KUANTAN: PKR president Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has called upon voters in the Indera Mahkota parliamentary constituency to punish Datuk Seri Saifuddin Abdullah by voting him out in the 15th General Election(GE15).
The Pakatan Harapan (PH) chairman said Saifuddin contested and won the Indera Mahkota parliamentary seat during the GE14 under the PKR banner but decided to quit the party merely for his own personal interest.
"Saifuddin promised to protect the people's welfare (while in PKR) but betrayed the party to safeguard his position (as a member of parliament). People like him are not qualified to become a member of parliament. We are guided by proper principles but not people like this.
"During the last general election in 2018, I remember those who campaigned and supported us (in Indera Mahkota) were those from the B40 and M40 categories but how could you betray their trust?
"It would have been fine if he had left to voice out the people's problems, reduce the price of goods or try to secure investments but nothing had changed," he said during the 'president tour' rally at Beserah here last night.
Anwar said there is no room for traitors in Indera Mahkota as it has been in one's culture not to forgive those who betray or become greedy, and go on to be derailed from the party's original struggles.
Saifuddin, currently a caretaker foreign minister, won the Indera Mahkota seat in GE14 but later quit the party to Bersatu following the controversial Sheraton Move, which resulted in the collapse of the PH government in Feb 2020.
Under the leadership of the then prime minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin in March 2020, Saifuddin was appointed as the communications and multimedia minister before re-appointed as the foreign minister when Umno's Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob took over from Muhyiddin last year.
Meanwhile, on accusations that Armed Forces personnel were being paid RM300 for voting in the Bera parliamentary constituency, Anwar said he had proof and urged the Election Commission (EC) to probe into the matter.
"Ismail Sabri has replied that Anwar cannot simply accuse the personnel of receiving bribes. I have proof that cash notes were included for the Armed Forces personnel involved in postal voting in Bera," he said.
Earlier yesterday, Anwar claimed that there were Armed Forces personnel from the Bera parliamentary constituency who had been paid to vote in the GE15 which Ismail, who is the Bera parliament seat incumbent, dismissed as lies.
On Pahang, Anwar said PH had set its eyes on winning additional parliament seats to help PH secure the path to form the government.
"We must retain Kuantan and Indera Mahkota. There should be no problem in Bentong, we must win Raub and a few other seats," he said.
"When he (Saifuddin) was a minister he mobilised efforts for the ratification of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) in 2018.
"The people opposed this matter and then he tried to blame PH after joining PN. People do not forget that this is your movement with Waytha Moorthy (former national unity minister under the PH government)
"From the beginning, I have made it clear that this is not an urgent matter and we should be focusing mainly on the national economy for the development of Malaysians."