Photo: Bernama
KUANTAN: The Pakatan Harapan government faced crisis from day one when Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail objected to Lim Guan Eng's appointment as finance minister, reveals Datuk Seri Saifuddin Abdullah.
The former Pakatan secretariat chief said then PKR president Dr Wan Azizah was in the meeting on May 10, 2018, to discuss the formation of the government after GE14 when Lim offered himself for the Cabinet post of finance minister.
"Dr Wan Azizah objected. After a bit of consultation, Tun Dr Mahathir decided to appoint Lim as finance minister.
"It was then that Dr Wan Azizah packed up, stood up and tried to leave. I went to the door and told Dr Wan Azizah politely that there's a battalion of media waiting out there and if she leaves the room, the whole Pakatan will collapse today.
"She sat down and did not say anything for the rest of the meeting," he said on Thursday (Nov 17).
Saifuddin said he was revealing what transpired to point out the instability of Pakatan from day one.
"They were fighting among themselves and did not focus on the rakyat. This instability caused the Pakatan government to be a short-lived one," said Saifuddin, who is the Pahang Perikatan Nasional chairman.
When asked about Selangor Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Amirudin Shari's assertion that it was "traitors" such as Saifuddin who caused the instability in the first place, Saifuddin said the reality was a clash happened between two figures in Pakatan for 22 months.
"You know their names. One refused to let go of power, the other couldn't wait. That happened for 22 months.
"What I said was just the beginning. There was another meeting where PKR representatives were told to leave but as the Pakatan secretariat chief, how could I leave? I was berated for not leaving.
"There's so much more that we can write a novel," Saifuddin said, adding that he tried to save Pakatan but to no avail.
Saifuddin also called out Pakatan chairman Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and PKR deputy president Rafizi Ramli for their "personal attacks" against him.
"Pakatan had clearly run out of ideas and campaign capital until they resorted to attack me. It can be seen by Rafizi coming to Indera Mahkota twice to campaign and attack me.
"In his ceramah, Rafizi said he had wanted to come here for a long time. Strangely, why didn't Rafizi contest in Indera Mahkota and fight me? Then we could have seen a match between the two best speakers of Piala Perdana Menteri.
"Anwar also came to incite voters against me. The fact is they don't have a local candidate of calibre to fight me.
"Do you see me roaming to Pandan or Tambun to attack Rafizi and Anwar? No. Because that's not the way we campaign," he said.
Saifuddin, the incumbent Indera Mahkota MP, is contesting against Pakatan Harapan's Zuraidi Ismail, Barisan Nasional's Datuk Quek Tai Seong and Pejuang candidate Dr Mohamad Nor Sundari.
