DAP youth secretary Eric Teh Hoong Keat needs to be more respectful even if he disagrees with instructions from the Pakatan Harapan leadership, said Anwar Ibrahim’s political secretary.

Teh’s proposal to part ways with PKR and reorganise the opposition will only split its ranks, said Farhash Wafa Salvador Rizal Mubarak.

“If this is the mentality, what is the point of trusting leaders?” said Farhash, who is the Perak PKR chief.

Teh yesterday demanded that Anwar, who is the opposition leader, apologise over his last-minute directive to MPs that led to Budget 2021 being passed at the policy stage.

If Anwar fails to apologise, DAP should consider parting ways with PKR and reshuffle the opposition bloc, Teh said.

“Anwar has admitted that he ordered DAP and PKR to reject the bloc voting request for Budget 2021. So, he has to take full responsibility and apologise for his mistake to PH supporters.

“He had the opportunity to rekindle the spirit of PH in Parliament, but yesterday, he failed. This has caused a public relations crisis, shattered PH’s credibility, and extinguished the fire of reform among the people,” Teh said in a statement.

Budget 2021 was passed at the policy stage through a voice vote after the opposition failed to get the 15 MPs to stand up and trigger bloc voting, handing Perikatan Nasional a moral victory.

Anwar admitted on Thursday that he had asked MPs to sit down instead of standing up in an effort to trigger a divisional vote.

The Port Dickson MP said Budget 2021 will still be debated at the committee stage on Monday.

Farhash urged PKR MPs as well as PH to back Anwar, saying the budget is yet to be approved and efforts are still ongoing to scrutinise it.

“We are only taking long-term measures. We hope the people will understand and be patient for now.

“We must ensure the welfare of the people is guaranteed at the same time, restoring the people’s mandate.”

Sharing Farhash’s sentiment is Selangor PKR youth chief Najwan Halimi, who said it’s unfair to blame Anwar for the incident in Parliament.

The Kota Anggerik assemblyman said Teh should not go overboard with his statements without first referring to DAP leaders.

“We need to appreciate that the effort is not easy. Harapan lost power when Anwar did not hold any position in the cabinet during its 22 months in power.

“It is very unfair for Anwar to have to shoulder all the burden when his hands and legs were tied.

“The fact is Anwar has dedicated more than 20 years to the struggle to strengthen the opposition coalition,” Najwan said in a statement. – November 28, 2020.