KUALA LUMPUR, June 5 — Kedah Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Muhammad Sanusi Md Nor reportedly accused Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim of exploiting the poor in his bid to tackle hardcore poverty.
Malaysiakini reported Muhammad Sanusi claiming that Anwar has never been poor all his life.
“He talks about the poor, has he ever been poor? He is the son of an Umno leader — his father was an MP, and his mother was an Umno Women’s wing [member].
“He studied at Malay College Kuala Kangsar,” Sanusi was quoted by the news portal in his speech at Perikatan Nasional’s campaign held in Tanjong Karang, Selangor last night.
The PAS election director claimed that unlike Anwar, he knows what it feels like to be poor as he grew up in a hardcore poor family, where his father took up numerous jobs to support his family of 13 siblings.
“Don’t talk about poverty matters because you don’t know anything!
“You want to eradicate poverty... Don’t have to talk about it, ‘boss’. It’s just wishful thinking,” he reportedly said.
In response to a defamation suit filed by Anwar against him, Sanusi reportedly told Anwar not to be “a sensitive prime minister”.
“You’re not dealing with just one ‘Sanusi’, you have to face 32 million Malaysians, hundreds of foreign countries with their foreign policies against Malaysia. You have to deal with the actions of international intelligence that want to influence our foreign policies.
“We must be strong, our soul must be strong. You can’t sit around and be bitter about things,” he added.
Last year, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim filed a defamation lawsuit against Kedah Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Muhammad Sanusi Md Nor over the latter’s statements during the 15th general election (GE15) campaign.
In the lawsuit, Anwar claimed Sanusi had made the allegedly defamatory remarks in an election campaign speech around November 13 during the “PN Best Tambun Tour”, while supporting Perikatan Nasional’s Tambun candidate and then incumbent, Datuk Seri Ahmad Faizal Azumu.
