Amanah never strayed from Harapan consensus, says VP

 

There are attempts by some Amanah members to portray a split in the party's leadership, said Amanah vice-president Mujahid Yusof Rawa.

He said that Amanah still supported Pakatan Harapan's position that PKR president Anwar Ibrahim was to replace Dr Mahathir Mohamad as prime minister.

"The rumour is (the) Amanah (leadership) had chosen a different path and supported Mahathir (as prime minister).

"(These rumours) were started in bad faith to taint Amanah's image, more so attempts to 'attack' the party president as the cause of the split in Amanah.

"Those responsible for this narrative should apologise over (their) efforts to ruin Amanah, whether they did so intentionally or not, and hence affecting unity within Harapan," he said.

Mujahid's statement followed confirmation that its party member, and Meru assemblyperson, Mohd Fakhrulrazi Mohd Mokhtar had defected to PKR.

Malaysiakini spoke to Fakhrulrazi twice in two days, but he has refused to confirm it himself. Malaysiakini understood that he was accepted into PKR in September.

Mujahid said party members should not equate Fakhrulrazi's action - which he suggested was for personal interest - with the alleged disappointment of the party's grassroots towards Amanah's relationship with Anwar.

"The Meru lawmaker should not be giving people such an impression because the reality is his actions were his own choosing, and it is his own problem.

"It has nothing to do with (allegations) that Amanah had lost faith in Anwar," said Mujahid.

Mujahid said Amanah was consistent in being loyal towards its partners and would not be threatened by individuals who liked to "shift here and there aimlessly".

On January 6, 2018, Amanah, along with Harapan coalition partners DAP, PKR and Bersatu (which left the coalition in February 2020), signed an agreement endorsing Mahathir as their prime minister's candidate for the 2018 elections.

The agreement stipulated that Anwar would succeed Mahathir, but no time frame was set. Eventually, it was made clear that Mahathir never intended to fulfil this promise.

In February, Mahathir stepped down as prime minister after Bersatu - his own party at the time - left Harapan in what is now known as the "Sheraton Move", which eventually saw Harapan ousted from Putrajaya.

Following this, there were attempts by Amanah and DAP in June and July to convince Anwar to accept a plan to reinstall Mahathir as prime minister for six months.

After that plan failed, Amanah and DAP tried to convince Anwar to back Mohd Shafie Apdal as prime minister but failed again. - Mkini