tuesday, party officials said.
Mahathir is currently on a 12-day four-nation official tour of South American countries in search of investments and to boost trade. The premier is expected to return to Kuala Lumpur Monday.
On Saturday, the youth wing of Malaysia's ruling UMNO party slammed the foreign media for suggesting the 72-year-old premier should resign amid the country's economic crisis.
These were parties trying to take advantage of the situation to "isolate Mahathir from the people and to put the country leaders at loggerheads," said deputy youth leader of the United Malays National Organization (UMNO) Hishamuddin Tun Hussein.
UMNO is the linchpin of the 14-party National Front coalition government.
Earlier on Saturday, Mahathir, who is president of UMNO, staked his reputation on solving the country's currency crisis, hinting he might step down if he failed.