KUALA LUMPUR, June 16 — Former minister Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz has urged the ruling Perikatan Nasional (PN) coalition to call a snap election once the Covid-19 crisis is under control, claiming that Malaysians are worried about the numbers game from both sides of the political divide.
Free Malaysia Today (FMT) quoted Nazri as saying that Malaysians were uneasy with the present “ping pong game” between PN and the Opposition Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition where both claim to have the majority support of MPs.
“This game has to stop.
“One day it (the numbers) is in my court and the next day, it is in your (PH) court then it is in my (PN) court. Let’s stop this uncertainty and let’s have the general elections,” he reportedly said.
Nazri, who is Umno’s Padang Rengas MP, was also quoted as declaring his support for Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, who is also Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) president.
The 66-year-old seasoned politician had in 2018 openly shown his support for PKR president Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim shortly after the 14th general election that saw PH taking over the federal government.
Nazri said PH may not have the numbers or it would have called for a press conference to show the statutory declarations of MPs supporting it.
He said there should be elections at the parliamentary and state levels.
“There was also a lot of uncertainty at the state level, especially in Sabah, after former chief minister Tan Sri Musa Aman was cleared of all corruption charges recently.
“He is probably stronger (now after the court case). He is the rightful chief minister in the first place,” said Nazri in reference to Sabah Umno’s Musa who last Tuesday was fully acquitted of nearly four dozen charges of corruption and money laundering related to the award of logging contracts during his tenure as Sabah’s chief minister.
The FMT report also said that Nazri hoped there would be an agreement among Bersatu, Umno and PAS on seat distribution for the elections, as all three parties are Malay-based and may be eyeing the same seats.
“Let’s make sure PN has a good majority and then we can stop this ping pong game once and for all,” he said.
In the report, Nazri explained that the three Malay parties must champion the interests of the Malays and gave an example of the previous PH administration that failed to address such matters causing the coalition to collapse less than two years after forming the federal government.
He also backed Muhyiddin as his choice to lead the new government as he had shown himself to be a capable prime minister in his first 100 days in office.
In the past, Nazri is no stranger to courting controversy and has also lashed out at his critics, including former Barisan Nasional (BN) backbenchers in Parliament.
In 2010, Nazri had openly defended then prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s 1Malaysia campaign, saying that he is a Malaysian first and a Malay second.
This was in complete opposition to that expressed by then deputy prime minister Muhyiddin, who has time and again reiterated that he is Malay first and Malaysian second.
The latest was in July last year where Nazri acknowledged Anwar as a national reformist and gave his full support to him.
He claimed that it was not wrong of him if he supported Anwar as the former deputy prime minister had once led the Umno Youth wing that he was part of.
