Fishing expedition - Fahmi slams report claiming Anwar has 10 Umno MPs' support
EDITOR'S NOTE: This article has been amended after it was clarified that Astro Awani had not received a response from the office of opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim as first reported.
PKR Communications director Fahmi Fadzil has blasted a report claiming that PKR president Anwar Ibrahim has obtained the support of 10 Umno MPs, including former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak and party president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.
Astro Awani has quoted a PKR source as saying that 10 Umno MPs has signed statutory declarations of support for Anwar...
EDITOR'S NOTE: This article has been amended after it was clarified that Astro Awani had not received a response from the office of opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim as first reported.
PKR Communications director Fahmi Fadzil has blasted a report claiming that PKR president Anwar Ibrahim has obtained the support of 10 Umno MPs, including former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak and party president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.
Astro Awani has quoted a PKR source as saying that 10 Umno MPs has signed statutory declarations of support for Anwar. They also reported that he was seeking an audience with the Agong to prove that he had the support of 113 MPs.
Fahmi, who is Lembah Pantai MP, questioned the news portal for running a story on a single unnamed source without confirmation or verification for the purpose of getting a denial.
He told Malaysiakini that more sources should have been obtained and that the whole episode made it look like a news portal had been manipulated by the PN government for the purpose of obtaining denials by its own MPs that they would support Anwar as prime minister.
"This is called the ‘fishing expedition’ tactic," he said on Twitter.
Earlier, PKR's Pasir Gudang MP Hassan Karim had said that Anwar would be within his rights to try and prove that he had the majority, particularly as the PN government was determined not to entertain 25 no-confidence motions and two motions of confidence in the administration of Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin.
Previously, Anwar was supposed to have had an audience with the Agong on Sept 22, a day before the opposition leader publicly claimed he had enough support to form a new government.
However, the meeting on Sept 22 was postponed as the Agong was undergoing treatment at the National Heart Institute (IJN) from Sept 21 till Oct 3.
He eventually met with the Agong on Oct 13, but the Istana Negara's comptroller of the royal household Ahmad Fadil Shamsuddin said Anwar did not provide the names of the MPs who are supporting him during his audience with the Yang di-Pertuan Agong.
"During the session, which lasted about 25 minutes, Anwar presented the total number of members of the Dewan Rakyat who purportedly supported him.
"However, he did not furnish the names of these Dewan Rakyat members to strengthen his claim," he added.
Meanwhile, Kimanis MP Mohamad Alamin denied that he is one of the Umno lawmakers who is purportedly supporting Anwar.
"I deny signing any statutory declaration to support Anwar as the prime minister," he said.
Mohamad added that he is considering legal action against such claims.
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