Amanah against Harapan decision not to work with GTA

An Amanah leader has expressed his confusion over Pakatan Harapan’s decision not to work with Gerakan Tanah Air (GTA) in the 15th general election (GE15).

Amanah communications director Khalid Abdul Samad said his party’s stand has always been for all opposition parties to work together in the Nov 19 polls.

“As you know, Pejuang chairperson Dr Mahathir Mohamad (above, seated middle) has made an appeal to meet up with Harapan but, unfortunately, the Harapan leadership decided against it.

“For something which I cannot understand, there is a strong rejection, particularly from PKR,” he said.

Khalid said his party’s stand has always been to have a united opposition and not to belittle any political party which has the people’s support.

This includes Syed Saddiq Abdul Rahman-led Muda and Mahathir-led Pejuang, the latter of which is in the Gerakan Tanah Air (GTA) coalition.

“But I think Amanah’s stand has not been accepted for whatever reason. Pejuang’s suggestion and request to meet have been rejected.

“There is no reason why we can’t work together in the election,” he said.

Khalid, the incumbent Shah Alam MP, was speaking to the media at the PKR headquarters in Petaling Jaya, Selangor today.

He was attending a Harapan committee meeting on seat allocations with PSM and Muda today.

He added that his party will adhere to the decision made by Harapan.

“Amanah has to abide by Harapan’s decision as we don’t want to end up breaking up. We have to give priority to Harapan,” he said.

Pact shut down

Yesterday, Harapan secretary-general Saifuddin Nasution Ismail said the coalition was prepared to face the polls without Pejuang or Mahathir.

This came after Mahathir said he was prepared to meet Harapan chairperson Anwar Ibrahim to explore the possibility of forming a political pact.

Previously, Anwar implied that there might still be an opportunity to cooperate with Mahathir and Bersatu president Muhyiddin Yassin.

However, other coalition partners swiftly dismissed it, saying it was not even remotely possible.

Harapan supporters are generally wary of Mahathir because evidence suggests he was not genuine in fulfilling his promise to hand over the premiership to Anwar when the former led the Harapan federal administration.

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