Dr M fights back like an angry tiger
He could have held the press conference anywhere, but he chose the party headquarters to send the message that he is not taking what happened lying down.
Joceline Tan, The Star
IF the rumours swirling the whole of yesterday had come true, the country would be left with a hung Parliament today.
A minister and a deputy minister were supposed to announce that they were crossing over to join Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s camp.
It was supposed to have happened at 5pm, but 5pm ticked by with no sign of them or any word from the pair.
For a while, the fate of the Perikatan Nasional government seemed to be in the hands of Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Mohd Redzuan Md Yusof and Deputy Works Minister Datuk Dr Shahruddin Md Salleh.
For days, there had been speculation that Camp Mahathir had promised to make Mohd Redzuan the next deputy prime minister, while Dr Shahruddin was offered a full ministership apart from “remunerations”.
The pair have not personally quashed the rumours, although Mohd Redzuan’s political secretary has denied that his boss had called for any press conference and that Mohd Redzuan was in fact under quarantine.
But as many noted, it was not an outright denial that he would jump ship.
There were also claims that Women and Family Affairs Minister Datuk Seri Rina Harun was also jumping, but she killed the rumour by turning up alongside party secretary-general Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainuddin at a press conference yesterday afternoon.
The moment has passed but the crisis has deepened.
