GOMBAK, Nov 9 — Datuk Seri Amirudin Shari has today blamed the fall of the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government due to a certain “grandpa”, rather than the coalition chairman Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
Pointing to then-prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, Amirudin became the latest PH leader to distance the pact from the nonagenarian that led it to victory in 2018 following voters’ backlash for its perceived failure.
“Our prime minister was that grandfather. The grandfather was forgetful,” he said during a dinner with the Chinese community leaders in Sri Gombak here.
“The grandfather made a lot of mistakes and resigned,” he added, referring to Dr Mahathir’s resignation after he lost command of the majority of the Dewan Rakyat in 2020.
The Selangor mentri besar also said that whichever government incumbent Gombak MP, Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia’s Datuk Seri Azmin Ali, was in has fallen thus far.
“Unfortunately, our MP has become a frog. He hopped, left the party and government, causing it to fall.
“But even more unfortunately, our MP, whichever government he sits in has fallen,” he said to laughter.
Amirudin said he was referring to the fall of the PH administration after 22 months, and then the fall of the Perikatan Nasional (PN) government, which lasted 13 months, after that.
He urged the crowd to pick him, as he was the “original” from PH and PKR and stated his readiness to represent the constituency of Gombak.
He went on to apologise for Azmin leaving PH and for campaigning for Azmin in the last general election.
Besides that, he addressed the PH administration of 22 months, saying that it had not been given enough time to complete institutional reforms because there were many problems that had to be addressed.
He compared Malaysia’s political situation to a person being sick, calling PH the medicine that Malaysia needed to get better and saying that it takes time for medication to work.
“But the others (PH’s rivals) don’t want to take medicine. They throw the medication away and want to amputate the foot.
“If the foot is causing the illness, they want to cut off the foot. Tomorrow if the ear hurts, then they will cut off the ear.
“And if the head is aching, then they will cut off the head,” he said.
Amirudin is facing a four-cornered fight for the Gombak parliamentary seat this GE15 against Azmin, Barisan Nasional’s (BN) Datuk Megat Zulkarnain Omardin, Gerakan Tanah Air’s (GTA) Aziz Jamaludin Mohd Tahir and independent candidate Ir Zulkifli Ahmad.
