Bersatu has no money to buy MPs – Faizal Azumu

SHAH ALAM - The government is accused of deliberately creating three sensational issues involving Perikatan Nasional (PN) to cover up various weaknesses in the unity government led by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

The three issues referred to by the Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) Deputy President Datuk Seri Ahmad Faizal Azumu were the Dubai Step, PN having RM1 billion in funds to buy MPs and attempt to bribe the Yang di-Pertuan Agong.

Faizal said that the action also aimed to divert the people's attention to the failure of the government to deal with various issues involving the interests of the country and the people.

The former Youth and Sports Minister also claimed that the sensational issue was deliberately designed to ease people's anger and concerns regarding the risk of misuse of personal data following the introduction of the Central Database Hub (Padu) and the actions of some DAP leaders who tried to interfere in Islamic religious affairs.

"I have also seen false accusations made by some government leaders that PN is trying to buy and bribe the Yang di-Pertuan Agong to make the Dubai Move a success, which is an insult to His Majesty and the royal institution.

"This is because everyone knows that the Yang di-Pertuan Agong has a higher position than political institutions, His Majesty has always been neutral and all the decisions he makes are based on the interests of the people according to His Majesty's own wisdom and discretion and cannot be bought.

"Thus, those who make reckless accusations and spread slander need to be investigated by the police regardless of rank and position in the civil government," he told Sinar yesterday.

Faizal said it was illogical when the government claimed that PN would spend up to RM1 billion to buy MPs so that they would retract support from Anwar, while the authorities froze their accounts.

Faizal claimed that PN, especially Bersatu, was struggling with various problems, especially the payment of workers' salaries following the actions of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) to freeze the party's accounts for the past few months.

"So how is it possible that we have a fund of RM1 billion to be used to buy the support of MPs," he said.

The former Tambun MP said that the current government should not be worried if they were confident that they provided the best service to look after the welfare of the people.