By FMT staff
UPDATED KUALA LUMPUR: The Pakatan Rakyat coalition today challenged Bayan Baru MP Zahrain Mohamed Hashim to prove his allegations that opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim had made a pact with a deputy speaker to table a no-confidence vote against former prime minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.
Pakatan secretary-general Saifuddin Nasution Ismail said Zahrain must be brave enough to name the deputy speaker involved.
“I dare Zahrain to name the deputy speaker he is referring to. There are only two deputy speakers, Dr Wan Juanidi Tuanku Jaafar and Ronald Kiandee.
“Zahrain can ask both of them, which one was in cohorts with Anwar," he said on the sideline of the ongoing Parliament sitting today.
Also present at the press conference were Salahudin Ayub (PAS-Kubang Kerian), Jeff Ooi (DAP-Jelutong) and Liew Chin Tong (DAP-Bukit Bendera).
Back in the Dewan, Zahrain responded to the challenge by naming eight BN MPs who were close to cross over to Pakatan on Sept 16, 2008, but stopped short of identifying the deputy speaker.
He claimed that the BN MPs who were ready to defect were from Kalabakan (Abdul Ghapur Salleh), Kimanis (Anifah Aman), Kinabatangan (Bung Moktar Radin), Tawau (Dr Chua Soon Bui), Sepanggar (Eric Majimbun), Batu Pahat (Dr Puad Zakarshi), Jerantut (Tengku Azlan Ibni Sultan Abu Bakar) and Gua Musang (Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah).
And when Deputy Speaker Dr Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar asked who the deputy speaker was, Zahrain merely said, “You know, I know-lah.”
Zahrain, the former Penang PKR chairman, in his speech yesterday, "exposed" the reason behind his resignation from PKR. He said he left the party as Anwar had failed to overthrow the government through crossover of BN MPs by Sept 16, 2008, as promised. He said PKR members were led by Anwar into believing that he had the numbers to form the government.
He added they were told that the Yang di-Pertuan Agong was ready to give assent to the opposition to form the government. Zahrain also claimed that PKR members were led into believing that the chief of the armed forces had supported the opposition takeover of the government.
Paid by BN
In responding to Zahrain’s allegations, Saifuddin said: “In reference to his claims about the Yang di-Pertuan Agong and military support, again he is wrong.
“ Yes, we did write a letter, on Set 16, to the prime minister. We were asking for a special Parliament session to be convened.
“In this country only two people can call for a parliamentary sitting -- the king and the prime minister. The fact is that PR wrote to the PM and the letter was hand delivered by Sungai Petani MP Johari Abdul to the Prime Minister’s Department.
“If a power transfer were to take place, we will not choose the streets. We will go to Parliament.
“The fact that we wrote a letter asking for a special sitting proves that we want to go through Parliament, “ he said.
He also described Zahrain as a "BN mercenary soldier" paid by the Umno-BN to floor PR.
“Now there are mercenaries paid to hinder our movements. But we will not divert our focus.
“We will face these mercenaries one by one. It’s a small threat. Bayan Baru is a new character that is being thrust forward to expose PR’s many weaknesses.
"Pakatan Rakyat won’t look away. We will face Barisan Nasional, our number one enemy.,” he said.
He said Zahrain’s presentation now, compared to when he first became a PKR representative, had changed and proved that he was part of Umno-BN’s scheme to topple PR.
“Evaluating his speech yesterday, the change in him is obvious. In the two years he has been a PKR rep, he has never debated in a royal debate or budget discussions at a policy level or even at committee stage," he said.
The Datuk Seri title
Saifudin also took a swipe at Zahrain for accepting the 'Datuk Seri' honorific title through the recommendation of “chauvinist” chief minister Lim Guan Eng.
He said Zahrain had shamelssly written to Lim to ask for the title despite a party decision not to accept the honorary titles if awarded.
“It’s typical of Zahrain. He is the hypocrite. Zahrain chaired that meeting in Penang when it was decided that all Penang assemblymen would not accept the title of “Datuk” even if offered.
“And what does he do after that? He writes to the chief minister and asks for the title,” said the Machang MP.
After that, he said, Zahrain started attacking Lim by calling him a “hypocrite,” “chauvinist” and a “communist”.
PKR women's wing chief Zuraida Kamaruddin also weighed in to lash out at Zahrain by stating that his statements in parliament were figment of his own imagination.
"We have never heard all that before. He is like the character in the show Fantasy Island.
"If he was disappointed with Pakatan's failure on Sept 16, he should have resigned on Sept 17.
“Why did he wait until recently (to quit)? Why did he quit only after getting his Datukship and all the projects?" she asked.
Speaking to reporters at the Parliament lobby later, Zahrain denied that he was a "BN mercenary soldier" as he had been vocal even before he left PKR.
He also claimed that there was a link between online newspaper Malaysiakini and Raja Petra Kamaruddin's news portal with the opposition and urged the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission to probe into it.
