DEWAN Rakyat Speaker Tan Sri Azhar Azizan Harun has come under fire for his reported labelling of former prime minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin as an “overlooked reformist”.
“I’m not clear on what Azhar meant. What is he smoking?” Free Malaysia Today (FMT) quoted Klang MP Charles Santiago as saying after Azhar’s remarks at a book launch.
Yesterday (July 29), Azhar had praised Muhyiddin’s political achievements, his work as home minister and his efforts as prime minister in leading the initial fight against COVID-19.
“Muhyiddin… is a reformer, whose reformation efforts many choose to overlook, for whatever reason they may have,” Azhar said last night when launching the ‘Muhyiddin Yassin: Leading a Nation in Unprecedented Crisis’ book, Malaysiakini reported.
Azhar recalled how Muhyiddin was removed as then-prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s deputy in 2015 following the former’s criticism of the latter over the 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) scandal.
He also cited Muhyiddin’s co-founding of Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (PPBM), whose Malay voter base helped Pakatan Harapan (Pakatan) win the 14th General Elections.
Azhar, better known as Art Harun, described this comeback as a “modern tale of David and Goliath”.
Santiago, however, said it was because of Muhyiddin and Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali – the two “big architects” of Langkah Sheraton – that the Pakatan Government fell in 2020.
The so-called Sheratan Move saw lawmakers from the then-opposition and a faction of PKR MPs led by Azmin, the then-party deputy president, joining forces to take over federal power.
“So how can people who spat on the people’s mandate be considered reformers?” the DAP lawmaker asked, FMT reported.
“No substantial changes”
Santiago also rubbished Azhar’s remarks about Muhyiddin’s attempts as home minister in the Pakatan Government to review “unsuitable” laws.
These include the controversial Sedition Act 1948, the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012 (SOSMA) and Prevention of Crime Act (POCA) 1959.
No “substantial changes” were brought to these laws, Santiago said, and “there isn’t much he can speak of” about reforms during his tenure as Pakatan home minister.
The same with reforms from when he was prime minister, he added, saying that Muhyiddin only proposed reforms when he was about to be removed from his position in August 2021 and needed bipartisan support to stay in power.
For the record, the use of the Sedition Act, SOSMA and POCA was suspended by Pakatan in 2018, pending reviews of these laws. Muhyiddin was home minister at the time.
However, after the Seafield temple riots in December that year, the Cabinet granted an exemption to use the Sedition Act to deal with the situation, which saw the death of a fireman amid racial clashes.
Azhar, the former Election Commission (EC) chairman, also said Muhyiddin was concerned about reforms in the EC, even after Azhar left the post to become Dewan Rakyat speaker.
Azhar was proposed by Muhyiddin to become speaker of the lower house in 2020.
In his speech last night, he added it was Muhyiddin who pushed him to take up the EC chairmanship in 2018. – July 30, 2022
