Sept 16 deadline on track , says Anwar

PETALING JAYA, July 23 – Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said the September 16 deadline to wrest power from the present government was still on track despite being momentarily derailed.

He was speaking at the press conference to announce the crossovers of three veteran Umno leaders to Parti Keadilan Rakyat today.

‘No, no, we're not changing the deadline. Pakatan Rakyat will form the government by consensus. I did say I'm the prime minister-in-waiting. Some of my friends said that it was a blunder. I know you're eager, so am I,’ said the charismatic politician.

Anwar also announced that he was planning to contest in a by-election for the parliamentary constituency of Kulim-Bandar Baru in Kedah, depending on the court hearing due on Aug 16.

The seat currently held by PKR's Zulkifli Noordin is being petitioned in court by BN candidate Datuk Abdul Aziz Sheikh Fadzir on the grounds that Zulkifli had failed to submit his statement of expenditure from his 2004 general election campaign.

Under the Election Act, candidates who do not submit their statement of expenditure to the Election Commission can be disqualified from contesting in future elections.

Anwar said he had discussed the matter with Zulkifli who was prepared to make way for the PKR de facto leader. At the same time, he also did not deny the possibility of a resignations by other Pakatan Rakyat parliamentarians to force another by-election elsewhere.

Datuk Fauzi Abdul Rahman, a former deputy minister during Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad's administration who is also former Kuantan Umno division chief, is one of the three Umno veterans who announced their entry into PKR today.

Fauzi is also the son of renowned educationist Abdul Rahman Talib whose Rahman Education Report resulted in the Education Act 1961 which made Bahasa Malaysia a compulsory subject in schools.

‘The loss of Barisan Nasional in the recent general election is the people's gain. I want to be a part of it,’ he told reporters at the PKR headquarters here this afternoon.

He also said his long-standing friendship with Anwar helped convince him to cross over. Fauzi claimed that towards the end of 1990s after Dr Mahathir sacked Anwar from the government and Umno, the then premier tried to convince him that the former deputy prime minister was a sodomist.

‘Once I was called up by Dr Mahathir as he wanted me to say that I believed Anwar to be a sodomist. I was the only one, the odd one out, who said I wouldn't do it. As you all know, if I had agreed with the prime minister, I'd be a full minister today.’

On the claim that ‘only outcasts join PKR’, Fauzi rebutted swiftly: ‘I'm not an Umno outcast!’

The 61-year-old Umno veteran added: ‘Umno is a good party, like a good ship. But like a good ship, if it's in the hands of a drunk pilot, it will sink!’

The other two former Umno leaders who switched parties are Dr Hadi Derani, an ex-Umno division chief for Kota Setar in Kedah and Datuk Mat Lazim Derani, ex-deputy division chief for Mentakab in Pahang. The duo however joined PKR in May.

-TMI