Bung Moktar: Umno need not worry about Saifuddin

PETALING JAYA: Umno need not be worried about Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah joining PKR, said Kinabatangan MP Datuk Bung Moktar Radin. 

“I can’t see any reason why Umno would be affected by Saifuddin because he was among the leaders who lost in the previous general election,” the party supreme council member said in a Twitter post on Friday. 

In his tweet, Bung attached an image of the quote that had been attributed to him. 

 

Saifuddin, who is former deputy higher education minister and Umno supreme council member, joined PKR on Thursday as he felt that he no longer fit in with Barisan Nasional. 

He said he was attracted to PKR’s multi-racial model as opposed to Umno’s communal-based politics. 

However, former PKR leader Datuk Zaid Ibrahim had warned Saifuddin to tread carefully and to “play it safe” in his new party.

Zaid, who joined PKR in 2009 but left a year later, said he had doubts as to whether the former Umno member could make the Opposition pact stronger.

Saifuddin’s switch to PKR comes after he was recently issued a show-cause letter by Umno for attending a roundtable discussion of Opposition parties on Sept 21.

 

Umno secretary-general Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor questioned Saifuddin’s motives for attending the discussion, which resulted in the formation of Pakatan Harapan, although the latter had claimed that he was there in his capacity as an NGO leader.

Saifuddin had always been hailed as a moderate Umno leader, but he lost his Temerloh parliamentary seat to PAS in the previous general election in 2013, as well as his seat on the supreme council the same year.