KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 14 — Jelutong MP RSN Rayer hit out at Muar MP Syed Saddiq Abdul Rahman for calling the unity government hypocrites.
He said Syed Saddiq has forgotten how the Pakatan Harapan (PH) machinery, its MPs and Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim had helped him and his party, the Malaysian United Democratic Alliance (Muda), to get to where they are now during previous elections.
Rayer compared Syed Saddiq to former ally Datuk Seri Salahuddin Ayub, whom he called a brother, a mentor and someone he could count on during times of turmoil, expressing his condolences and sadness at his demise.
He said unlike Salahuddin who was always loyal and would be there to back up his peers, Syed Saddiq had instead chosen to be disloyal, rude, and ungrateful.
“I am surprised that this MP has labelled us as hypocrites when we had been working together for almost five years. I just want to ask: We hear a former prime minister is using words like ‘pendatang’ and calling for all Tamil and Chinese schools to be shut down, but he calls us hypocrites?
“I’d like to ask: Does he have the courage to condemn this former prime minister who is saying these things? Not only that, the MPs who started the Sheraton Move like the MP from Pagoh. Does this MP (Syed Saddiq) have the courage to call Pagoh a hypocrite?
“Then there’s also an MP who keeps inciting the people to topple this government. And the MP from Muar dare call us hypocrites. Salahuddin’s demise made us realise what a true friend is, one who is willing to fight with us no matter what.
“Don’t ever act like the MP from Muar who forgot all the help PH members, MPs and the machinery who helped him win in Muar did for him,” he said during today’s debate of the 12th Malaysia Plan (12MP) Mid-Term Review (MTR) in Parliament.
Apart from that, Rayer said Indian superstar actor Rajinikanth was impressed with Anwar’s rise from a prisoner to a prime minister and expressed this when he visited Anwar on Monday at his office in Bangunan Perdana Putra in Putrajaya.
Rayer said like Rajinikanth, everyone should start calling Anwar “thalaivar”, which means the boss or the leader in Tamil.
“He (Rajinikanth) was proud of him (Anwar) as he always fought for the oppressed. Rajinikanth has known Anwar since the Reformasi days and said he was impressed at his rise and how he is now handling the country as its prime minister.
“As such, we have always called Rajinikanth ‘thalaivar’ and I feel this title should also go to the prime minister and we can also start addressing him as ‘thalaivar’,” he added.
Salahuddin, the former domestic trade and cost of living minister died at Hospital Sultanah Bahiyah in Alor Setar on July 23.
On Tuesday, Syed Saddiq called the current unity government “hypocrites” for lying about combating corruption after the Attorney General’s Chambers move to discontinue Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi’s trial.
He said he withdrew his support for the unity government and decided to be a “third force” in Malaysia’s politics by becoming an opposition party and said on Tuesday that granting Zahid his discharge not amounting to acquittal (DNAA) was the biggest lie the government had committed.
