KUALA LUMPUR: Opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has admitted that he had sent a letter to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong Tuanku Mizan Zainal Abidin on Sept 19, 2008 to seek an audience to claim a majority of MPs to the opposition to form a government.
Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim
Anwar made the admission when he interrupted a speech by Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz in the Dewan Rakyat on Thursday when he was speaking on the motion of thanks for the King’s speech for the present Parliament session.
“On Sept 18, I received agreement by opposition leaders, to write to the Prime Minister Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to have a special session of Parliament to debate a no-confidence on him and his leadership.
“It would be impossible for me to write the letter if I did not get the consent of other MPs, an after it was rejected, I wrote to the Speaker and it was still rejected…and later to Tuanku Mizan,” he said.
The revelation by Anwar caused chaos in the Dewan Rakyat for some time.
Anwar however refused to reveal the names of BN MPs who he claimed wanted to jump ship.
Mohamed Nazri said Anwar would have really sent a letter to the King if he could get between 20-30 BN MPs hop over.
Mohamed Nazri said the claim that many BN MPs would jump ship was not true, whereas more opposition MPs wanted to be independent.
He said allegations that BN gave incentives to opposition MPs to join the BN was not true. He said BN did not need to steal opposition MPs as the coalition had enough seats. — Bernama