‘DE-FACTO’ DEFECTION – ANWAR THROWS THE GAUNTLET BACK AT HAMZAH – IT’S NOT ME! – TAKES OR ‘FAKES’ THE MORAL HIGH GROUND – REPORT IT SO COPS CAN PROBE IF BERSATU MP WAS COERCED, PM RAPS OPPOSITION CHIEF

Written by Stan Lee, Politics Now!

KUALA LUMPUR (Politics Now!) – Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim denied personally pressuring or sending goons to pressure Bersatu MP Iskandar Dzulkarnain into declaring support for his unity government – widely seen as a ‘de-facto’ defection that will help Anwar’s coalition to clinch a two-thirds supermajority in the federal Parliament.

“All I know is that I haven’t met, contacted or sent a representative to (Iskandar Dzulkarnain). I don’t know who threatened him,” Anwar told the press on Wednesday (Oct 18).

TAKING OR FAKING THE MORAL HIGH GROUND?

Taking or perhaps ‘faking’ the moral high ground, Anwar threw the gauntlet back at Opposition Leader Hamzah Zainuddin.

“If there is evidence, please provide it. This is a serious accusation. He (Hamzah) should file a report and there should be an investigation,” rapped out the PM.

Yet during the decades when he was in the Opposition, did Anwar never accuse the government politicians then in charge of similar political shenanigans?

WILL BERSATU DARE TO SACK ISKANDAR & RISK LOSING ONE SEAT IN PARLIAMENT

Last week, Hamzah, who is also Bersatu’s secretary-general, claimed that intimidation and threats were used to coerce Iskandar, the Kuala Kangsar MP, into switching sides in a way that would avoid triggering the anti-hopping law that would compel a new by-election to be held.

While declaring support for Anwar and the unity government, Iskandar did not resign from Bersatu and insisted he was still loyal to the party helmed by former prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin.

Unless Iskandar quits Bersatu or Bersatu sacks him. Iskandar’s seat is safe. No by-election would need to be called.

However, if Bersatu decides to dump Iskandar so as to deny Anwar’s government a supermajority, then a new poll would have to be held – and while Iskandar could win the seat again, he could just as well lose it – with angry Bersatu supporters sidelining him for their new candidate.

MACC TOO DENIES INVOLVEMENT

According to Hamzah, the Kuala Kangsar MP was brought to meet a high-ranking Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) officer at a hotel in Damansara and threatened with corruption charges if he refused to sign a media statement stating his support for the government.

MACC chief commissioner Azam Baki has denied the story. Azam counter-accused Hamzah of deliberately trying to tarnish the already scandal-tainted MACC’s reputation. –  Written by Stan Lee, Politics Now!

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