Saifuddin: I would’ve stayed in Umno if BN was keen on reform

PETALING JAYA: Pakatan Harapan chief secretary Saifuddin Abdullah has scoffed at a think tank’s proposal for bipartisan commitment to institutional reforms ahead of the 14th general election, saying he would not have left Umno if Barisan Nasional was serious about reform.

He said he made his decision to leave after critics of 1MDB were punished although his discontent had set in earlier, when he noticed that Prime Minister Najib Razak was not as committed to reform as he seemed at the beginning of his tenure.

“At one time, Najib seemed reform-minded, but then he made a U-turn on the Sedition Act,” he said.

“And with the sacking of top people asking big questions on 1MDB, I said, ‘That’s it.'”

The Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs recently praised calls for institutional reforms, noting that they were coming from both sides of the political divide. It said politicians making those calls could show their sincerity by supporting reforms in a “bipartisan way”.

Saifuddin, who left Umno for PKR in 2015, said his vocal support for change while he was still in Umno provoked resentment from several members of the party.

“I was called two-faced, and once Zahid was even reported to have said ‘We don’t need a deputy minister like Saifuddin,’” he said in reference to Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.

“All I was doing was saying the same things that I am saying now, minus the Reformasi language, of course.

“I may be biased, but in my short stint with Pakatan, I have heard and spoken more about reform than in all my years in Umno.”

Saifuddin was appointed as deputy higher education minister during Najib’s first term in office. He also served as a member of the Umno supreme council.

He criticised the government’s handling of the Bersih 2.0 rally in 2001, in which more than 1,600 protesters were arrested on the streets of Kuala Lumpur.

In early 2013, he stood up for a student who was humiliated by a government-linked panelist at a forum at Universiti Utara Malaysia.

“During my time in Umno, I was also cautioned by the cabinet for speaking on student rights and freedom in relation to my efforts to amend the University Colleges Act (UUCA),” he said.

“It was only when Najib agreed to amend Section 15 of the UUCA that Umno and BN leaders agreed to the proposal. Before that, the paper I presented to the Umno supreme council received no comment.”

Saifuddin said it was absurd to expect BN to welcome institutional reforms as long as the politics of race stood as its main political framework.

“It is worse when religious sentiments are added,” he said.

“No, you cannot expect reform from BN.” -FMT