Hard cash for MPs to stay with BN?

The battle maybe in the peninsular but the real war is in Sabah and Sarawak where Prime Minister Najib and Anwar are struggling to 'keep' and 'win over' MPs.

KOTA KINABALU: Is PKR deputy president Azmin Ali’s theatrics and Pakatan Rakyat leader Anwar Ibrahim’s rallies against electoral fraud a cover for what’s happening in the political underbellies in Sabah and Sarawak?

Both Anwar and Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak are surreptiously wooing Sabah’s MPs.

In last Sunday’s general election, BN tallied 133 parliament seats against Pakatan’s 89. Najib needs another 15 seats to secure a two-third majority in parliament.

Talk is rife that Anwar is “adamant” about taking over Putrajaya through defections and Najib is hell bent on negating this to ensure his MPs remain in BN.

Anwar, riding on the ‘Tukar and Ubah’ wave, is allegedly offering top level posts in his soon-to-be formed federal cabinet but Najib, on the other hand, is said to be offering “cold cash” to “buy loyalty”.

The price per head is rumoured to be between RM20 to RM30 million “depending on (MP’s) strength”. In 2008 this figure was said to be between RM3 and RM5 million.

The same package apparently is also being extended to several Sarawak MPs.

The money, a BN mole here said, is “not coming” from the federal government coffers.

“Dari crony (Dr) Mahathir (Mohamad)…semua sudah balik (to support BN). What is (RM) 30 million per head?”

Among those allegedly being wooed back by Najib in Sabah are Anifah Aman (Kimanis), Ghapur Salleh (Kalabakan), Bung Mokthar Raden (Kinabatangan), Wilfred Madius Tanggau (Tuaran), Ebin Ewon (Ranau), Marcus Mojigoh (Putatan) and Rosman Isli (Labuan). More names are also allegedly being tossed.

All these MPs won their seats under the BN banner but are now said to be willing to jump over to Anwar’s side.

Sources here say that Najib has even thrown Anifah’s name along with PBS president Joseph Pairin Kitingan and Umno vice-president Shafie Apdal for the DPM II post, a new post to be created to keep the elected reps from Sabah and Sarawak happy, and to remain with BN.

Cash vs posts

Meanwhile BN is also said to be trying to get PKR’s Darrel Leiking to jump over. Leiking, 41, wrested the Penampang parliamentary seat from Upko’s Bernard Dompok by over a 10,000 majority in last Sunday’s polls.

Leiking abstained from gloating over his success and infact said that he will refer to Dompok for “guidance”.

In a text message to FMT today, a member of Sabah BN’s inner circle dismissed the “Azmin quitting drama” in Kuala Lumpur, and described the Anwar-Azmin ‘sandiwara’ as a bid to “distract BN and the people”.

“Najib is under pressure to secure a two-third majority. His people are trying to buyover the PKR and PAS MPs in the Semenanjung (peninsular).

“He must maintain status quo and stop people from jumping in Sabah, Sarawak” said the source.

In last Sunday’s polls, Sabah and Sarawak collectively handed Najib 48 seats to boost his electoral tally to 133 parliament seats against Anwar-led Pakatan’s 89.

Since then Anwar has screamed injustice and accused the BN-controlled Election Commission of electoral fraud.

Although BN won the election by being first-past-the-post, Pakatan won by popular votes.

Following this, Anwar called on the rakyat to gather at Kelana Jaya on Wednesday night. The response was stupendous with over 100,000 people gathering to show their support.

Anwar also promised similar roadshow in Penang tomorrow and Perak on Sunday.