Appeal to Anwar Ibrahim to form a shadow cabinet and immediately work out the Opposition’s alternative policies on the pandemic and economy.
An Opposition leader has invited Umno lawmakers, who have withdrawn their support for Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, to work with the Pakatan Harapan Plus coalition.
United Progressive Kinabalu Organisation (Upko) president Datuk Seri Madius Tangau asked his former Barisan Nasional colleagues to save Malaysia from the government’s “act of desperation” to cling to power by declaring an Emergency.
“To my parliamentary colleagues Ahmad Jazlan, Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz, Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah and other old friends in Barisan Nasional who are abandoning Muhyiddin not because they have ongoing court cases, I urge you to join us in PH Plus to discuss alternative policies for post-Muhyiddin and post-PN Malaysia.
“Whether we would sit next to each other in the future, as parliamentarians, we have a duty to offer workable and broad-based policies for millions of suffering Malaysians when the PM damages their livelihoods just to save his job,” he said in a statement recently.
Upko was formerly a BN component but since the last Sabah state election, had allied itself with Warisan as part of Harapan Plus, alongside PKR, DAP and Amanah.
In a statement on Wednesday (Jan 13), the Tuaran MP appealed to his fellow parliamentary colleagues who do not have any ongoing court cases to join Pakatan Plus in order to discuss alternative policies for the post-Perikatan government.
“Whether we would sit next to each other in the future as parliamentarians, we have a duty to offer workable and broad-based policies for millions of suffering Malaysians when the PM damages their livelihoods just to save his job,” he said.
On Tuesday (Jan 12), Padang Rengas MP Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz announced the withdrawal of his support for Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin’s leadership.
He was the second Umno MP to withdraw his support for the Prime Minister ahead of the Umno general assembly on Jan 31.
Last Saturday, Machang MP Datuk Seri Ahmad Jazlan Yaakub also announced that he would no longer support Muhyiddin.
There are 222 MPs in the Parliament with two seats, Batu Sapi and Gerik, left vacant following the deaths of their incumbents.
The Umno Padang Rengas chief also hinted that several other Umno MPs are expected to announce a similar move soon.
Tangau also appealed to Opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim to form a shadow cabinet organised within a week and immediately work out the Opposition’s alternative policies on the pandemic and economy.
“Please chair the PH Plus Shadow Cabinet’s first meeting next Wednesday, on Zoom.
“It’s time we stop our repeated attacks on the backdoor government. Instead, we must work hard on offering better policies and delivery so we can walk in from the front door with a strong, formidable and convincing majority after the 15th general election,” he said.
He added that he was ashamed that Pakatan Plus could not form a shadow cabinet despite having about 40 ex-ministers and ex-deputy ministers.