12-09-2008: Anwar: Sept 16 deadline can’tbe met
by Pauline Puah
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KUALA LUMPUR: The Pakatan Rakyat (PR) will not be able to form the federal government on Sept 16, the coalition’s leaders’ council conceded yesterday. However, PR leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said the coalition’s credibility would not be damaged by its failure to meet its self-declared deadline.
“No. It would not be tarnished. Why should it be tarnished?” Anwar said in reply to a question after the PR leaders’ council met yesterday afternoon to discuss its plan of taking control of the government next Tuesday. The council revealed the situation in a statement after the meeting.
“If I say today I want to change the government, and suddenly they (Barisan Nasional) bring 50 MPs out (of the country), this would tarnish the image of people who take these people out,” he said when met at the Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) headquarters.
He denied that this was an excuse to let the PR off from its promise because it did not have a sufficient number of MPs who would cross over to the opposition coalition.
“This is what they (PR’s opponents) said. Time will tell. I am confident. They never agreed with us that we would ever win Penang, Selangor and Permatang Pauh with such a majority. People decide,” a confident-sounding Anwar replied.
Since the shock result of the March 8 general election, Anwar had been repeatedly saying that the opposition front had enough BN MPs who were ready to defect. He had set Sept 16, which is Malaysia Day, to form a new federal government.
The PR leaders’ council said in its statement that the setback to its plans was because some BN MPs were away in Taiwan.
However, the coalition was optimistic that the process of forming a new government based on the “reformasi” agenda was proceeding smoothly and that the BN government would be replaced in the “nearest possible time”.
It reiterated that it would get the number of MPs to form a majority in parliament and pave the way for a new government although the actual date would be delayed until after Malaysia Day.
The statement was jointly signed by Parti Keadilan Rakyat’s (PKR) secretary-general Datuk Salehuddin Hashim, DAP’s political education director Loke Siew Fook, and PAS secretary-general Datuk Kamarudin Jaffar.
On Monday and Tuesday, 49 BN backbenchers departed to Taiwan ostensibly for a study trip on its agricultural industry. They are due to return on Sept 17.
Political pundits believed that the trip was to prevent the BN parliamentarians from crossing over on Sept 16.
However, the backbenchers and BN leaders including Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and his deputy Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak, had strongly denied the trip had anything to do with the defection talk.
In a related development, PKR information chief Tian Chua said he was among four leaders that the party had assigned to fly to Taiwan today. The other leaders are vice-president Dr Lee Boon Chye, party strategist Saifuddin Nasution and election bureau deputy director Fuziah Salleh.
Chua said they would set up meetings with BN backbenchers “to sort out some issues with them”.
When asked about the trip later, Anwar brushed aside a suggestion that the PR had joined the political game of the BN which the coalition had earlier criticised.
“No (we’re not joining their game). Some of them want to meet us and discuss when they are thinking about the date (of defection). So I said ok, you can meet us. So we (will) send a few people there as we can’t afford to send 60,” he said wryly.
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