Claim that palace invited politicians to ‘save Malaysia’ turns out to be fake news

Renewed claims on social media as well as an Amanah-linked website that the Yang di-Pertuan Agong will be granting an audience to political party leaders to discuss a future administration appear to be baseless, MalaysiaNow can confirm.

This comes after the Amanah-linked portal said Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah had asked all party leaders to be present at the palace between June 9 and 11.

The website, which has since removed the report, quoted Amanah president Mohamad Sabu as saying that “something good” would be announced in the near future.

But a source familiar with meetings between the palace and political leaders during the emergency said the planned meeting was nothing out of the ordinary.

“This is just a routine audience. Claims that it is to discuss the formation of the government are just fake news,” the source said.

Speculation over the audience followed a request by former Umno man-turned-Amanah member Khairuddin Abu Hassan urging Sultan Abdullah to grant an audience to political leaders to find a solution to “save the country”.

When contacted, PKR information chief Fahmi Fadzil said he received no such information.

It is learnt that the meeting at the palace is to get feedback on issues related to efforts to fight Covid-19 as well as on the state of emergency.

Several opposition leaders are among 19 members of a bipartisan committee agreed on by the government, which is tasked with advising the Agong on measures to contain the Covid-19 pandemic throughout the virus emergency.