Opposition must be united, stop chasing shadows, said Guan Eng and Mat Sabu

KUALA LUMPUR: Two leaders of Pakatan Harapan (PH) have suggested that the coalition make a political shift to unite the entire opposition bloc.

Parti Amanah Negara (Amanah) president Mohamad Sabu and DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng in a joint statement stressed that it was time for the opposition bloc to unite in building strength together on the path of a joint struggle.

Mohamad and Guan Eng stressed that the Budget 2021 vote on Tuesday has taught PH not to waste energy chasing shadows and not to waste time with opportunistic government MPs.

According to the Kota Raja and Bagan MPs, the group was only using PH for personal gain in order to obtain a more lucrative offer from the Perikatan Nasional (PN) government.

"PH must face this reality that there is a need for a political shift again to focus on uniting our friends among the opposition MPs who stood with us on Tuesday.

"PH should not waste time with opportunistic government MPs who are only using PH for their own personal gain in pursuing a more lucrative offer from the PN government," said the two leaders.

Last Tuesday, the 2021 Budget was passed with a razor-thin majority of three votes when 111 MPs supported while 108 others rejected.

Mohamad and Guan Eng, in describing last Tuesday as a disappointing day for PH leaders and supporters who hope the 2021 Budget can be defeated at its third reading in Parliament, said efforts should now focus on steps to enable PH to reclaim the mandate of the people won in the 2018 election.

"PH has expressed support for Opposition Leader, (Datuk Seri) Anwar Ibrahim as the prime ministerial candidate and that he can get support from government MPs provided they are not kleptocratic MPs, especially (Datuk Seri) Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and (Datuk Seri) Najib Razak.

"None of the government MPs voted with PH, including those who allegedly support Anwar.

"It is clear that the MPs of this government are very good at political games to reap the benefits and make a profit from the PN government," they said.

When the 2021 Budget was voted at the policy stage on November 26, only 13 MPs, including Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, rose to demand a bloc vote.

Other PH MPs did not get up because they followed Anwar's last-minute instructions on the grounds that they had a strategy to reject the 2021 Budget at the committee stage and the third reading.

However, after 10 days of debating and voting, all allocations of 27 ministries were passed even though some ministries faced bloc votes.