Pakatan closes ranks to try and stop ‘traitors’ from poaching more lawmakers

KUALA LUMPUR, March 10 — Pakatan Harapan (PH) sought to rally all its MPs, assemblymen, and leaders during a close-door event last night in an attempt to prevent more from defecting to Perikatan Nasional, attendees of the “Pertahan Mandat Rakyat 2020” (Uphold People's Mandate) told Malay Mail.

PKR  president Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, his Amanah counterpart Mohamad Sabu and DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng warned everyone to stop any more party members, especially those who have position in the state government, from supporting the new coalition helmed by Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.

“There’s a lot of information being passed down to the party members, chiefly to make sure no one else jumps to the other side like what happens today,” said an attendee who did not want to be named.

“Abang Mat (Mohamad Sabu), (Lim) Guan Eng and Anwar are very upset when more of the party members who just a week ago on our side have gone,” the source said, referring to Perak state government when state assemblyman from both Amanah and DAP quit to pledge support to the PN administration.

Another attendee said the leaders are confident that they could still bring the numbers to challenge Muhyiddin’s majority in the parliament come May 18 when the Dewan Rakyat convenes.

“Other leaders also talked about what we should do in the next two months, before May 18.

“We would continue to work as a team to ensure the party remains intact and strong. We will also give information to the voters inside our respective parliament in order to ensure the message remains true and not corrupted by the ‘traitors’ team,” said the source.

Speaking to reporters afterwards, PKR strategic communications director Fahmi Fadzil said he cannot divulge information regarding what was said as it was confidential.

However, he said PH would announce their future plans for roadshow programmes to inform the people about PH.

“We will not abandon our principles. It took us 20 years to get to this point.

“Pakatan will have a lot of ‘jelajah’ throughout the country. We will inform in through our communications channel,” he said.

PH lost their power when Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad resigned as the prime minister on Feb 24.

On the same day, 11 MPs from PKR who are aligned with former deputy president Datuk Seri Azmin Ali has resigned from the party and the PH coalition to form a new independent bloc in Parliament.

The 11 lawmakers made a statement in one of the two PKR’s media WhatsApp Group, stating their intention to abandon their party and ruling coalition amidst a power struggle between Anwar and Dr Mahathir.

All 11 subsequently joined Bersatu and were appointed as ministers and deputy ministers by Muhyiddin on Monday.