“We are now together again in pursuing a new political struggle with our other comrades to bring Malaysia back to the right path and to build this country again as one that is prosperous and respected by the world,” he said in a statement today.
Muhyiddin was youth and sports minister when Anwar was deputy prime minister in the Barisan Nasional (BN) cabinet led by then prime minister Mahathir.
Mahathir, who was also Umno president, fired Anwar from office and had him expelled from the party where he was deputy president in September 1998.
The duo set aside their 18-year long dispute when Mahathir and Muhyiddin left Umno to form PPBM in 2015. PPBM was accepted into PH in March this year joining the coalition’s original component parties PKR, DAP and Amanah.
At a press conference yesterday, PH announced that Mahathir and Anwar would be the coalition’s chairman and de facto leader respectively, assuming the very same designations that they held in their own parties.
PKR president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail was appointed PH president while Muhyiddin, DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng and Amanah president Mohamad Sabu were made the coalition’s deputy presidents.
Muhyiddin said he believed that the partnership between Mahathir and Anwar was capable of advancing PH’s prospects in the upcoming 14th general election (GE14) and fulfilling the list of promises made yesterday.
“This includes eradicating the goods and services tax (GST), controlling price-hike of goods, combatting corruption and undertaking institutional reforms which include limiting the prime minister’s tenure to two terms only,” he said.
Muhyiddin was deputy prime minister when he was expelled from the government by current prime minister Najib Razak in 2015.