Ball in Hamzah’s court, furnish proof of intimidation before accusing: Saifuddin

KULIM – Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainudin has been prodded by his counterpart from Pakatan Harapan (PH) to prove the claim that the unity government is involved in intimidating MPs from the opposition bloc.

Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail said the ball is now in the Perikatan Nasional secretary-general’s court to prove the truth of the allegations on the matter.

According to him, until it can be proven, no party should make such accusations against the country’s current leadership.

“Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has himself responded to the matter in Parliament recently when he called it a serious accusation and said that the party making the claim needed to provide evidence. 

“Today when the media asked him (Hamzah), his answer was that he was collecting evidence,” said Saifuddin yesterday.

“If you are collecting evidence, that means it is not yet verified and certain. So if you are still collecting, don’t make accusations first. Instead, wait until all the evidence is there.”

The home minister said this at a press conference in conjunction with the presentation of community grants by the Registrar of Societies’ northern office at a hotel here today.

Saifuddin noted that police have given a statement saying that no report has been lodged on the claim yet. 

“So the ball is actually in Hamzah and PN’s court to present the evidence,” he said, as quoted by Getaran, the Malay-language sister portal of The Vibes.

Earlier in a press conference at the PN headquarters today, Hamzah claimed that PN is gathering all information regarding the threats received by PN MPs to make them support the unity government before filing a police report and taking other relevant action.

Earlier this month, PN’s Kuala Kangsar MP Datuk Iskandar Dzulkarnain Abdul Khalid and Labuan MP Datuk Suhaili Abdul Rahman had announced their decisions to support the leadership of Anwar over the country.

Anwar is chairman of Pakatan Harapan and president of PKR.

At the press conference today, two other PN MPs – Ku Abd Rahman Ku Ismail (Kubang Pasu) and Che Mohamad Zulkifly Jusoh (Besut) – claimed that they were also approached by certain quarters enticing them to defect to the ruling government.

Meanwhile, Saifuddin said that the government will continue to function as usual despite all the allegations raised by PN.

In fact, he said, support for the government is currently at a very reassuring level.

“This was shown when the Supply Bill 2024 (Budget 2024) was approved ‘just like that’ after being debated at the preliminary stage in the Dewan Rakyat yesterday,” he said, referring to the passing of the bill at the policy stage via a voice vote.

He said that if any MP from PN expresses support for the government, it would be welcome, but if they claim that they are doing so because they were threatened, then the government will rightfully deny it.

He sarcastically intimated that pressuring rival MPs to lend their support is not PH’s style, suggesting that it was done by Hamzah’s own party when they toppled the PH government in 2020.

“That is not our work. But it was instead Hamzah’s work when the government was brought down through the Sheraton Move,” he claimed. – The Vibes, November 3, 2023