Not advisable to accept axed Umno members experts caution Anwar
Pakatan Harapan (PH) Presiden Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim
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The National Council of Professors' senior fellow Prof Datuk Dr Jeniri Amir opined that the unity government would be in a risky position if Anwar accepted the dismissed Umno members.
"If Anwar accepts Umno former youth chief Khairy and others, that will put the unity government in a risky position.
"It will also create tension between Umno and PKR, I don't think Umno president Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi will be happy with that.
"What's more important for Anwar and the PH government is to ensure stability within government," he told Sinar Daily.
Commenting further, Singapore Institute of International Affairs senior fellow Dr Oh Ei Sun said it was not wise to accept fired members from another component party in the same coalition.
"In principle, it is not nice for a component party to accept fired members from another component party in the same coalition, as this would harm the comity between the component parties, unless there are compelling reasons, such as the fired members in question may switch to the opposing camp and thus cause heavy damage to the coalition.
"They might do similar things to PH as they did to Umno, so Anwar should adopt a wait-and-see attitude.
"Probably parking them under some PH parties or accepting new parties as part of PH could be an option," he opined.
Meanwhile, Universiti Putra Malaysia political analyst Datuk Prof Dr Jayum said that Pakatan Harapan (PH) president Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim should be elected if he wants to bring over some of the sacked Umno members.
Jayum opined that former Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin and former Umno vice president Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein would be "good catches," but Anwar has to be more cautious if he decides to take them in.
"Khairy is seen as an emerging strong politician who has great potential to be a leader. For this reason, Anwar has to be cautious about admitting them into the coalition party.
"Giving them top positions in the party will demoralise those who have been with Anwar through thick and thin all these years," he said.
When asked about the possibility of a "problem" in the unity government, Jayum said such a move would only strengthen PKR.
"I do not see personalities such as Khairy Jamaluddin and Hishamudin Hussein as troublemakers.
They have been loyal Umno members who, in the end, could not bear to see Umno go down.
"Bringing sacked but established leaders from Umno is but one strategy to strengthen PKR.
"Those who already join PKR will have to work harder to accept, and in the process, this could be a good thing," he reasoned.
Yesterday, Anwar said that he is ready to consider accepting the dismissed Umno leaders to join the coalition party.
However, he said that the participation needs to get the views of other leaders to maintain the harmony of the Unity Government.
He further said his party has so far not received any requests to join the component parties in PH.
