PETALING JAYA: A DAP Youth leader has called for severing ties with PKR, automatically disbanding Pakatan Harapan (PH), if Anwar Ibrahim does not apologise for abandoning opposition to the second reading of the federal budget.
DAP Youth national secretary Teh Hoong Keat said many Pakatan Harapan MPs had strongly criticised the budget as unjust and insufficient to deal with the national health and economic crisis.
Some MPs even said they would “resolutely oppose” the budget, giving people the impression that the budget could possibly be rejected.
However, the failure of PH to muster 15 MPs to force a bloc vote meant that Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin’s government had “passed the test” when the Supply Bill 2021 was approved for a second reading.
Teh said the failure to hold a bloc vote was the DAP’s biggest humiliation in the Dewan Rakyat.
“Since Anwar admitted that he instructed MPs from PKR and DAP not to call for a bloc vote, he must take full responsibility for his misjudgement and apologise to all PH supporters,” Teh said.
“If Anwar is still insistent that his judgment was correct, then the DAP central leaders should decisively sever ties with PKR, put a stop to the alliance to automatically disband Pakatan Harapan, and only maintain minimal cooperation with opposition parties,” he said in a statement.
Earlier this evening, Anwar revealed that DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng and Amanah president Mohamad Sabu had been keen to push for a bloc vote on the federal budget but that he had requested against it.
Anwar, who is opposition leader and PKR president, said the move was to allow MPs to scrutinise the budget in detail.
Teh said Anwar had had the opportunity to restore and boost the morale of PH, especially after repeatedly claiming he had secured a strong majority of support from MPs to be able to form a new government.
The budget failure had brought about “a serious political public relations crisis that dismantled the credibility of PH and extinguished rakyat’s passion and hope for reforms”, he said.
Teh said that the DAP, as the largest political party in the Dewan Rakyat, should contest on its own at the next general election, and negotiate with other political parties to form alliances and a government only after the elections.
“Through this mechanism, DAP can avoid being used and ‘kidnapped’ by other component parties,” he said.