THREE opposition Members of Parliament from DAP claimed that they have been approached to defect to Perikatan Nasional (PN) in return for hefty sums of money and ministerial positions. 

The three are Ipoh Barat MP M. Kula Segaran, Kota Melaka MP Khoo Poay Tiong and Bandar Kuching MP Dr Kelvin Yii. 

All three received the same message from an unknown phone number stating that there were monetary and cabinet ministerial offers on the table, should they agree to switch allegiance. 

“Step out of the shadow of the Lim family… we need more non-Malay representation in the government,” the message read, in which ‘Lim’ in the message is believed to be referring to DAP stalwart Lim Kit Siang and his son and party secretary-general Lim Guan Eng. 

The offer for the two vacant ministerial positions comes after two Umno MPs resigned from Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin’s cabinet in the past week. 

The two are Dr Noraini Ahmad, who resigned as the higher education minister yesterday and Dr Shamsul Anuar Nasarah, who quit his post as the energy and natural resource minister on Tuesday.

Their resignations come after Umno decided withdraw support for Muhyiddin and the government.

All three DAP lawmakers took to social media to share the text message received.

Apart from ministerial posts, the MPs were also offered “durian RM30” in the message.

It is unclear what “durian RM30” signifies in the message but it is believed to be monetary compensation, as the sender had said “payment will be made immediately and in cash terms”.

Kula said his secretary had today proceeded to lodge a police report on the WhatsApp message received. 

He said that the PN government should be ashamed to still be clinging to power despite their failure in managing the Covid-19 pandemic. 

“It doesn’t surprise me that PN is so desperate to keep power that they are approaching MPs to bribe them. But are they not ashamed about their mismanagement and absolute failure to lead the nation out of the Covid-19 pandemic?” he said in a statement today. 

Kula said he will remain with DAP and will not support the Muhyiddin-led government. 

“After the PN government took power via backdoor, all 42 DAP MPs stayed loyal to the party. Rain or shine, we will stay put in DAP and our MPs are not for sale. I must make that clear,” he said. 

Meanwhile, Khoo agreeing with Kula’s statement, jokingly said, “Kota Melaka is not for sale”, referring to himself, who is the MP for the constituency.

Yii, on the other hand, said “our worth is calculated in durians now” on Twitter.

Muhyiddin’s position as prime minister looked increasingly precarious after Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said he had presented the Yang di-Pertuan Agong with a list of names of Umno MPs who had agreed to withdraw support for Muhyiddin. 

Despite such claims, Muhyiddin said that he would not resign and instead face a confidence vote in the September Parliament sitting. 

Muhyiddin said he was aware that eight Umno MPs had informed Dewan Rakyat speaker Azhar Harun that the prime minister no longer had their backing. – August 7, 2021.