KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 19 — The differing statements by opposition politicians on federal posts if Pakatan Harapan captures Putrajaya shows the unsettled situation in the pact, Umno information chief Tan Sri Annuar Musa said.
The Ketereh MP said Pakatan Harapan is trying to replicate ruling coalition Barisan Nasional but has yet to succeed in doing so.
"It means that the issue isn't yet settled because DAP says something else and Mahathir is saying something else,” he said after the launching MARA Food Industry Complex here, referring to Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (PPBM) chairman Tun Dr Mahathir.
"The issued statement portrays the instability situation [in the opposition pact]," he added.
Annuar was asked to respond to a media report quoting Dr Mahathir as saying that the DAP has never asked for the prime minister’s post but only for the deputy prime minister’s post.
DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng later said the pact has never discussed the federal cabinet line-up save keeping the prime minister post for their de facto leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, who is currently serving a five-year jail sentence for sodomy.
This comes after DAP’s Lim Kit Siang instructed his lawyers earlier this month to start legal proceedings against dailies Utusan Malaysia, New Straits Times, and any other media outlets that published “fake news” about his alleged “secret pact” with PPBM’s deputy president Datuk Mukhriz Mahathir.
Kit Siang stressed that he had already denied any secret meeting with Dr Mahathir on December 3 where he had purportedly “sealed a deal that Mukhriz would become prime minister and me as his deputy”.
Annuar also added that Dr Mahathir’s voice in the opposition pact did not carry any weight as he was not viewed as its leader.
“Mahathir is not the supreme leader in opposition pact. Some still see Anwar Ibrahim as the de facto leader,” he said referring to imprisoned Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
