KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 3 — Umno supreme council member Datuk Mohd Puad Zarkashi has poured cold water on the latest claim that 10 MPs from his party will switch their support to Perikatan Nasional (PN), enabling the federal Opposition to take Putrajaya after it won yesterday’s Kemaman parliamentary by-election.
Puad made a barbed jibe at the Bersatu man Datuk Seri Mohd Redzuan Md Yusof who made the allegation.
“For as long as the flying car seemed impossible to take flight, then the 10 MPs will also seem implausible of ‘flying’ to PN,” the Rengit assemblyman posted on his Facebook account yesterday.
Redzuan had been entrepreneur development minister in the 2018-2022 Pakatan Harapan government led by Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad who made headlines for touting in 2019 that Malaysia would soon have a “flying car” that would cut travel between Kuala Lumpur and Penang to just one hour.
Redzuan was reported by several news portals yesterday that his assertions were not baseless as his party leaders were in talks with several individuals, without identifying anyone to support his claim.
Terengganu Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Ahmad Samsuri Mokhtar from PAS — a PN component party — ran for and won the Kemaman parliamentary by-election yesterday by a 37,000-vote majority, boosting the federal Opposition coalition’s confidence that it can oust the Anwar administration from power, despite a recent swing in support from five Bersatu MPs.
Last week, Bukit Gantang MP Datuk Syed Abu Hussin Hafiz Syed Abdul Fasal became the fifth Bersatu federal lawmaker to declare his support for Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
His party mates who have done so since October are Kuala Kangsar MP Datuk Iskandar Dzulkarnain, Labuan MP Datuk Suhaili Abdul Rahman, Jeli MP Zahari Kechik and Gua Musang MP Mohd Azizi Abu Naim.
Counting Syed Abu Hussin, Anwar now has the support of 153 out of 222 MPs in Parliament compared to PN which has 69.
