After Muda hints at withdrawing support for unity govt, DAP’s Anthony Loke reminds Syed Saddiq Muar victory backed by Pakatan support
PUTRAJAYA — DAP secretary-general Anthony Loke today reminded Malaysian United Democratic Alliance (Muda) president Syed Saddiq Abdul Rahman that the latter did not become Muar MP by his own merits alone as his victory was backed by Pakatan Harapan’s support back then.
This comes after Muda hinted at withdrawing support for the unity government to deny them a two-third parliamentary supermajority.
Loke went as far as to suggest that Syed Saddiq had the obligation to ensure the votes garnered and seat won were reflective of its support for the unity government of the day.
“First of all, this is their decision, they have to make their own decision.
“But just let me remind them that the Pulai voters have voted to ensure political stability, that is a vote of confidence by Pulai voters.
“I also have to remind Syed Saddiq that he won on a mutual understanding with Pakatan Harapan too, he did not win Muar by his own merit.
“He won because there was an electoral understanding with Pakatan Harapan (PH), we did not put our candidate there and DAP support went to him, and campaigned for him.
“So I just want to remind him that he has a responsibility too because he won on the back of Pakatan support,” he said at a press conference at the party’s national congress at Putrajaya Marriott Hotel here.
Yesterday, Syed Saddiq the sole parliamentary representative from Muda indicated that the party would discuss whether to withdraw its support and prevent Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s government from being able to regain its parliamentary supermajority.
Syed Saddiq’s reply was a stark contrast to his previous stand last year where shortly before the 15th general election (GE15), Muda had applied to be included in PH as the coalition’s component party.
At that time, the former youth and sports minister was confident that Muda would be accepted as PH’s fifth component party.
However, even after GE15 Muda’s application to be a part of PH was met with little progress. The youth-oriented party then decided to go solo for the recent six state elections after efforts to form an alliance with the PH were ignored.
On Monday, deputy prime minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, who is also Umno president, was conditionally discharged from 47 charges of dishonestly misappropriating RM31 million belonging to his charitable organisation called Yayasan Akalbudi about two days ago.
The discharge not amounting to acquittal (DNAA) was criticised by many political observers and civil society groups.
Following this, Syed Saddiq and Muda secretary-general Amir Abd Hadi have said they would not hesitate to withdraw their party’s support for the unity government if the attorney general did not give a proper explanation.
Johor Umno leader commends supporters for not sabotaging Pulai, Simpang Jeram polls
JOHOR BARU: Umno members in Johor have been commended for not sabotaging the party in the Pulai and Simpang Jeram by-elections, says a state Umno leader.
Johor Umno information chief Datuk Md Jais Sarday said that while there was a swing of Malay votes to Perikatan Nasional, the overall win in Pulai and Simpang Jeram seats showed that most Umno members loved the party and toed the party line.
“Those who did not want to vote for the Pakatan Harapan candidates just did not come out to vote. That is evident of the low voter turnout this time around which was 47.33% for Pulai and 60.85% in Simpang Jeram,” he told The Star.
In GE15, voter turnout in Pulai was 71%, while 53.4% of voters voted in the state elections in March last year.
Md Jais said that the results showed that the people took a stand to stop the much-touted “green wave” from entering Johor borders.
“Johor may not have that many sekolah pondok like in Kedah, Kelantan or Terengganu but our religious schools teach the proper ways of Islam. We do not use religion to be judgemental of people or promise people entry into heaven if they supported a particular political party,” said Md Jais, who is also Johor Barisan Nasional information chief.
Jais said that Umno should not be complacent because of these two wins for the unity government pact but should instead double its efforts by going to the ground to explain to Malay voters especially Umno members about how the unity government worked and Umno’s cooperation with DAP.
“Perikatan has been using emotion and sentiments to sway the Malay voters,” he said.
“It is time to explain to members about the new political narrative of cooperation in the unity government.”
On Saturday, Pakatan’s Suhaizan Kayat won the Pulai seat with a 18,641 seat majority. He got a total of 48,283 votes while Zulkifli Jaafar from Perikatan Nasional secured 29,642 votes.
Meanwhile in Simpang Jeram, Pakatan won with a 3,514 vote majority. Pakatan’s Nazri Abdul Rahman received 13,844 votes while Perikatan’s Dr Mohd Mazri Yahya got 10,330 votes. ANN
MALAY MAIL / ANN
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