TWO Pakatan Harapan leaders today called for a “political reset” for the opposition after the divisive Budget 2021 vote on Tuesday.

In a joint statement, Amanah president Mohamad Sabu and DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng said the opposition should unite instead of infighting to take down Perikatan Nasional.

“This is the reality that PH must face, the need for a political reset to focus on uniting our friends among the opposition MPs who stood by us on Tuesday,” the duo said in a statement today.

Both leaders signalled to PH chairman and opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim to stop courting the lawmakers from the government, mainly Umno, to jump ship or pledge support for him.

“PH should not be wasting time on opportunistic government backbenchers exploiting PH for their own private benefit to get more and more lucrative deals from the PN government.

“Instead, that time and resources should be spent on our friends and allies that can seek common cause for the rakyat based on principles of sound democratic values, good governance, anti-corruption and economic progress and social justice,” they said.

The infighting among the opposition lies with Anwar’s PKR and Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s yet-to-be-registered Pejuang party.

On November 26, Dr Mahathir and 12 others stood up to call for a division vote in the budget but Anwar did not support the move, asking the rest of the opposition to sit down.

Anwar later claimed he had a strategy to defeat the budget by defeating the vote for various ministries individually.

However, PH lost all the votes with Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin getting allocations approved for all 29 ministries.

On Tuesday, the budget was passed with 111-108 votes.

Mohamad and Lim said the focus now should be on solidifying the PH+ opposition bloc of 108 MPs, including the 92 from PH and those from Warisan, Pejuang and two independents.

“In other words, instead of 92 PH allied MPs, PH should widen our horizon to concentrate on the 108 opposition MPs, which is PH Plus.

“The budget vote on Tuesday has taught us not to lose our energy on seeking the mirage of more than 111 MPs based only on PH’s core of 92 MPs. Should the 108 MPs be the base instead, how much stronger then will be PH Plus,” they said.

The duo also stressed the opposition can achieve many things if the 108 MPs were solid without any support from those in Barisan Nasional and PN. – December 17, 2020.