Umno supreme council member Mohd Puad Zarkashi told the Kuala Lumpur High Court today he was approached by former PKR secretary-general Saifuddin Nasution Ismail in 2008 to defect and support the opposition.

This included making Anwar Ibrahim the prime minister.

Puad said Saifuddin contacted him in his hotel room in Taiwan about 2am while he (Saifuddin) was staying in the same hotel that 30 BN MPs were in.

He was testifying in the RM100 million defamation suit filed by Anwar against Foreign Minister Anifah Aman.

"I asked Saifuddin how come he knew my hotel room as he had directed the hotel management to keep the matter private and he (Saifuddin) replied he got help from a Taiwan lawmaker," Puad said.

"I told him I will be loyal to BN and he would not be able to influence me or the other MPS who were with me in Taiwan," Puad added in response to questions from Anifah's lawyer, Muhammad Shafee Abdullah.

He said Saifuddin ( left ) was with PKR vice-presidents Tian Chua (Batu MP) and Fuziah Salleh (Kuantan MP) in Taiwan.

Puad, who was former deputy education minister and former Batu Pahat MP, said ‎the MPs then checked out from the hotel room and went to Macau to prevent the opposition from approaching the BN lawmakers.

Puad, who was also BN backbenchers club deputy chairperson, said although the Taiwan trip was labelled as a “study tour” it was in fact to prevent opposition MPs from contacting the BN lawmakers.

 

“At that time, those who did not follow the programme would be suspected of possibly jumping to the opposition. We left several days before Sept 16,” he said.

 

Puad, who was the seventh defence witness, said Saifuddin in the phone conversation wanted to meet him in his hotel room for a discussion.

The then PKR secretary-general said he had met with Abdul Ghapur Salleh (Kalabakan), Mohd Nasir Ibrahim Fikri (Kuala Nerus), and Richard Riot (Serian) who were possible candidates to defect.

 

However, Puad stood firm to remain with BN. Before the conversation ended, Saifuddin also asked for Ismail Kassim's (Arau) room number, but Puad declined to give it.

He said they returned to Malaysia on Sept 18 after there was no change in government.

'Defections inevitable'

The next day, Puad said "Anwar's man" Abdul Rahim Ghouse contacted him and they met in Batu Pahat in the early morning.

“Rahim and I met at a stall in the Batu Pahat bus station on Jalan Omar. He said defections were inevitable in the coming weeks.

"He wanted me to jump ship as Pak Lah (then prime minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi) had lost the majority voice and several BN MPs had signed a letter of agreement to support Anwar as PM,” he said.

 

“Rahim claimed 30 BN MPs would jump and Anwar ( right ) would meet the then Ynag di-Pertuan Agong to present that he had the majority voice. Rahim then called Anwar and I talked to him.

"The opposition leader said ‘Puad, we have enough numbers and it’s going to happen. But we still need a Malay MP from Johor like you to be with us,” he said.

 

'Guidance in dream'

He said Anwar also told him that Pakatan had the support of four sultans to take the federal government and named them as the Perlis, Perak, Terengganu and Selangor rulers.

 

“I asked Anwar about protecting the Malay agenda and Anwar replied he would protect it. I told Anwar that I am a Johorean and Umno was born in Johor. If I signed the agreement letter, the (Johor) sultan would be angry, and would order me to leave Johor.

 

“I told Anwar I want to perform the solat istiqarah (prayer to find guidance) at home and I got guidance in a dream. Rahim contacted me again about noon.

"I told him to tell Anwar, if the federal government falls, then let it be, I am prepared to be part of the opposition but I will not sign the letter,” he said.

 

Puad said he then left for Acheh until Sept 25, 2008, as he did not want to be disturbed.

 

The witness also told the court that he knew corporate figure Ishak Ismail well as he had performed the haj with him in 2010, 2011 and 2012.

 

“He is known as Anwar's crony,” said Puad. 

 

Anifah had testified that Ishak had offered him RM100 million to bring in 10 BN MPs to defect.

Following the foreign minister's controversial testimony, Ishak denied making the offer and challenged Anifah to repeat the statement outside court.

On being asked further by Shafee ( left ), the Umno Supreme Council member said former Bayan Baru MP, Zahrain Hashim, had referred to his name in Parliament as one of those who had been approached by Anwar.

 

However, he said, as reported in Utusan Malaysia , he had declined the offer.

 

Anwar's lawyer Ranjit Singh said they will cross-examine Puad at the next session as he had to seek instructions from Saifuddin and Rahim following their names being raised.

 

Following this, Judicial Commissioner Siti Khadijah Hassan Badjenid fixed Dec 26 for the hearing to continue.