PKR turncoats hint at more departures

Former Penang deputy chief minister Fairus Khairuddin has joined the BN chorus to drop hints about further defections in PKR.

 

Speaking to a crowd of 300 at a BN Youth event in Kuala Kubu Bahru yesterday, he hinted that the departure of the seven PKR Youth  Shah Alam members earlier in the day was only the beginning.

 

“There will be more leaving in the days to come. I heard up to 300 are quitting PKR,” said Fairuz, who last week deposited RM109, 000 with the Penang treasury to settle a loan he took to purchase a Mercedes Benz car while in office.

 

Yesterday, BN deputy chairperson Muhyiddin Yassin told reporters to expect a high-profile member of PKR to defect today, rocking the party’s campaign in Hulu Selangor.

 

Fariuz had maintained a low profile after quitting his government post in April last year, but recently began publicly attacking his former party-mates in PKR.

 

Relating his experience in PKR, he said condemned the party for practising the “politics of hatred and vengeance”.

 

“(PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim) is so hard up to become prime minister that he would not stop at any cost.

 

“If (former PKR MP) Zulkifli Noordin said there are little pharaohs in the party, I can tell you that the pharaohs are actually 10 times bigger (than what he described).”

He also apologised for joining the Reformasi movement in 1998,and the crowd magnanimously acknowledged this with cheers.

Another former PKR man and now Umno Youth exco Lukman Adam also joined the fray by implying that PKR strategist Tian Chua (right) and MP Wee Choo Keong may also jump ship.

 

“(Anwar’s wife and PKR president Dr) Wan Azizah (Wan Ismail) blew her top when she found out about (sodomy trial plaintiff) Saiful Bukhari’s police report and yelled at Anwar in front of others.

 

“So much so that (Chua and Wee) was compelled to leave the room. So I won’t be surprised if they too leave the party,” he said, to an audience that thinned as the night wore on.

No-show by speakers

 

The event, which promised to reveal the “true story” about PKR, left the audience underwhelmed as the headlining speakers were nowhere to be seen.

Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin, whose photo was printed largest in the posters promoting the event was a no-show, as was his MCA counterpart Wee Ka Siong.

 

Only MIC Youth chief T.Mohan fulfilled his promise to speak, while Wee was represented by MCA Youth information chief Kow Cheong Wei.

 

The event also saw BN slowing down on the morality campaign against PKR candidate Zaid Ibrahim, hitting out instead at Anwar and the allegation of sodomy against him.

 

In a two-prong attack against Anwar’s alleged sexuality and Israeli-Jewish connections, Lukman went as far as unearthing the background of Australian MP Michael Denby.

 

Denby had came out in support of Anwar over the sodomy charge by leading a group of Australian MPs to write a letter to the Malaysian government to condemn the charge.  

 

“(Denby) is an outright gay (person) and the president of the Jewish students club at university and the editor of the Australia-Israel Review . His assistant Adam Carr is the former editor of a magazine for homosexuals in Australia,” he said.

 

Anwar’s Jewish friends were also named to paint him as a hypocrite for attacking public relations firm Apco, whose involvement, Lukman said, was required to cleanse the country’s image.

 

Speakers also attacked Selangor government as incompetent and not fulfilling 2008 general election promises.

The Hulu Selangor by-election will be held on Sunday.