KUALA LUMPUR – If Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim was power-crazy, he would have been prime minister by now.
Pakatan Harapan secretary-general Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail said Anwar, who is PKR president, could have done deals that would have betrayed the opposition’s cause, including kicking out partners like DAP out.
“In Perak, for instance, we were offered to be in the state executive council, but we rejected it because Umno doesn’t want DAP to be in the government,” he said, adding that at the federal level post-Sheraton Move, any deal with Perikatan Nasional would have meant leaving DAP out in the cold.
“These two examples prove that PKR values our alliances and we are not prepared to abandon friends,” Saifuddin Nasution told The Vibes in an interview.
He said Anwar holds strong to the principles of inclusivity, diversity and integrity, and will never abandon these core values.
Saifuddin Nasution, who is also PKR secretary-general, said the PH agreement includes nominating Anwar as the prime minister candidate should PH regain federal power, and for the PKR president to be given a free hand to speak to any MP to pursue the numbers required to unseat Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.
He said as members of the coalition, parties should have the responsibility to keep to their promises and decisions.
Rubbishing claims by certain quarters that Anwar is fixated on the prime minister’s post, Saifuddin Nasution said the opposition leader is merely carrying out the decisions made by the PH presidential council.
“In July, we came up with a clear decision, which I noted clearly, that the council agreed to give full support to Anwar to get sufficient numbers so that we can try and reclaim the mandate given to us in the last general election,” he added.
“Secondly, while working towards this goal, the council said PH has to prepare for the election. It is not that Anwar is crazy for the (prime minister’s) position, but it’s about fulfilling the decisions made by the council.
“It has also been agreed upon previously that Anwar would be the successor of Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad. It was not Anwar who nominated himself, but he was chosen by the coalition. And now, the same mandate has been given to Anwar.”
Dr Mahathir was prime minister in PH’s short-lived government from May 2018 to February this year.
“This is important to answer purported claims that Anwar is power-crazy, that for years, he has never given up trying to gun for that position, not knowing the fact that this was the decision by the presidential council,” said Saifuddin Nasution, adding that Anwar has spurned attempts to make deals that would have betrayed PH's struggle.
Since Anwar’s assertion of securing a strong, formidable and convincing majority to form a new government on September 23, there have been grumblings within PH as he has yet to prove this claim.
Within PKR, Youth head Akmal Nasrullah Mohd Nasir is said to be among those growing frustrated with Anwar, having even insulted the party president in a WhatsApp group, which was later leaked.
The pair later met and reconciled in Parliament, with Anwar urging for the matter not to be prolonged.
Meanwhile, DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng and Amanah president Mohamad Sabu, on Thursday, called for a political reset, and urged PH to stop wasting time on trying to get support from PN backbenchers after the opposition failed to block Budget 2021 from being passed in Parliament.
Saifuddin Nasution said if anything, the political reset had already taken place in July, when the coalition agreed to pursue its agenda of reclaiming federal power without the support of Dr Mahathir’s new party, Pejuang, and Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal’s Warisan.
He added that while PH is willing to work with Pejuang and Warisan as members of the opposition, including on voting in Parliament, the two parties will no longer have any say in the coalition’s decision-making process.
However, he said, Amanah and DAP are still free to maintain a party-to-party relationship with Dr Mahathir and Shafie, as long as they honour PH’s agreements.
“They (Amanah and DAP) are members of PH. Being a member comes with responsibility and accountability. You have to keep whatever promises and decisions we have made together,” he said.
Saifuddin Nasution maintained that despite the challenges faced, PH remains united on all fronts. – The Vibes, December 21, 2020
Additional reporting by G. Surach
