KUALA LUMPUR, March 4 — PKR president Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim remains unfazed over news that PAS and Umno might contest under a single banner during the 15th general election.
Speaking at a joint press conference with Communications and Multimedia Minister Gobind Singh Deo, the Port Dickson MP noted that both Opposition parties seemed encouraged by Umno’s victory in the recently concluded Semenyih by-election.
“Having said that, of course we also have present challenges. I’m not too concerned about their initiative.
“They seem encouraged by the results of one by-election, but they forgot they lost many seats earlier including Port Dickson,” said Anwar, admitting also that Pakatan Harapan (PH) needs to do more to win the support of voters.
Anwar reminded the public that under the previous Barisan Nasional-led administration, there was rampant corruption which the leaders of PAS and Umno have yet to acknowledge.
“We want the public to be aware of the stark realities of massive corruption and abuse during their period (of administration) which the present government under Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has to deal with,” he said.
He then added that there’s a “juxtaposition” of ideas between PH and the Umno-PAS cooperation where the ruling coalition’s narrative is inclusiveness for all Malaysians regardless of race while PAS and Umno continue to rely on race-based political strategy.
Anwar, who was speaking at the Digital Native Agenda (DNA23) earlier with Gobind, pointed out that PH has never ignored the plight of the poor or the marginalised while acknowledging that the Malay community makes up the majority of the impoverished.
“We have never ignored the plight of the poor, the marginalised and we have not dismissed the needs of the majority, which happens to be the Malays but it’s not a race issue. There are those (BN and PAS) who harp on race but the New Economic Policy of the past was corrupted.
“We need a more transparent policy for the vast majority of the Malays, the poor Chinese and the Indians in the estate. I see a completely different narrative here. When compared to PH’s ideology, Umno and PAS have a juxtaposition of ideas.
“They talk about the race card while we speak about an inclusive government that must cater to the welfare of all its citizens,” said Anwar.
Touching on Datuk Seri Azmin Ali’s call to fulfill a stronger Bumiputera-Malay agenda in light of PH’s defeat in the Semenyih by-election, the PKR chief was similarly dismissive, saying that was the former’s personal opinion.
He reaffirmed PKR and PH’s stance that there is no race-based agenda but an agenda that focuses on the poor and the marginalised which includes the Malay community.
