One of the PKR parliamentarians said to have been approached with an enticement to switch allegiance to the Perikatan Nasional government has reported the overture to his party out of fear for his safety.
M Karupaiya (above), who is Padang Serai MP, told Malaysiakini that he received a phone call on Sunday from a man, who only identified himself as 'Azhar', and made lucrative offers to get him to support the PN government.
The politician said he declined the offer. However, this left Karupaiya with another dilemma - he is now scared that the people who made the offer might try to get him through a more harmful way.
"I am not sure if it was even his real name. He called me around 5pm on Sunday and identified himself to me as Azhar.
"The man told me that Bersatu wanted to make an offer to me to support (Prime Minister) Muhyiddin Yassin. And when I asked him why would I do that, he spoke about how my constituency has no funding and this has left the rakyat there in difficult situations.
"However, I told him that it had not been a problem for me. Because I am always in a good relationship with the people in my constituency," he said.
Karupaiya is among the four PKR MPs named by opposition chief Anwar Ibrahim yesterday as having been targeted for enticement or threats to get them into supporting the Muhyiddin government.
Malaysiakini has contacted the four to try to get their stories on what had transpired.
According to Karupaiya, the caller did not give up easily. The man instead tried to woo him with promises of full funding for the Padang Serai parliamentary constituency, and on top of that, another RM1 million for him.
He was also promised future projects.
"The guy said that what I needed to do was only to meet Tan Sri (Muhyiddin) to sign (a document). I told him that I do not want anything, and I am loyal to my party.
"And I told him he can 'kirim salam' to Tan Sri Muhyiddin," Karupaiya said.
Asked if he had lodged a report with authorities on the enticement attempt, Karupaiya said he did not.
However, he said, he had immediately notified the PKR leadership as he was worried that other kinds of attempts to coerce him to back the PN government could come his way.
"Because I am scared that as I have rejected the offer, they might try another thing tomorrow. Now, anything can happen.
"Who knows? These people might plant a bag (of money) in my car or in my house, and then they get me arrested to blackmail me? This is possible," he said.
Asked why he decided to reject the lucrative offer, Karupaiya said he would rather be poor than to lose the people's respect.
"The rakyat in my constituency have said that they respect me for not being a frog.
"In life, no matter how many millions (of ringgit) that people can give you, this one word - 'hormat' (respect) - is the one that would make you happy."
Some 10 agents pursued Putatan MP
Putatan MP Awang Husaini Sahari also has a similar story, only that his episode had begun much earlier.
According to the MP from Sabah, offers to cross over to PN had come since the time the East Malaysian state was gearing up for its state election last year.
All in all, Awang Husaini had received close to 10 calls from different 'agents' who tried to talk him into switching sides.
"I have received many calls. Probably around 10... I'm sure it was more than five.
"They were from different people. It was like when one didn't succeed, another took up the task. They asked to meet with me, saying that they wanted to discuss the invitation for me to join PN and that there were some offers.
"But I declined to meet them," Awang Husaini said.
He said some had promised to give him "something in return" for his support, but the conversation never got into details as he had shot them down.
Asked whether he had been harassed by some government agencies, as what had allegedly happened to Kuala Langat MP Dr Xavier Jayakumar prior to his defection recently, Awang Husaini replied in the negative.
"Maybe because I am not rich like the others," he said in jest and laughed.
Awang Husaini said he did not take up the offers because he did not want to betray the people's mandate given to him in the 14th general election.
"The Pakatan Harapan government fell not because of the election, but because of the Sheraton Move, which the rakyat are not happy about. They betrayed the people's mandate.
"I do not want to do that. And secondly, this government is a backdoor government, and as an MP who upholds the Federal Constitution, it is my responsibility to defend a legitimate government," he said.
Meanwhile, attempts to get comments from two other MPs named by Anwar - Michael Teo (Miri) and S Kesavan (Sungai Siput) - were not successful.
Teo picked up Malaysiakini's call and said that he would be issuing a statement later, while Kesavan declined to speak on the matter. - Mkini
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