PH must go on the offensive now, says PKR’s Hassan

Pakatan Harapan has been urged to go on the offensive for the next general election, with PKR’s Hassan Karim saying the conditional pardon granted to former prime minister Najib Razak had “changed the Malaysian political landscape”.

Hassan, who is Pasir Gudang MP, said PH must make full use of the “golden opportunity”. He said Najib had become a burden on Umno and PAS, and people were beginning to express anger at the conditional pardon.

“Before Najib was pardoned, Anwar Ibrahim was very much on the defensive, being the prime minister, PKR president and PH chairman. He was openly criticised, including on social media,” said Hassan in a statement this evening.

“Now the winds have changed. With Najib’s (conditional) pardon and reduced sentence, sympathy for him over his time in prison has evaporated. The people are beginning to grow angry when they see that the country’s justice system has two tiers: one for ordinary people and another for upper-class political elites,” he said.

Hassan said Najib’s history of leadership in Umno was not particularly glorious, given Umno’s defeat in the 2018 general election amid the 1MDB scandal after “Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Muhyiddin Yassin, two leaders who had left Umno, cooperated with PH to unite the Malays and non-Malays to reject Najib over the 1MDB scandal”.

“Politically, Najib has become a burden on Umno as well as PAS. How can Umno and PAS now talk about a clean and trustworthy government when Najib stands before the public as a compromised symbol of their proposed government-in-waiting?” he said.

Najib, 73, has been allowed to serve the remainder of a six-year jail sentence at his home, provided he pays the RM50 million fine imposed in his SRC International case.

The Prime Minister’s Department said the conditional pardon was granted by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, Sultan Ibrahim, following the meeting of the Federal Territories Pardons Board on Friday.