Pakatan denies Anwar promised Kit Siang DPM post
By Shazwan Mustafa Kamal, The Malaysian Insider
Pakatan Rakyat (PR) leaders have denied that DAP’s Lim Kit Siang was offered the deputy prime minister’s post should the opposition bloc take over Putrajaya in the upcoming general elections.
PR leaders claimed that there had not even been any discussions on the matter, and accused Barisan Nasional (BN) of spinning tall tales to “create tension” among the component parties within PR.
“The matter has never been discussed. I have no knowledge on the matter. Utusan is shooting blank bullets I suspect to create some form of tension in PR,” Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang told The Malaysian Insider.
The PAS president said that such an important decision would not have been made without consulting other leaders in the PR’s leadership council.
Hadi’s remarks come as a response to an Utusan Malaysia article yesterday claiming that Anwar had said last week that Kit Siang would be DPM if PR came into federal power.
The Utusan article had apparently quoted a Sin Chew Daily interview with the PR de facto leader on November 26.
“Pakatan upholds a democratic system, therefore having a Chinese person as deputy prime minister is not against the federal constitution and is not against the interests of Malays,” the article had quoted Anwar as saying.
The article claimed that the DAP leader would play a role in “helping assist the duties of Prime Minister which will of course be held by Anwar.”
DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng echoed Hadi’s remarks, saying that the issue was never raised during PR’s leadership meetings.
