Perikatan Nasional (PN) may pull out from the Government and withdraw its support for Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri as prime minister.
The PN leadership had previously expressed their frustration with Ismail Sabri’s Government over his reluctance to honour the agreement to appoint a deputy prime minister from Bersatu, according to a report by The Star.
Things took an unexpected turn after a meeting between a PN delegation and Ismail Sabri which was scheduled to take place at 2.30pm on Thursday (Aug 4) was abruptly cancelled the night before by the Prime Minister’s Office.
The delegation comprised Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainuddin and Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali from Bersatu and Datuk Seri Takiyuddin Hassan and Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Samsuri Mokhtar from PAS.
According to the report, a well-placed Bersatu source said that the aborted meeting would have been a last-ditch effort to press the prime minister regarding the memorandum of agreement (MOA) signed between him and Bersatu president Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin in August 2021.
The report also mentioned that the Bersatu supreme council on Tuesday was “generally in agreement” that a withdrawal of support was necessary if Ismail Sabri could not be persuaded to keep his word.
In addition to the agreement, the report further suggested that Bersatu leaders were unhappy with other aspects of Ismail Sabri’s leadership.
The report also cited Bersatu deputy president Datuk Seri Ahmad Faizal Azumu as saying that he was “less bothered about the DPM issue than the fact that development allocations meant to help the rakyat had been withheld from Bersatu politicians”.
“This is very unfair. They are trying to cut off our influence on the ground but it is hurting the rakyat,” the Youth and Sports Minister told The Star.
Other grouses involve the recent purge of Bersatu politicians from government-linked corporations (GLCs), among them Bersatu information chief Wan Saiful Wan Jan who was recently removed as chairperson of the National Higher Education Fund Corporation (PTPTN). – Aug 5, 2022
