A Pakatan Harapan (PH) presidential council meeting originally planned for today was reportedly cancelled due to calls of “political reset” in a previous joint statement by its component parties’ leaders.
Quoting anonymous sources, Malaysiakini reported that the meeting was set to be at the Parliament this afternoon after the coalition failed to vote down the Budget 2021 recently.
Despite that, no new date has been scheduled, purportedly due to uneasiness among the coalition members that led to the meeting’s cancellation.
This morning, DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng and Parti Amanah Negara president Mohamad Sabu said PH must stop wasting time on “opportunistic” Perikatan Nasional (PN) backbenchers who are exploiting them.
In a joint statement, the leaders said after failing to stop the federal Budget from being passed, it is now time for the Opposition to face the reality that it needs a reset.
“There is a need for a reset in the current course set by PH following the passage of Budget 2021 by Malaysia’s first unelected and minority government in a close vote of 111-108,” they said.
They said the budget vote showed that there have been no shifts of allegiance from the Perikatan Nasional side, including from those who supposedly supported PKR president Anwar Ibrahim.
Therefore, they said Harapan should stop wasting time with these individuals and focus on uniting their friends in the opposition instead.
“More time and resources should instead be spent on allies struggling for a common cause, and that PH should look beyond its 92 MPs and concentrate on the 108 Opposition MPs,” they added.
They said PN’s first Budget was not inclusive with many sectors left out, especially in terms of education, welfare assistance particularly for the unemployed, Covid-19 vaccine and prevention, aid for SMEs and non-Malay communities.
“The government’s mishandling of the current third wave of Covid-19 infections which have seen a record number of infections is not helped by the reduction in the Covid-19 fund from RM38 billion in 2020 to RM17 billion for 2021,” they said.
“There must now be a political reset to focus on building a more united Opposition grouping that can fight as one in the next general election.
“PH leaders must put aside past baggage so that PH can expand to PH Plus with a formidable force of 108 MPs. With 108 PH Plus MPs as a solid grouping, anything is still possible,” Lim and Mohamad said.
This figure would appear to include MPs from Warisan and Pejuang, led respectively by former Sabah chief minister Shafie Apdal and former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
Both leaders are at odds with Anwar.
Previously, it was reported that Anwar had offered to resign as opposition leader should he fail to prove he has the numbers in the Dewan Rakyat although some sources said he was convinced not to.
Meanwhile, a DAP lawmaker said the joint statement by Mohamad and Lim was merely to urge PH to set things right and move forward as a bigger coalition.
Last night, three DAP lawmakers said the opposition is in need of “new hope” after a poor showing in Parliament.