Perak Harapan to lodge police report against Umno leader

Perak Pakatan Harapan will lodge a police report against state opposition leader Saarani Mohamad for alleging that some state executive council members conspired to oust Menteri Besar Ahmad Faizal Azumu.

"We had an internal discussion and we found out that none of our 31 state assemblypersons was involved (as claimed by Saarani), this is a conspiracy by Umno.

"We are going to lodge a police report soon," said Perak DAP chief Nga Kor Ming when met at Parliament.

Nga urged the police to probe the matter under Section 124B and Section 124C of the Penal Code.

Section 124 of the Penal Code deals with activities detrimental to Parliamentary democracy and carries a jail sentence of up to 20 years, said the Teluk Intan MP.

The provision had previously raised concerns among the public and political parties as it was said to have been used as a political tool against detractors several years back.

"The corrupt practice to buy over the state assemblypersons to join them is definitely an activity detrimental to parliamentary democracy.

"I urge the police to carry out a thorough investigation to ensure the coup d'etat in 2009 will not repeat," he added.

The incident he was referring to was when the now-defunct Pakatan Rakyat state government in Perak lost power in February 2009 after four of its state assemblypersons quit the party.

When asked why Harapan proposed Section 124B when they had previously opposed to the draconian provision, Nga said it was because they needed to focus on state governance and had no time to entertain such “gutter politics”.

According to media reports yesterday, Saarani, who is also Perak Umno chief, claimed that elections might be held in the state due to an impending vote of no confidence against the menteri besar.

He claimed there were plans to pass a vote of no confidence against Faizal, and more than one exco member had approached some five to six Umno assemblypersons to support their decision.

Saarani had also threatened to reveal the state exco who approached Umno assemblypersons and invited Umno to form a new government by ousting the menteri besar.

Nga said Ahmad Faizal has been performing fairly well and it can be seen in the recent state's Budget 2019.

"Bearing in mind that he is a first-term state assemblyperson, we must give him time to improve.

"I am confident that all of our state assemblypersons will stand behind the menteri besar. There is no issue of (lawmakers) hopping or state government shaking," he said. -Mkini