PETALING JAYA,Mar 15: A group of Perikatan Nasional MPs aligned with Azmin Ali have questioned Pakatan Harapan’s silence on a prominent corruption case after the opposition had cast aspersions on three MPs from PKR who switched sides.

The 10 MPs, all former PKR members who joined PPBM, rejected claims of enticement and intimidation behind the defections, questioned why PKR secretary-general Saifuddin Nasution Ismail had kept silent when a corruption case involving a “prominent PH leader” was abruptly dropped halfway through trial.

The statement did not name the leader; however it appeared to be a reference to a 2018 case involving Lim Guan Eng of DAP.

The group rejected claims that opposition members were being subject to enticement and intimidation, describing the claims as “a completely unwarranted and scurrilous attack on the Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission and the police”, institutions which they said were held in the highest regard.

They said the accusations were seditious and called for swift action to be taken.

The group said the common denominator behind the defections by the three former PKR members was opposition leader and PKR president Anwar Ibrahim himself.

Over the past month, Julau MP Larry Sng, Tebrau MP Steven Choong, and Kuala Langat MP Xavier Jayakumar quit PKR and declared their support for Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin.

Those who left had been frustrated by Anwar’s divide and rule policy, and by nepotism and cronyism, which the group said had plunged the party into “self-destruct mode”.

They said Anwar must accept the fact that his leadership was rejected by a large part of his party, and that “power mongers” had hijacked PKR’s reform agenda for the benefit of their cronies.

“PKR, under the current formulation, can no longer claim to be championing the principles of justice and welfare for the people, having lost its idealism and gone astray largely because of the insatiable lust for power and ambition of one man to become prime minister,” they said.

The statement was signed by Azmin, Zuraida Kamaruddin, Saifuddin Abdullah, Mohd Rashid Hasnon, Kamarudin Jaffar, Mansor Othman, Edmund Santhara Kumar, Ali Biju, Willie Mongin and Jonathan Yasin, all former PKR members who have since joined PPBM.

Azmin, a former deputy president of PKR, was among those who broke away from Pakatan Harapan causing the collapse of the PH government in March 2020.

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