Umno Youth chief: No certainty MOU will last until July next year

 

Umno Youth chief Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki said there is no certainty that the memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the federal government and Pakatan Harapan will last until July next year.

Putrajaya, under the MOU, had promised not to dissolve Parliament until at least July 21, 2022, in order to have enough time to implement various reforms sought by Harapan in exchange for the opposition not to obstruct key government agendas.

However, Asyraf claimed Harapan did not appear serious in upholding its end of the bargain when it encouraged defectors to bring down the Umno-Bersatu Malacca government.

"We don't know for sure if the MOU will last until July or not. We can see that in the Malacca polls, for example, even though there is an MOU between the federal government and Harapan, the Malacca government still collapsed.

"Harapan had promised the four defectors to make Idris Haron the chief minister... that was what led him to withdraw from the state government," Asyraf said during a dialogue session on Astro Awani.

Asyraf said this when asked about Umno's push to expedite the general election after BN's success in the Malacca polls.

BN won a landslide, securing 21 out of 28 seats while Perikatan Nasional won two and Harapan won five.

The Malacca election was called after Idris, who was from Umno, along with his party colleagues Nor Azman Hassan, Bersatu's Noor Effandi Ahmad and ex-DAP's Norhizam Hassan Baktee withdrew support for the Umno-Bersatu government. They were all sacked from their parties.

DAP Youth chief Howard Lee

DAP Youth chief Howard Lee, who was also featured in the talk show, maintained that the MOU was at the federal level and only concerned federal affairs.

He added that if Harapan had violated the MOU, it would have been terminated.

He questioned if BN was trying to shirk from the reform promises by pushing for early polls.

Lee stressed that the majority of Malaysians do not want to see another election during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Furthermore, he said the anti-hopping law promised in the MOU should first be passed in Parliament before an election is called.

Asked if Harapan was being hypocritical by advocating an anti-hopping law when it fielded political defectors Idris and Nor Azman as Harapan candidates in the Malacca polls, Lee replied: "A little bit."

"I admit... My party DAP had stressed its dissatisfaction and disagreement to accept them," he added, emphasising that the DAP was outvoted by PKR and Amanah.

"We had to accept a consensus decision and in the end, Malaccans made their decision and the two as well as Harapan were punished," he said during the programme.

DAP and Amanah saw their seats halved from eight to four and two to one, respectively. PKR, which had three seats, was wiped out.

Asked if Umno's push for early polls would backfire, Asyraf stressed this was merely a view among some leaders.

He added that it would help to ensure a more stable government instead of having to rely on political compromises. - Mkini