Enough is enough: Anwar tells Sabahans to reject patronage politics at the ballot box

KOTA KINABALU: Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim kicked off Sabah PKR's election machinery by urging Sabahans to send a clear signal to Perikatan Nasional that Malaysians had enough of patronage politics.

"What is the government's focus? It's about how to increase rewards for MPs so they don't run away.

"You have an opportunity at this coming state election to send a clear message – enough is enough," he said to thunderous applause from Sabah PKR members at the launch of its election machinery at the Sabah International Convention Centre on Saturday (Sept 5).

He said as Malaysia faces an unprecedented economic fallout due to Covid-19 , the country is being led by a government with a slim majority.

"Even the Prime Minister (Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin) can't have a restful sleep. His focus is to take care of MPs and leaders – we have never had so many ministers in history.

"This is to maintain power, not about caring for the people," he said, adding that unemployment had affected almost a million people in Sabah.

"When unemployment affects almost a million people, Perikatan's job is to increase the amount of GLC appointments," he added.

With the Warisan-Plus led state government yet to decide on the use of a single logo to use during the 16th state polls, Anwar brought up the fact that the PKR logo was used during GE14, leading to Pakatan Harapan's victory.

"It is the PKR's flag that won them... 52% of the votes," he added.

Meanwhile, Anwar said he would speak with Warisan president Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal about seat allocations on Sunday (Sept 6) morning.

"It is PKR's responsibility to ensure fair and just seat allocations together with our partners – Warisan, DAP, and Upko," he said.

Anwar said his job is to ensure he is able to represent the aspirations of the party leadership to other component parties.

"This is so we can work better and give a guarantee to our friends that we will do our best to ensure everyone together with us wins."

Earlier on Saturday (Sept 5), Shafie, during an event at Keningau, had said that Warisan would name its candidates by Sept 10.