KUALA LUMPUR – The Pakatan Harapan (PH) presidential council must not give up safe seats to Muda in the upcoming general election, a PKR leader said today, after the fledgling party announced its intention of joining the opposition coalition.
In a statement, PKR’s Batu division secretary Yuslaini Azmi said like other component parties in PH, Muda should similarly be tasked with contesting in rural and semi-rural seats, which are traditionally Barisan Nasional strongholds.
She said this should be among several conditions imposed on the party if it wishes to join the coalition, with another proposed requirement being that it should support Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim as the prime minister candidate.
This follows Muda president Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman’s remark yesterday of plans to join PH, noting that informal discussions have taken place with the coalition’s top leaders since the Johor election in March.
Yuslaini was unimpressed by this, questioning Muda’s motive for linking up with PH and saying the move was out of the realisation that it did not have the grassroots strength to even defend its sole parliamentary seat of Muar.
“As such, they needed PH’s grassroots support. In fact, I’m confident they are also eyeing several key seats from PH,” she said.
Yuslaini also cautioned on the possibility of Muda’s inclusion causing internal friction among coalition members due to squabbles over seat allocations.
“I believe the PH presidential council should deliberate about accepting Muda. Make sure there is no conflict involving key PH seats, like what happened during the Johor election.”
Her statement was in reference to the tensions during the Johor polls after Muda refused to budge from its demands over seats it had eyed to contest.
This resulted in the safe seat of Puteri Wangsa being given up to Muda — which it later won — while the Larkin constituency also saw the party placing a candidate against PKR, a move that had infuriated the Anwar-led party.
In this regard, Yuslaini demanded that Muda respond to three questions over its actual motive to cooperate with PH.
“First, why did Muda arrogantly go against the agreed cooperation by contesting in Larkin, despite realising the seat was contested by its strategic partner?” she queried.
“Second, why did Muda choose to offer itself to join PH at the very last minute, and finally, aren’t they the one who had always wanted to be the third bloc?” – The Vibes, September 7, 2022
