BUKIT MERTAJAM – Pakatan Harapan (PH) representatives are scheduled to meet Malaysian Anti-Corruption Agency (MACC) chief Datuk Seri Azam Baki on Monday, coalition chairman Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said today.
The opposition chief said PH leaders will express their support for the anti-graft agency to be a completely independent government agency, free of interference from executive or other forces.
“Several of our partners feel, with some evidence, that MACC has been used as a political weapon by some quarters,” he said, adding that the PH team will also bring up areas where there can be improvement.
“We will express our views (to MACC) and let them review (the feedback) as there is room for improvement,” he said.
The PKR president and former Permatang Pauh MP said this while attending a gathering at a community hall in Taman Guar Perahu, Permatang Pauh, near here today.
The current MP of the constituency, his daughter Nurul Izzah Anwar, was absent as she is in self-quarantine upon close contact with someone diagnosed with Covid-19.
On March 15, Anwar had said he would request a meeting with Azam to discuss five PKR lawmakers he claimed were threatened or enticed with rewards to defect and join the Perikatan Nasional (PN) government.
He had revealed that the MPs are Natrah Ismail (Sekijang), S. Kesavan (Sg Siput), Awang Husaini Sahari (Putatan), M. Karuppaiya (Padang Serai), and Michael Teo (Miri).
Anwar had also said he wanted to raise recent allegations of political persecution against opposition MPs.
He had stressed that he received multiple complaints from some of his party members, regarding the pressure mounted against them to twist their arms into jumping ship.
He also said the PN government’s actions in allegedly threatening or buying off MPs had nothing to do with politics, but is a form of deception and abuse of power.
On another matter, Anwar, who is Port Dickson MP, today said he has no answer to requests for him to return to contest in Permatang Pauh in the next general election. He previously served as parliamentarian there from 1982 to 1999 and 2008 to 2015.
He said a total of 15 PKR divisions in the country have requested that he contest in their constituencies in the 15th general election, which is due by September 2023.
He said this in response to a resident of Permatang Pauh, who asked him to return there to contest.
Anwar said Permatang Pauh has always been a fortress for himself and his family and he will continue to freely visit the constituency.
Commenting on PKR’s recent meeting with Umno, which was reportedly referred to by Umno vice-president Datuk Seri Mahdzir Khalid as “coffee shop talk”, Anwar agreed it was an informal discussion.
On March 16, Anwar had described as “premature” speculations that PKR and PH will cooperate with Umno in the upcoming polls, but he stressed: “I do not deny that there is the possibility of cooperation.”
He said he had “early” or preliminary discussions with Umno leaders to see what common grounds they share, but there is “no official cooperation”.
“I’ve informed this to our MPs and state leaders to pass the message on to our grassroots. Many commentators have said this is a cooperation. Please, don’t mistake our discussion as cooperation,” he had said. – The Vibes, March 20, 2021
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