What did you promise Zahid and court cluster, Anwar asked

A former PKR politician has challenged the party’s chief Anwar Ibrahim to state what he promised Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, to the extent that the Umno president and others facing criminal charges had agreed to support him for the post of prime minister two years ago.

Seberang Jaya assemblyman Dr Afif Bahardin, who is now with Bersatu, made the call following the confirmation by Umno’s Pasir Salak MP Tajuddin Abdul Rahman yesterday that Zahid and former leader Najib Razak had urged other Umno MPs to throw their support behind Anwar’s bid for the top post.

“I urge the Port Dickson MP to justify his move to get support from the court cluster to enable him to become prime minister.

“What did he promise Zahid and the court cluster in order to fulfil his pathological obsession to become prime minister?” Afif said, referring to the term used for a group of Umno leaders who are facing scores of corruption and criminal charges involving billions of ringgit.

Tajuddin, who was recently sacked from Umno’s Supreme Council, said at a press conference yesterday that MPs from the party had signed statutory declarations in support of Anwar as prime minister despite its “No DAP, no Anwar” stand.

He said he himself had been reluctant to do so but ultimately agreed out of respect for Zahid as Umno president.

MalaysiaNow revealed in October 2020 that Zahid and former leader Najib Razak had written a joint letter to the palace expressing support for Anwar as prime minister.

In the letter dated Oct 11, addressed to Yang di-Pertuan Agong Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah, they said that they, along with “a group of Umno MPs”, were backing Anwar.

Perlis Umno veteran Shahidan Kassim, who was removed as state Umno chief in April 2021, later said that Zahid and his allies had been on a “signature drive” to gather support for Anwar from among the Umno MPs.

Wanita Umno exco member Shamsiah M Yassin also said that Zahid had approached the wing, asking them to support Anwar as prime minister.

In his statement today, Afif also questioned PKR and its ally DAP for their silence despite the confirmation that Anwar had been ready to accept support from tainted Umno leaders.

He said this showed a “sickening hypocrisy” on their part given the accusations which they had thrown at Perikatan Nasional.