I didn’t party-hop, I was sacked, says Azmin

 

Azmin Ali (third from right) with Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi (second from right) and PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang (right), at the Sheraton Move gathering in 2020.

PETALING JAYA: Bersatu Supreme Council member Azmin Ali has hit out at his critics, saying he has never party-hopped.

He said it was unfair to label him a “frog” when he had always put the interests of the people above seeking power for himself.

Azmin was among the 11 PKR MPs who shifted their allegiance to Bersatu in February 2020 in what has come to be known as the Sheraton Move.

It saw the fall of the Pakatan Harapan government after just 22 months in power and the rise of the Perikatan Nasional administration led by Bersatu president Muhyiddin Yassin.

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“To set the record straight, I was sacked (from PKR),” he said on the Agenda Awani programme.

It was previously reported that Azmin was sacked by PKR in 2020, along with then vice-president Zuraida Kamaruddin a day after the duo attended a dinner with leaders from rival parties.

However, Azmin and Zuraida, together with nine other PKR MPs, issued a joint statement saying they had left PKR to set up an independent bloc in Parliament.

Azmin said he and the other 10 MPs were sacked from PKR because they were outspoken about issues and policies.

“I was sacked because I spoke out against someone who was greedy for power.”

Shrugging off claims he was a “traitor”, Azmin then questioned why there was no focus on the “Kajang Move”, which he said was an “absolute betrayal” of the people’s mandate.

“We rarely talk about the real traitors who orchestrated the Kajang by-election,” he said in reference to the 2014 by-election.

In January 2014, then Kajang assemblyman Lee Chin Cheh resigned eight months after the 13th general election. Lee vacated the seat for Anwar Ibrahim to be fielded in the subsequent by-election.

However, Anwar was disqualified due to his sodomy conviction at the time.

Azmin claimed that the Kajang Move had been orchestrated by Rafizi Ramli to allow Anwar to replace Khalid Ibrahim as Selangor menteri besar.

“The people’s elected representative was sacrificed for someone who wanted to be prime minister,” he said. - FMT