No invite for Muda as its not one of the ‘founding members’ - PM

SHAH ALAM - Malaysian United Democratic Alliance (Muda) was not invited to the newly established unity government secretariat meeting on Tuesday as it was not one of its "founding members" according to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

However Anwar said he would consider inviting Muda for future meetings.

“We explained before that the meeting was for the founding member parties but this matter will be brought up in the future.

“For future meetings, we will bring them in as they too are supporters of this government,” the Malay Mail reported.

Meanwhile, PKR deputy president Rafizi Ramli said only those who signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) which included coalitions with more than three Parliamentary seats: Pakatan Harapan (PH), Barisan Nasional (BN), Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS), Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) and Parti Warisan were present.

“The meeting was among the signatories of the agreement and while Muda is part of the unity government, it was only parties with three MPs and above that were a signatory,” he told reporters this morning at the launch of the World Bank’s Malaysia Economic Monitor February 2023 Edition “Expanding Malaysia's Digital Frontier”.

Yesterday, Muda secretary-general Amir Abd Hadi said Muda was among those who had signed the memorandum in December.

However, Muda only holds one federal seat in parliament, which is Syed Saddiq Abdul Rahman for Muar.

The unity government's first secretariat meeting was held on Feb 7 (Tuesday), and the meeting had agreed on setting up three committees to look into communication strategies and elections.

"They are the strategy committee, the election committee and the political agenda committee to focus and plan on state elections that will be held any time (this year)," Anwar told reporters after the meeting held at the Umno headquarters here.

He added that Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof was appointed as the Secretary General of the Unity Government Secretariat while the head of the secretariat will be Umno Youth Chief Datuk Dr Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki.

Anwar said that other party leaders will be members of the unity government leadership council.