Aziz Bari rubbishes Peja’s claims of attempting to oust latter

 

Perak DAP leader Abdul Aziz Bari dismissed the claims by former state menteri besar Ahmad Faizal Azumu that DAP attempted to topple the latter during the Pakatan Harapan administration in 2018.

Aziz (above) told Malaysiakini that Faizal, better known as Peja, was spinning a false narrative when he claimed that the former tried to unseat him and was acting on Perak DAP chief Nga Kor Ming’s orders.

“Nga never asked me to bring down Faizal from his Perak MB post. On the contrary, Nga asked me to remain as a team player.

“The same was said to me by (then DAP secretary-general) Lim Guan Eng, who told me that Faizal met him several times to discuss developments in Perak.

“Both Lim and Nga never asked me to bring down Faizal,” said Aziz.

Faizal was the MB from 2018 to 2020, during the reign of Harapan and Perikatan Nasional.

Former Perak menteri besar Ahmad Faizal Azumu

However, he was dislodged by his Umno partners in December 2020 after losing a confidence vote in the Perak state assembly.

Despite that, he claimed in an interview this week that in Perak, “it was not Umno that tried to topple me as Perak menteri besar), it was Aziz Bari.”

“When PN suddenly took over as (federal) government, they called it a ‘tebuk atap’ (backdoor government).

“When Aziz did it, it was with the permission of Nga. Aziz is Nga’s puppet.

“Out of anger or vengeance, they (DAP) did not need to work with me, they didn’t need to work with Umno. Umno understood that if there was a confidence vote, DAP would not support it, and neither would Umno. Thus, I was toppled,” alleged Faizal.

In his response, Aziz said this was far from the truth and accused Faizal of trying to spin a new narrative.

He added that Faizal seemed to forget that it was Umno, not DAP, that brought him down.

Perak DAP chief Nga Kor Ming

“In fact, during the months when rumours and reports started to make rounds, I asked my officer to get appointments with Faizal.

“The purpose was to kill off the rumours and I suggested that both MB and I conduct the press briefing together.

“But Faizal never responded. He actually allowed the rumours to spread and even personally talked about it in a video during the campaign in Tanjung Piai by-election,” said Aziz.

‘Peja was insecure’

The Perak government that was helmed by Faizal was peculiar in the sense that his Bersatu party was significantly outnumbered by DAP.

As such, Aziz, being the senior DAP Malay figure in Perak, might have been seen as a rival.

Aziz claimed that Faizal was insecure about his position and this may have prevented him from functioning as a state exco effectively.

“I was given education, environment and information portfolios, among others.

“Immediately, after the announcement of portfolios, I went to see him to discuss how information portfolio should function.

“But instead of helping, Faizal took away the portfolio without even telling me!” recalled Aziz.

“I have no idea why Faizal dislikes me, I didn’t know him, in fact, I never met him before I became exco in May 2018.

“With regard to his accusations that I wanted to topple him, I would like to state categorically that I never had such ideas.

“I knew the choice of MB is a party matter and it’s the party that decides,” stressed Aziz. - Mkini