Rep denies talk of PKR members following ‘Mike Tyson’

KLANG: A Selangor PKR politician denied talk that he and his party members will follow Tan Sri Muhammad Muhammad Taib to join Umno.

“This is not true and it’s a fabrication,” said Sri Muda assemblyman Mat Shuhaimi Shafiei, who is political secretary to PKR deputy president Datuk Seri Azmin Ali.

He was commenting on an online news report which said Muhammad was supposed to appear with eight elected representatives with him at Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak’s press conference on Sunday. However, the report claimed that the defections were aborted at the 11th hour.

Mat Shuhaimi alleged Muhammad must have misled Najib into believing the defections would take place.

“He must have misled Najib into believing we would be tagging along with him to join Umno,” he added.

Besides Mat Shuhaimi and Azmin, who is Bukit Antarabangsa assemblyman, there are eight other Malay Selangor PKR assemblymen: Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail (Kajang), Dr Idris Ahmad (Ijok), Amiruddin Shari (Batu Caves), Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad ( Seri Setia), Haniza Mohamad Talha (Kg Medan), Yaakob Sapari (Kota Anggerik), Rodziah Ismail (Batu Tiga) and Dr Daroyah Alwi (Sementa).

Amiruddin, Nik Nazmi and Dr Daroyah are state exco members.

Muhammad joined PAS in 2013. But the former Selangor mentri besar, also known as Mat Taib or Mike Tyson, left to join PKR in 2015.

Mat Shuhaimi said Muhammad’s departure from PKR was not a big deal as he only played an “insignificant role” in the party.

State exco member Datuk Iskandar Samad of PAS also rubbished talk of a coup.

“It doesn’t make sense that he (Muhammad) could bring several state assemblymen with him to join Umno.”

Iskandar, who is PAS vice-president, claimed Najib’s announcement could be a sign that the Prime Minister had lost confidence in state Umno chief Tan Sri Noh Omar.

If the defections had taken place, there was a possibility of the Pakatan Harapan state government being overthrown with the formation of a joint state government made up of the eight defectors, 12 Barisan Nasional assemblymen, 13 PAS assemblymen and former mentri besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim, who is now an independent assemblyman.

The new alliance would have formed a 34-member state government in the 56-seat Selangor legislative assembly.