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KUALA LUMPUR – Malaysia’s opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim said on Thursday (October 8) that the king, Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin, granted him a hearing next Tuesday on his claims that he has secured a formidable majority among the elected parliamentary representatives of the country to form a new government.
A meeting scheduled for September 22 was postponed after the monarch fell ill, Datuk Seri Anwar said in a statement.
“At the meeting, I will present documentation from the strong and convincing majority of MPs as I mentioned earlier,” he said.
Anwar, 73, in an explosive announcement three weeks ago, declared that he had secured the support of the majority of parliamentarians to replace the embattled administration of Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, who was appointed prime minister in early March.
He took office after the former Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition government headed by Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, which included Anwar’s Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR), collapsed following a series of defections by elected representatives, including the PKR.
Anwar’s late-September bid to form the government was quickly backed by allies of the Democratic Action Party (DAP) and Parti Amanah Negara, who were also in the PH, and subsequently gained more traction after Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, the President. del Umno, longtime chairman of the Barisan Nasional coalition, declared that he would not prevent lawmakers under his office from backing the opposition leader’s attempt to seize control of the government.
Anwar has yet to publicly declare the extent of his support among the country’s 222 elected parliamentary representatives. His initial attempt to do so was thwarted because the King was unexpectedly rushed to hospital for food poisoning and sports injuries. Sultan Abdullah was released from the hospital on October 2.
Prominent PKR sources say the palace has set various conditions for a takeover, including a minimum majority of 118 lawmakers in the lower house, to justify a hearing.
Under the country’s Constitution, the King, whose position is rotated among the heads of the country’s nine royal houses every five years, has the exclusive prerogative to appoint the prime minister who he believes has the majority support of the deputies.
“The King is very detailed and meticulous. He (Anwar) wouldn’t get the meeting if he didn’t have the numbers, ”said a longtime Anwar associate who is directly involved in the opposition leader’s current campaign for prime minister, a position that has eluded him. since the late 1990s when he had a spectacular fight with former Prime Minister Mahathir.
Anwar, who as deputy prime minister was one step away from the top job, was eventually jailed twice.
He currently leads the PH coalition with 91 elected representatives, and senior PKR sources confirm that he has received support for his attempt to wrest power from factions within Umno, particularly MPs aligned with Zahid and former Prime Minister Najib Razak. , who have clashed with Tan. Sri Muhyiddin. Elected representatives from the eastern Malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak are also supporting the move, PKR sources said.
Muhyiddin, who undergoes a self-quarantine after a cabinet minister tested positive for Covid-19, has yet to comment on Anwar’s hearing with the King next week.
But businessmen close to the prime minister said his already tenuous grip on power has come under great pressure in recent weeks due to open disagreements with Umno leaders.
Umno, with 39 elected representatives, dominates the current pact underpinning the Perikatan Nasional government led by Muhyiddin, which only has a two-seat majority in Parliament.
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