THE “carrot and stick” approach employed by Perikatan Nasional (PN) to induce lawmakers to switch sides is straight from the playbook of former Bersatu chairman Dr Mahathir Mohamad, said Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad.

The PKR chief organising secretary said the former prime minister used the same tactics to persuade Umno MPs to join Bersatu when Pakatan Harapan (PH) was in power.

“It is the same method. I think somewhere in (Prime Minister) Muhyiddin Yassin’s cupboard, (there’s) a Bersatu playbook that says this is how you run things,” the Setiawangsa MP said in an exclusive interview with The Malaysian Insight today.

PKR has accused the minority PN government of employing the police, Inland Revenue Board and Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) to intimidate opposition MPs into defecting.

At the same time, these parliamentarians were also allegedly offered financial inducements to make the crossover.

In recent weeks, three PKR lawmakers left the party to become independent lawmakers backing Muhyiddin and PN.

They are Xavier Jayakumar (Kuala Langat), Larry Sng (Julau) and Steven Choong (Tebrau).

They make up a total of 15 PKR MPs who have quit the party since February last year, when new alliances were formed to topple the PH government.

Nik Nazmi said Mahathir pulled Umno MPs to join Bersatu to consolidate his position as the prime minister because the latter’s party then only won 13 parliamentary seats in the 14th general elections.

At that time Bersatu had the least number of MPs in the then ruling coalition, before another 13 MPs crossed-over from Umno.

“Mahathir pulled Umno MPs to secure his position as PM.

“I publicly voiced my opposition towards it then. There was no need at that time because we won and had the majority in parliament but I also heard that some were threatened with MACC cases and what not,” he said.

He pointed out that those who switched allegiances from Umno to support Mahathir under the previous government showed no loyalty to him later on when they turned their backs on him to back Muhyiddin in forming the PN government.

Mahathir has since moved on and formed a new opposition party, Pejuang, in August 2020 with a faction that split from Bersatu.

Umno feeling the heat

Nik Nazmi said that Umno was now facing the heat because despite having the greatest number of MPs in the current government, it was Bersatu with the least MPs that was controlling the leadership and being the decision-makers.

“Umno is also feeling the heat under Muhyiddin. It’s like the tail wagging the dog.

“They (Bersatu) are a small party and they get (to be) the prime minister, they control everything, and they decide on the ministers without referring to the parties.

“PKR went through the same (with our former leaders). As ministers under PH, they hardly bothered turning up for party meetings because they felt they didn’t owe their position to their party but they owed it to Mahathir.

“So, it’s the same model being done today (by Bersatu),” Nik Nazmi said.

Nik Nazmi also said that with the defections from PKR, only Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail and Saifuddin Nasution Ismail were the remaining PKR members of the previous PH cabinet.

On Tuesday, PKR president and opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim said that the ruling pact should stop its intimidation of opposition lawmakers to discard their loyalty to their own parties.

However, Bersatu MPs who had defected from PKR last year said that the allegations of PN using bribery, intimidation and/or rewards to gain the support of PH lawmakers were baseless. – March 19, 2021.