By NNN-Bernama
Kuala Lumpur : Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has denied having a “gentlemen’s agreement” with Dr Mahathir Mohamad that he will serve as prime minister for only one term before handing over the post to his deputy Najib Tun Razak.
“There is no gentlemen’s agreement,” the prime minister told reporters after opening the Pavilion shopping centre here Thursday.
Abdullah, however, declined to elaborate when pressed for further comments on the matter.
He repeated, saying: “No, gentlemen’s agreement”.
The prime minister was asked to comment on the so-called “gentlemen’s agreement” between Abdullah and his predecessor Dr Mahathir as claimed by the former prime minister that Abdullah would serve as prime minister for only one term before passing the baton to Najib.
Dr Mahathir said Wednesday that since Abdullah was older than Najib, he should be prime minister for one term and then Najib should be able to take over.
Dr Mahathir claimed the agreement was made in 2003 when he handed over the leadership to Abdullah. Dr Mahathir, however, admitted that he had no way of proving it.
Asked to comment on Dr Mahathir’s remarks that he was willing to help Barisan Nasional campaign in the next general election provided candidates fielded by the coalition are “clean, honest and straight”, Abdullah said: “We want to field clean candidates.”
Asked whether he would fulfil the requests of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and opposition parties to meet him to discuss current issues in the country, the prime minister said he would meet the NGOs.
On intentions expressed by some BN leaders to defend their seats and others not seeking re-election in the coming polls, Abdullah said he was not stopping from making their intentions known as ultimately he was the one who would decide on the candidates.
The prime minister also expressed confidence that the ruling coalition would retain its two-thirds majority in parliament.