PERIKATAN Nasional (PN) will reveal its shadow cabinet next week, Bersatu youth chief Wan Ahmad Fayhsal Wan Ahmad Kamal said today.

In radio station BFM’s The Breakfast Grille talk show this morning, the Machang MP said it would not be a cabinet as most people understand it to be.

“It won’t be a shadow cabinet per se.”

He said it will not assign individual parliamentarians to a portfolio or ministry.

The former national unity deputy minister in the Ismail Sabri Yaakob administration said instead, a “cluster” of MPs – two to three – would be assigned to a portfolio or ministry.

Wan Fayhsal said he is uncertain if he would be assigned to his former portfolio but he would have a key role in the shadow cabinet.

“We are going to be a disciplined opposition, to keep the checks and balances in place.”

He added that PN will use their position as the opposition wisely.

On PN’s rejection of the offer to be part of Anwar Ibrahim’s unity government, Wan Fayhsal said that was not a disappointment to him and the coalition.

He said instead it is a “a blessing in disguise”.

“We do not want to be in cahoots with Barisan Nasional (BN) and Zahid Hamidi,” he said in reference to the corruption-tainted coalition led by Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, the Umno president who is still on trial over graft and money-laundering charges.

Zahid is now a deputy prime minister in the unity government.

Wan Fayhsal said PH and BN, in coming together to form the unity government, had committed the “biggest electoral fraud” in the country.

“All the election promises made by the PH and the BN are now all lies,” he said.

On allegations against PAS, Bersatu’s main partner in PN, that its religious extremism is causing unease, particularly in East Malaysia, Wan Fayhsal said it was an “unfair, baseless” social media campaign against the Islamist party.

He said if PN was the government, it would govern the country fairly and respect the rights of the minority.

The minority, he added, should also understand the position of the majority.

“We are not far right”. – December 13, 2022.