Fahmi Fadzil tells Muhyiddin to stop condemning PM Anwar over new Cabinet line-up

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 3 — Pakatan Harapan (PH) communications director Fahmi Fadzil today said that Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin should stop polemic attacks and outrageous accusations against Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim over his new Cabinet line-up.

“Maybe Muhyiddin forgot, but this is not PH government where the prime minister can appoint whoever he wants. This is a unity government that is formed jointly, where important policies or decisions will be made in consultation, including the appointment of Cabinet ministers,” he said in a Facebook post.

Fahmi said that the change was necessary in order to avoid mistakes that have occurred in every administration since 2018, where the appointment of the Cabinet is often made not according to the party's main leadership.

“At that time, we witnessed the Cartel groups in the party being weaponised and creating a ‘party within a party’ situation which ultimately damaged the internal political stability of the party,” he explained.

Earlier today Muhyiddin, the Perikatan Nasional (PN) president, via his Twitter posting accused Anwar of forming a kleptocracy Cabinet by appointing Barisan Nasional (BN) president Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi as the deputy prime minister despite the latter still facing 47 ongoing corruption charges.

Muhyiddin also slammed Anwar for helming the Finance Ministry portfolio, which he described as a practice that could lead to the centralisation of power and large-scale misappropriation as happened in the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) scandal.

Fahmi said Muhyiddin should not get angry or throw accusations at the prime minister as it was not he who decided the candidates from other parties or coalitions.

Fahmi also stressed that the prime minister's commitment to the unity government will not in any way interfere with judicial affairs of any case.

“It is important for us to remember that Muhyiddin himself had many issues that may need to be investigated in the future, including the 1BestariNet issue and the RM500 billion fund issue that is said to have been spent during the pandemic period,” he said.