Communications and Multimedia Minister Salleh Said Keruak said former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad must consider the fact that Malaysians may want to keep Najib Abdul Razak as prime minister.
He said this in response to Mahathir who earlier today said he only wanted to remove Najib from power but would allow Malaysians to decide the rest, including what system they wanted.
"Since Mahathir wants to allow Malaysians to decide their own future, what if Malaysians decide they still want Najib as the prime minister?
"Is Mahathir prepared to agree to this?
"While he is prepared to allow Malaysians to decide what system they want, Mahathir wants to dictate who should be prime minister and will not allow Malaysians to make that decision," Salleh said in a blog posting today.
Salleh added that Mahathir had 22 years as prime minister to decide what kind of system he wanted but did not do so.
He also poured cold water on Mahathir's suggestion to form a council of elders to advise the prime minister.
"More than seven years later and he is still pushing for that to be implemented although there is no such system in the constitution or in a Westminster system of government," he said.
Earlier today, Mahathir snubbed National Human Rights Society president Ambiga Sreenevasan’s calls for civil society to work with Mahathir if he genuinely wanted to change the system and get rid of Umno.
However, Mahathir said he only wanted to see Najib out but still wanted to see the system with Umno remain as it was a ‘good party’.
“Umno is not corrupt, only people in Umno are corrupted. Umno was set up in order to struggle for independence, it was led by very good people,” he had said.
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