KUALA LUMPUR, May 19 — An audio clip excerpt purportedly of a Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia meeting on February 23, just one day before Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad resigned as prime minister and triggered a political crisis leading to the birth of the Perikatan Nasional (PN) administration, has been leaked online today.

It has been uploaded among others on a Facebook page called "Bersatu sokong Tun Mahathir” page, with the 1:50-minute showing a voice sounding like the Langkawi MP at the fateful meeting trying to postpone the party’s decision to leave Pakatan Harapan (PH) but ultimately failed.

"There is this proposal for us to leave Pakatan Harapan. Another proposal I made was whether we want to think this through or follow others. So, I want to know whether we leave now or give it some time.

"Because for me, support from Umno is so fickle that if we give it a little time, they will like me. So, there’s not much difference, not much difference. The only thing is I don’t like DAP, I don’t like Anwar, and the rest are the same.

"But it is only a matter of time. Whether or not we determine the time or we take action today?” Dr Mahathir allegedly said in the recording of him chairing the meeting.

He received thunderous support from those attending the meeting with shouts of: "Today! Today Tun!” being heard.

"If you say it’s today, okay, it’s today. Today we leave Pakatan Harapan,” he replied, following the boisterous pressure from the party.

Malay Mail is seeking comments from members of the party’s Supreme Council over the leak.

The clip was released today, seemingly timed with a statement from top Bersatu leaders insisting that the party had decided on leaving PH on the abovementioned meeting.

The statement also touched on how Bersatu as a party is fully behind the formation of Perikatan Nasional (PN) as a coalition aimed at achieving the goals and objectives set by PN’s memorandum of understanding.

It noted how Bersatu agreed to form an alliance with other parties to form PN for the betterment of the people and country’s political stability, while declaring its undivided support for the PN government led by Bersatu’s president Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.

Among the 27 signees of today’s statement were Bersatu vice-presidents Tan Sri Abdul Rashid Abdul Rahman and Datuk Abdul Rashid Ansari, secretary-general Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainuddin, treasurer Datuk Muhamed Salleh Bajuri and information chief Mohd Radzi Jidin, along with 21 other state and supplement council members.

Other notable names were Datuk Seri Rina Mohd Harun, Datuk Seri Mohd Redzuan Md Yusof, Datuk Rais Hussin Mohamed Ariff, Wan Saiful Wan Jan, Tan Sri Rais Yatim, Datuk Kamarudin Md Nor, Datuk Seri Ahmad Faizal Azumu, and Mazlan Bujang.

Besides Dr Mahathir, among those missing in the statements were his son and vice-president Datuk Seri Mukhriz Mahathir, Youth wing chief Syed Saddiq Abdul Rahman, ousted secretary-general Datuk Marzuki Yahya, Maszlee Malik and Datuk A. Kadir Jasin.