KUALA LUMPUR – Pakatan Harapan component party leaders have called for a political reset within its coalition to focus on building a more united opposition under the PH Plus banner and fight in unison during the next general election.
In a joint statement by DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng and Amanah president Mohamad Sabu, both called for PH leaders to set aside past baggage so that it can expand to PH Plus with a formidable force of 108 MPs.
“With 108 PH Plus MPs as a solid group, anything is still possible,” they said.
They said the passing of Budget 2021 on the third reading on Tuesday was disappointing for PH and its supporters, a proxy of a vote of confidence for Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin’s Perikatan Nasional (PN) government.
“PH has declared our support for opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim as our candidate for prime minister. He can court support from government backbenchers provided they are not kleptocrat MPs, particularly Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and Datuk Seri Najib Razak.
“Tuesday’s vote clearly showed that the 108 MPs opposed to PN comprise the same number that stayed firmly with PH in March 2020. Not a single government backbencher voted with PH, including those who allegedly supported Anwar.
“Clearly these government backbenchers are adept at playing political games to gain maximum leverage from the PN government,” they said.
Lim and Mohamad Sabu said PH must face the reality of a political reset to focus on uniting their friends amongst opposition MPs who stood by the coalition on Tuesday.
“PH should not be wasting time on opportunistic government backbenchers exploiting PH for their own private benefits to get more and more lucrative deals from the government.
“Instead, our time and resources should be spent on friends and allies that seek a common cause for the rakyat, based on principles of sound democratic values, good governance, anti-corruption, economic progress and social justice,” they said.
Meanwhile, PKR vice-president Datuk Dr Xavier Jayakumar called on PH to continue backing Anwar as opposition leader.
“From the time the PH government was overthrown by a group of traitorous individuals, its leaders have been planning to retake the government.
“In this aspect, the person who played the most important and aggressive role, taking the fight to PN, was none other than Anwar,” he said in a statement today.
Xavier said that it was unreasonable to call to remove Anwar as opposition leader for failing to prevent the 2021 budget from being passed.
“Imagine: if he had succeeded, everyone would all be rejoicing and enjoying the fruits of his labour.
“However, since the vote was lost in Parliament, can we now say he failed and must be removed? What about some of the other parties, who abstained from voting during the committee stages?” he asked.
This was said in reference to Warisan MPs who opted to abstain during the Dewan Rakyat sittings as a lesson to Anwar for abstaining from voting in the first reading of the 2021 budget bill.
Xavier opined that if all opposition MPs had shown unity with all in attendance, PN would have lost many of the ministries’ budget votes.
He also agreed that all opposition MPs needed to put aside their enmity and find ways to move forward to stabilise the nation.
This morning, Warisan president Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal reportedly suggested that the opposition front should include fresh leadership with an East Malaysian leader, as a “new recipe” for the upcoming general election.
However, he did not specifically offer himself as leader, according to an interview with BFM radio station, despite his announced plan to expand the Sabah-based party nationwide in a bid to consolidate his position as a national leader.
Failure to prove numbers in the Dewan Rakyat to defeat the final Budget 2021 vote has put Anwar under fire, after the PKR president made a confident claim in September of possessing a “strong, formidable and convincing” majority to form the government.
Following the fiasco, many grassroots members within the PH fold, especially DAP and Amanah, have sought to displace Anwar as the opposition leader.
DAP and Amanah leaders have also been seen trying to establish closer ties with Warisan and former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir’s party, Pejuang. – The Vibes, December 17, 2020
