Form shadow cabinet, Upko urges Anwar
KOTA KINABALU: United Progressive Kinabalu Organisation (Upko) president Datuk Seri Wilfred Madius Tangau has called on opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim to form a shadow cabinet in the wake of the Emergency proclamation.
The Member of Parliament (MP) for Tuaran had also called on some of his ‘old friends’ in Barisan Nasional (BN) to unite with Anwar’s Pakatan Harapan (PH) Plus coalition.
“To the opposition leader, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, I plead with you to get a shadow cabinet organised within a week, and immediately work out the opposition’s alternative policies on the pandemic and economy.
“Please chair the PH Plus Shadow Cabinet’s first meeting next Wednesday, on Zoom,” he said in a statement on Wednesday.
Tangau said that PH Plus must now focus on offering better policies and delivery instead of making repeated attacks on Perikatan Nasional’s (PN) ‘backdoor government’ - to prepare PH Plus for the next elections.
“To my parliamentary colleagues Ahmad Jazlan, Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz, Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah and other old friends in BN who are abandoning (Prime Minister) Muhyiddin not because they have ongoing court cases, I urge you to join us in PH Plus to discuss alternative policies for postMuhyiddin and post-PN Malaysia.
“Whether we would sit next to each other in the future, as parliamentarians, we have a duty to offer workable and broad-based policies for millions of suffering Malaysians when the PM damages their livelihoods just to save his job,” said Tangau.
“I sincerely plead with Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and my wise friends in BN to work out alternative policies to save the economy from Muhyiddin’s Emergency,” he stressed further.
The former Deputy Chief Minister had also described Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin’s Emergency as an ‘irresponsible and desperate act’.
“By claiming business as usual and shutting down the Parliament and preventing elections, the Prime Minister is not fighting Covid-19,” he said.
Thus, Tangau opined that it is high time for the opposition to rise up to the occasion to be an alternative to the PN government.
“PH Plus must be ready to shoulder the responsibility to restore our economy when Muhyiddin’s adventurism and misgovernance cross the red line beyond what the Malaysian public and sober parliamentarians in the government can tolerate.
“That day will surely come. We just don’t know how soon. But when it comes, PH Plus must be ready,” he said.