Meeting of minds Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, who is also Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) President, excanging thoughts with party leaders at the PKR national congress held at Putrajaya International Convention Centre. — Bernama
PUTRAJAYA: Claims that Bersatu MPs were “bribed” for switching allegiance to the unity government are not true, says Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
Anwar also denied meeting the Bersatu MPs to get their support in Parliament.
“They said we bribed them; no there isn’t any. I did not meet them. When they asked for a meeting, I said make a decision first, then only you can meet,” said Anwar during his winding up speech at the PKR national congress at Putrajaya International Convention Centre (PICC) yesterday. He said the four Bersatu MPs decided to support the unity government after seeing good economic growth in the country.
“They saw economic developments and for allocations, we have never touched the salaries of elected representatives,” added Anwar.
Anwar said development allocations still continued and it is done in a different manner now where such funds do not go through MPs.
“We will channel these funds directly to the people themselves.
“Why do we want to transfer these funds to MPs who are insulting and trying to topple us?” questioned Anwar.
Over the recent weeks, four Bersatu MPs have switched their allegiance to Anwar, namely Kuala Kangsar MP Datuk Iskandar Dzulkarnain Abdul Khalid, Labuan MP Datuk Dr Suhaili Abdul Rahman, Gua Musang MP Mohd Azizi Abu Naim and Jeli MP Zahari Kechik.
Iskandar and Suhaili said they switched allegiance to Anwar to gain extra allocations for their constituencies.
Zahari and Mohd Azizi also said they supported the unity government to ensure constituency development funds are channelled to their respective constituencies.
Bersatu leaders have claimed that there were agents who were enticing MPs to switch allegiance.
However, the four Bersatu MPs who declared support for Anwar, denied it and stated that they supported the government on their own free will.
