ZURAIDA Kamaruddin said she should not be labelled as a traitor for causing the fall of the Pakatan Harapan government in February 2020, and instead pointed her finger at the pact itself.

She said PH dug its own grave by not backing its then prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, which led to the collapse of their administration after just 22-months in power.

The Ampang contestant also said she was sacked from PKR before she moved to Bersatu during the Sheraton move, adding that it was unfair for her to be labelled as a traitor.

“Actually I was sacked,” she told The Malaysian Insight.

“I think they conveniently wanted to label someone as a traitor. Did we betray the nation or voters? They have to remember, as a parliamentarian, I was loyal to my voters.”

“My loyalty is to my voters, not the party. In the three terms as (Ampang) parliamentarian, I’ve done a good job for my constituency and for the people here,” she said as she prepared to defend her seat in a nine-corner fight on November 19.

Her former party PKR is working hard to win back the seat, saying that it had been unfairly taken away from the party with Zuraida’s defection along with 10 other party reps in 2020.

The former PKR vice-president, however, said she would leave it to God to judge her.

It was previously reported that Zuraida was sacked by PKR, along with the party deputy president Mohamed Azmin Ali, a day after they attended a dinner with leaders from rival parties at Sheraton Hotel, Petaling Jaya just days before the collapse of the PH government.

Nine other PKR lawmakers, along with Zuraida and then PKR deputy president Azmin Ali, later backed the Bersatu-led Perikatan Nasional government which also had Umno and PAS in it.

Months later they all all joined Bersatu, except for Baru Bian who decided to be an independent.

Zuraida was also a minister in the two governments that came after the PH administration.

In May this year, Zuraida quit Bersatu and applied to join PBM, which accepted her application the following month and then named her president-designate.

Dr Mahathir’s fall

Explaining the collapse of the PH government, Zuraida branded PH as the real traitors for not backing Dr Mahathir but instead throwing their support behind Anwar Ibrahim.

“Tun Mahathir hoped for a bigger mandate to reshuffle the cabinet but unfortunately when he met (Yang di-Pertuan) Agong, he resigned and automatically the government fell. If the prime minister resigns, the whole cabinet falls.”

“When Dr Mahathir resigned, we all supported him (to be prime minister again). He was happy because he got almost 100% backing and he said he wanted to form a unity government.

“He even expressed his intention to appoint ministers based on merit and not on political positions, even outlining his intention to appoint professionals.”

“Upon hearing this, the PH lawmakers didn’t vote for Dr Mahathir. They went on to vote for Anwar. So, the former could not become prime minister again as he only received 65 votes as compared to 90 votes for Anwar.

“So who are the traitors here? PH is,” she said.

Zuraida, the president-designate for PBM, said that she had backed Dr Mahathir all the way only for the latter to pull out, allowing them to vote for his successor Muhyiddin Yassin.

“When it came for the second voting, Dr Mahathir already gave way to Muhyiddin. So, we agreed to support Muhyiddin.”

“However, in the early hours (before Muhyiddin was installed as prime minister), I received a call saying Dr Mahathir has emerged as PH’s prime minister candidate.

“What are we supposed to do then? We have already given our statutory declaration backing Muhyiddin,” she said.

Signs of instability in PH govt

Zuraida also claimed that PH was already showing signs of instability with their administration, even losing several by-elections despite being the government of the day.

She outlined several reasons, including the persistent “nagging” of her then party president to become the prime minister.

“Why did the (PH) government fail? Because they had no unity, were not on the same page, they still had the opposition mindset. They didn’t know how to be a government.”

“At that time, they lost several by-elections. In fact, the people were the ones who elected them to become the government (in 2018) but we kept losing. Meaning the Malays, Chinese, Indians (already) didn’t like us at that time.

“Besides we had another human who constantly wanted to become prime minister.”

“That distracted (some of) us who were first timers in the government. We never had been ministers before and we wanted to learn but (the constant nagging) was difficult for us,” she said, referring to PKR president Anwar Ibrahim.

Zuraida, who had won her previous three elections under the PKR ticket, will be contesting under the PBM banner in the upcoming general election (GE).

She will face eight other opponents. They are Rodziah Ismail (Pakatan Harapan), Ivone Low Yi Wen (Barisan Nasional), Sasha Lyna Abdul Latif (PN), Dr Nurul Ashikin Mabahwi (Pejuang), Lai Wai Chong (Warisan) and three Independent candidates, M, Raveendran, Muhammad Shafiq Izwan Mohd Yunos and Tan Hua Meng.

The Ampang constituency is the second most crowded seat in the GE, with nine candidates, with the first being Batu constituency (10-way fight).

Zuraida is confident that the traitor label will not affect her in her campaign to retain the Ampang seat for the fourth-time.

“The voters see that as something personal. What the voters really look at is my performance to the constituency and what service I do for them,” she said.

Zuraida also said that her strong “branding” in Ampang will propel her to victory in GE15. – November 10, 2022.