Anwar: Umno defectors not 'traitors', but returning Harapan's mandate

 

Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim has maintained that the Umno defectors who inadvertently triggered the upcoming Malacca state election are not “traitors”.

Instead, he said, they were only attempting to return the rakyat’s mandate to Pakatan Harapan, who had won the state in the last general election.

“When we say traitors, who did they betray?

“The narrative as said by Malacca Harapan is that the four of them withdrew their support (from then chief minister Sulaiman Md Ali) to enable the party that got the mandate in the previous general election to return to power.

“That is important because it means they were not betraying the rakyat’s trust,” Anwar said in a video uploaded onto his Facebook today.

The Malacca snap election was triggered last month after an unsuccessful political coup against the Umno-led state government, which saw four pro-government assemblypersons withdrawing their support for then chief minister Sulaiman Md Ali.

The four are former chief minister Idris Haron (Umno-Sungai Udang), Nor Azman Hassan (Umno-Pantai Kundor), Noor Effandi Ahmad (Bersatu-Telok Mas) and Norhizam Hassan Baktee (Independent-Pengkalan Batu).

Harapan has been clear in its rejection of Norhizam, whose defection from DAP last year had in part contributed to the downfall of the then Harapan-led Malacca government.

‘I had my own reservations’

Anwar said they decided that Idris will contest under the PKR-Harapan ticket while Nor Azman will be fielded under the Amanah-Harapan ticket.

“That is based on their experience, their loyalty to the fight and the attitude of the grassroots,” he said.

Though there are people within PKR who are also qualified to be fielded as candidates in the Malacca snap polls, Anwar said he took into account the two’s “sacrifices”, “willingness to be with” Harapan and their consistent attitude after withdrawing their support from Sulaiman.

He did not elaborate on the status of Bersatu assemblyperson Noor Effandi.

Anwar also noted that the Malacca state assembly has already been dissolved and so the issue of jumping parties does not arise.

Anwar said he also had his own reservations about accepting the two from Umno, and had many questions for them before agreeing. DAP was even stricter in the matter, he added.

But after Idris rejected the Umno president’s urging for a form of compromise in Malacca, Anwar said Harapan became more convinced of his sincerity.

“He (Idris) was firm (with the Umno president) and said he has stated his stand and he cannot accept a corrupt leadership and would like to be with Harapan.

“That was more convincing for our friends in Harapan,” Anwar explained.

Harapan is against tyranny, abuse of power and oppression that is most exemplified by Umno’s top leadership, such as in the case of the misappropriation of money from 1MDB, he said.

“Those involved in moving the wealth of 1MDB and so on, those are not the normal members.

“So we have to give them (normal members) space to listen, think and if they want to cross over and accept us, then we have to be more open-minded,” Anwar said.

Separately, a party source told Malaysiakini that PKR’s briefing session in Seremban, Negeri Sembilan today did not discuss Idris.

“We could not hold the briefing in Malacca because of the Election Commission’s (EC) SOPs, so we held it in Negeri Sembilan.

“We also did not discuss Idris,” said the source who attended the briefing.

PKR secretary-general Saifuddin Nasution confirmed such a meeting took place today.

He said the meeting was to brief their machinery on their work during the election as well as to understand the EC’s SOPs throughout the state election.

Malacca goes to the polls on Nov 20 with nomination day set for Nov 8. - Mkini