Raja Petra: Anwar the cause of Pakatan Rakyat’s downfall
Controversial blogger says Anwar’s ‘agree to disagree’ policy and failure to deal with issues like hudud led to Pakatan Rakyat’s demise.
(FMT) – Controversial blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin has defended his attacks against Anwar Ibrahim, saying it was the jailed former Opposition leader who first declared war on him.
In an interview with the New Straits Times, Raja Petra said he had predicted that Anwar’s “agree to disagree” policy and his refusal to resolve many issues within the Opposition, such as hudud, would lead to Pakatan Rakyat’s demise.
“And for that he attacked me. And now have I not been proven right? Has Pakatan Rakyat not disintegrated?”
“So why can’t I oppose Anwar when he is the cause of the disaster and when I had already warned him, and then he declared war on me because I had brought this matter up.”
He stressed that since it was Anwar who declared war on him, he had the right to respond just as Prime Minister Najib Razak could respond to the fierce attacks by former Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
“So tell me, what is the issue here? Others can whack you, but you must just take it and not hit back? What is wrong with these Opposition people?”
He also said the Opposition had become a circus, and cited the outburst of Amanah President Mohamad Sabu at the Sungai Buloh rally recently and the meeting between Mahfuz Omar of PAS and Mahathir to remove Najib while the DAP was trying to destroy PAS and party President Abdul Hadi Awang.
He also mentioned the statement by PAS Deputy President Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man that the Islamist party would never work with Umno because the latter refused to support the implementation of hudud.
“Is this the Opposition you are telling me to support?”
He said only circus clowns would work for a circus and that he was not a circus clown.
“I would like to believe I have better brains than that.”
Raja Petra left Malaysia in February 2009 and has been living in Manchester ever since in self-imposed exile, where he continues to run his Malaysia Today website.
