We never thought Agong would ask us to ‘marry’ each other, Azalina jokes of alliance with Loke

PETALING JAYA, July 11 — DAP secretary-general Anthony Loke and Umno’s Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said today teased each other over their respective parties turn from political enemies to allies now in the government.

Speaking at a forum, Loke referred to his coalition Pakatan Harapan’s (PH) first meeting with Barisan Nasional (BN) after the hung Parliament resulting from the 15th general elections (GE15) as their “first date” — drawing a response from Azalina.

“As my brother Loke said, we were asked to go on a ‘date’ and we may liked each other, but we never thought we would be asked to get ‘married’ by the King. So, we got married lah.

“Now after ‘marriage’ we’re trying to get to know each other,” she said to laughter from the audience of the forum on “Political Stability in Hung Parliament” at Sunway University here.

She also appeared to tease Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia’s Datuk Seri Saifuddin Abdullah, saying that he had “previously divorced” her and that he now “wants her back”.

“Unfortunately the guy on my left had been with me for so long and ‘sleeping’ with me, and then he suddenly decides to leave me. But now he wants to come back to me,” she said, to cheers from the audience.

Saifuddin was previously in Umno where he was a party Supreme Council member, before leaving it for PKR and again to Bersatu.

Azalina also said that the government had only been in power for seven months, which would have been only long enough for a premature-term baby, joking that ideally a parent would want a full-term baby.

She added that the public must remember that for those in politics: “There are no permanent friends and no permanent enemies, just permanent interests”.

The last general election saw an unprecedented result as no political side managed to get a simple majority of 112 seats to form the federal government.

Five days after Election Day, Malaysia finally formed a government after Yang di-Pertuan Agong summoned PH’s Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim to lead a coalition government with BN, Gabungan Parti Sarawak, and Gabungan Rakyat Sabah.