SHAH ALAM – Two of the six Bersatu members of parliament (MPs) who declared support for Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim deny claims that the party’s deputy president Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainuddin influenced them to leave the party.
Labuan MP Datuk Dr Suhaili Abdul Rahman and Bukit Gantang MP Datuk Syed Abu Hussin Hafiz Syed Abdul Fasal also dismissed remarks by Bersatu co-founder Datuk Seri Mohd Redzuan Md Yusof as “a lie.”
Suhaili said Hamzah, who is also Opposition Leader, was never involved nor aware of his and five other Bersatu MPs’ decision to back the unity government.
Earlier reports stated that besides Suhaili and Syed Abu Hussin, the other four Bersatu MPs who had declared support for Anwar were Zahari Kechik (Jeli), Mohd Azizi Abu Naim (Gua Musang), Datuk Iskandar Dzulkarnain Abdul Khalid (Kuala Kangsar) and Datuk Dr Zulkafperi Hanapi (Tanjong Karang).
“Pak Wan’s (Mohd Redzuan’s) statement is untrue and a lie,” Suhaili told Sinar on Wednesday.
“Hamzah was never involved with our initiative to support the Prime Minister and leave Bersatu. He had no idea that we were determined to support the Madani government.”
Their clarification came amid Bersatu’s ongoing internal turmoil, as Hamzah was reportedly under scrutiny by the party’s disciplinary board following the recent expulsion of Tasek Gelugor MP Datuk Dr Wan Saiful Wan Jan and the suspension of Machang MP Wan Ahmad Fayshal Wan Ahmad Kamal.
Bersatu had been facing internal strife after claims surfaced that some of its leaders had signed statutory declarations urging party president Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin to step down.
On Nov 1, a letter signed by 16 MPs was revealed to have been submitted to Muhyiddin, expressing serious concern over the party’s growing internal crisis.
In the letter, dated Oct 23, they also criticised the disciplinary action against Wan Saiful and Wan Ahmad Fayshal as an unwise move.
Meanwhile, Syed Abu Hussin admitted that Hamzah had long harboured intentions to remove Muhyiddin from his position as party president.
However, he stressed that Hamzah refused to act openly against Muhyiddin, preferring instead to exert indirect pressure on the Perikatan Nasional (PN) chairman to step down voluntarily.
“He wanted to topple Muhyiddin, but he didn’t want to fight him.
“I once asked him about Muhyiddin and he said Muhyiddin had issues with the monarchy and the Sarawak government. So I told him I would meet Muhyiddin to ask him to resign as president.
“But he told me not to. Hamzah’s game was that he wanted to remove Muhyiddin, but without confrontation. He only wanted to apply pressure for Muhyiddin to step down. In the end, Muhyiddin did not resign,” he said.
Despite Hamzah’s personal ambitions, Syed Abu Hussin agreed with Suhaili that Hamzah had never acted as an intermediary to persuade the six Bersatu MPs, including himself, to shift their support to the unity government.
“(Pak Wan’s claim) is completely false. I once met Datuk Hamzah to inform him that I was considering leaving the party. He told me not to and said the PN would take over the government by December 2023. But that clearly never happened.
“My colleagues and I could not wait any longer because we needed parliamentary allocations to serve our constituencies,” he said.