KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 2 — Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim made an appeal to fence sitters to come out and vote during the 15th general election (GE15), asking them to support Pakatan Harapan (PH) so they can begin fixing the country and rid it of corruption.

He said PH will be steadfast in upholding its manifesto so that recurring issues such as political turmoil, a rapid turnover of government and constant threats can be avoided.

Anwar said he felt that PH was leading in the polls at the moment and hopes that with the announcement of its manifesto today, the coalition will be able to convince people to go out and vote for them.

"There is a general consensus that PH is leading. What I can do now is appeal particularly to the fence sitter to give us this mandate so that we are not given ultimatums and threats post elections. So that we are free to guide and save this country from endemic corruption and abuse of power,” he told members of the media after the launch of the PH manifesto themed "Tawaran Harapan” in Klang today.

"We begin by looking at the state of the economy and gradually implement reforms, but our commitment stands, and I am more optimistic (with PH) the International Monetary Fund and Treasury can recuperate billions of ringgit if we begin by implementing proper policies and strictly adhere to them. With no abscondment of funds, I’m confident we can save at least around RM30-40 billion.”

"We should also reduce the perks of leaders and reinvigorate the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), making it independent. We can save billions right away.”

When talking about the challenges PH faces in trying to win the fence-sitter vote, he said its rivals always fell on the tired trope of using race and religion to scare the Bumiputera into thinking the Opposition were trampling on their rights.

The other difficulty in convincing the voters is the alleged abuse of the media by the ruling government; hence, penetrating the rural areas to spread the information is crucial, he added.

"The narrative here is more complex as there is a tendency for Bersatu, Umno and PAS to obsess over issues of race and religion. They instil fear in the Malays by claiming we are taking away their rights and promoting the Chinese whom they claim are a threat to them.

"Once we are able to consolidate the urban and suburban base the next step would be the level of news that can penetrate these rural areas. I’ve already seen one or two starting to repeat the style of news Umno had been doing when they controlled the media in the last two decades,” he added.

"Their news is biased. This is a big challenge for us and why we must ensure fair play and we ask the media not to be subservient to the powerful.”