KUALA LUMPUR, March 14 — Pakatan Harapan (PH) leaders have quickly returned to their familiar practice of calling out government ministers, highlighting their distraction with trivial issues rather than urgent matters affecting Malaysians.
While Barisan Nasional took some adjusting to life in the Opposition after the 14th general election, the PH lawmakers have already resumed regular programming.
The current subject of their attention is Deputy Women and Family Development Minister Siti Zailah Mohd Yusoff from PAS, whom they criticised for an apparent preoccupation with shariah-compliant attire at Malaysia Airlines Bhd despite the carrier’s obvious financial difficulties.
“13,000 MAS employees must take unpaid leave because of the coronavirus. This doesn’t even include other airlines.
“Please help them handle this first, YB,” former youth and sports minister Syed Saddiq Abdul Rahman said when commenting on a news report of Siti Zailah saying she wished to visit the issue of shariah-compliant attire for crew members.
The airline reportedly asked all its employees as well as those in its subsidiaries to take up to three months of unpaid leave from next month to help it cope with the ravages of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) on the travel sector.
Several PH leaders also seized on former Umno minister Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said’s criticism of the deputy minister over another report of her saying the proposal to ban child marriage must be consistent with Islamic principles.
Islam conditionally allows child marriages and both PAS-controlled states of Kelantan and Terengganu did not sign on to the PH administration’s efforts for a nationwide ban on the practice.
Making the job easier for PH was the friendly fire between Umno and Bersatu, with leaders of the Malay nationalist party becoming increasingly aggressive in their complaints about being sidelined in Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin’s Cabinet.
Several PH leaders have simply taken to reposting statements from Umno leaders criticising Muhyiddin without comment.
Some such as PKR’s Lembah Pantai MP Fahmi Fadzil helped clarify matters for those who have not kept up to date with developments in Perikatan Nasional.
“The crack is growing,” he said briefly on his Twitter page today.
Less than two years since winning the general election, PH reverted to being the Opposition on March 1 after Muhyiddin was appointed the prime minister to replace Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad whose sudden resignation brought down the previous government.
