Karpal asks Anwar to step down
By Manjit Kaur, The Star
Pakatan Rakyat de facto leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim should step down for causing trouble in the coalition, DAP national chairman Karpal Singh said.
The Bukit Gelugor MP is blaming Anwar for "creating trouble," and said that the former deputy prime minister "needed to repent without further betraying the people and their trust."
He said Pakatan Rakyat needed another leader, a good leader, and lashed out at PKR and DAP leaders who had fallen sway to Anwar's rhetoric in supporting crossovers of elected representatives.
"I am not getting the support from my own party leaders, neither party adviser Lim Kit Siang nor secretary-general Lim Guan Eng, on the party-hopping issue.
"It seems that they are supporting Anwar instead of me. I am the party chairman, don't push me too far as I still have the support of the rank and file,'' he told a press conference at his office near here Sunday.
Asked if he was thinking of calling for an emergency meeting on the future of the party in the coalition, Karpal Singh said he was thinking of doing so.
"I can't fight the DAP cause alone. What I am saying is the truth, and eventually the truth prevails. I have said before that DAP should seriously consider getting out of the coalition and I repeat my stand once again today.
"Party-hopping can never be justified as it can be compared with one murdering the very parents who were responsible for one's birth merely upon one reaching adulthood,'' he added.
He said he was confounded by how Anwar could have openly espoused and encouraged crossovers after the people gave a resounding mandate to the Pakatan Rakyat during the last elections.
He noted that Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak had said that it was Anwar who started it all (party-hopping), but added that two wrongs could never make a right.
"For the record Barisan Nasional had accepted crossovers from DAP as far back as 1969, and therefore it is hypocritical for the Deputy Prime Minister to place the blame on Anwar, who in fact joined Barisan in 1981 and rose from the ranks to become the Prime Minister-in-waiting just before his expulsion from the party in 1998.
"I only hope he (Anwar) did not learn of the morality or rather immorality of political kangaroos hopping from the opposition to Barisan during the time he was in government.
"In the public interest, and in particular in the interest of Pakatan Rakyat, Anwar has a lot to answer for in creating the woes of the coalition now,'' he added.
On the police reports lodged against him by George Town Penang Umno Youth leaders for questioning the rights of the Malay Rulers, Karpal Singh he warned those who have made these reports of the consequences of lodging false reports.
"I am warning them of the consequences … . Enough is enough, if they want trouble then they have come to the right place," he said in a firm tone.
Karpal said there was nothing illegal or unlawful in what he had stated in relation to the Sultan of Perak being subject to the due process of law, and that he can be sued in court for dismissing the Pakatan Rakyat state government in his official capacity.
"It has been in my view and I reiterate that view that the Sultan of Perak had acted 'ultra vires' to the provisions of Article 16(6) of the Perak Constitution,'' he added.
Anwar is widely credited with knitting the different parties in Pakatan — PKR, DAP and PAS — into the coherent opposition that swept five states from under Barisan Nasional's feet in the 12th general election last March.
Barisan was also denied a two-thirds majority in Parliament.
However, he spent much of his efforts after that attempting to engineer a massive defection of 31 Members of Parliament (MPs) from Barisan to the opposition, promising a Federal Government takeover by Sept 16 last year.
When that mass defection did not take place, he asked his supporters to be patient, saying it would come.
In the meantime, Anwar had become an MP after his wife and PKR president Datin Seri Dr Wan Azizah Ismail her seat in Permatang Pauh. This paved the way for the former deputy prime minister's return to parliament after his triumph in the ensuing by-election.
He then became the official Opposition leader.
On Jan 22, Anwar trumpeted the defection of Bota state assemblyman Datuk Nasarudin Hashim who quit Umno to join PKR. Less than 10 days later, Nasarudin jumped ship again to rejoin Umno.
This led to Barisan and Pakatan both holding 28 seats each in the state legislative assembly.
This "double hop," plus the resignations of DAP assemblyman Hee Yit Foong (Jelapang), and PKR assemblymen Mohd Osman Mohd Jailu (Changkat Jering) and Jamaluddin Mohd Radzi (Behrang), led to Barisan declaring it had the majority.
While the three declared they would remain independent, they also swore allegiance to Barisan, which led to Sultan Azlan Shah declaring Barisan the legitimate state government and declining Pakatan's call to dissolve the state assembly and hold fresh elections.
PKR last year had proposed restoring some of the legal immunities to the royal families.
