PH meeting chaired by Anwar vows to restore ‘people’s mandate’

The Pakatan Harapan meeting, chaired by Anwar Ibrahim, was also attended by Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

PETALING JAYA: Pakatan Harapan, along with former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Warisan president Shafie Apdal, have vowed to restore the “people’s mandate” by wresting back Putrajaya from Perikatan Nasional.

The opposition leaders said this in a statement following a Pakatan Harapan meeting chaired by its chairman, Anwar Ibrahim. The meeting was also attended by Mahathir and Shafie.

“The meeting unanimously agreed to intensify efforts to return the people’s mandate and prioritise forming the government again.

“The meeting was of the view that there is a problem of legitimacy with the government following (Prime Minister) Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin’s failure to test his support among MPs in Parliament tomorrow.”

Parliament, they said, is the country’s foremost institution of democracy and it needs to function well to ensure checks and balances.

This, they said, included testing and validifying the support for the prime minister.

The Dewan Rakyat will convene tomorrow for the first time since the fall of the PH administration. However, the only thing on tomorrow’s agenda is the Yang di-Pertuan Agong’s royal address.

There will be no debates or motions heard. After the king’s speech, the Dewan Rakyat will be adjourned to a later date.

The leaders said they were not satisfied with the one-day sitting.

The statement, signed by all PH component party leaders, Mahathir and Shafie, also implied that Muhyiddin was seeking to win the support of MPs by appointing them to government-linked company positions or allotting minister-level envoy posts.

“This is a bad practice and will ruin the reformat of institutions, which started more than 22 months ago.”

They also said the discharge granted to Hollywood movie producer Riza Aziz, the son of Rosmah Mansor, over money laundering charges was a sign that other high-profile cases involving political figures will be resolved in the same manner.

On Thursday, the Sessions Court here granted a discharge not amounting to an acquittal to Riza, who had been charged with five counts of money laundering amounting to US$248 million (RM1.079 billion).

Judge Azman Ahmad allowed the application after ad-hoc prosecutor Gopal Sri Ram told the court the discharge would be subject to the accused fulfilling his side of the bargain.

The MACC, in a statement, said Putrajaya was expected to recover overseas assets worth an estimated US$107.3 million should Riza fulfil his promise.

The leaders also voiced their concern that the government’s RM260 billion Covid-19 stimulus package and the finances of newly established ministries had yet to be debated in Parliament and approved. - FMT