We can’t be bitten twice by the same snake, says Malaysian Minister

MALAYSIA: Democratic Action Party (DAP) Secretary‑General Anthony Loke fired the warning shots for Pakatan Harapan (PH) not to open its doors for collaboration with former partners like Bersatu, the party of former Prime Minister (PM) Muhyiddin Yassin.

He said PH had bitter experiences when cooperating with both Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS) and especially Bersatu, which was a coalition partner of the Pakatan group in 2018.

However, Bersatu left PH in 2020 after the then Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad resigned. Mahathir had said he lost the majority in Parliament and could not transfer power back to Anwar Ibrahim.

Bersatu leaders had led a coup against PH and Anwar and pulled some MPs from Anwar’s party to join them in forming a backdoor government.

This episode is still haunting PH and the DAP.

“We formed cooperation in government, even supported a candidate from Bersatu to become Prime Minister.

“But in the end, we were betrayed and toppled. So personally, I do not trust such cooperation,” he said on Sunday.

He said this in response to rumours that Bersatu might join PH after PAS announced it would review its cooperation with the party in Perikatan Nasional (PN).

Bersatu was singled out by PAS, both members of the PN coalition, as the party that is dragging the opposition into disrepute.

Some PAS supporters and Bersatu members fired by the party recently are spreading rumours on social media that Bersatu and Muhyiddin are Trojan horses in the PN coalition, and they aim to defect to PH.

Meanwhile, Anthony stressed that PH also has no intention of cooperating with Bersatu because it does not want the experience of betrayal to repeat due to a lack of sincerity.

“I think that issue does not arise, and I have not heard from any party that Bersatu or PAS wants to join PH.

“We also have no intention of cooperating with those two parties. We must not be bitten by the same snake twice; we need to take a cautious stance, especially in cooperating with Bersatu or PAS,” he said.

In the past, PAS was in a coalition with PKR, the party of Anwar Ibrahim and DAP. PAS and DAP first joined forces in 1999 to form the Barisan Alternatif coalition, and later allied again in 2008 to establish Pakatan Rakyat.

PAS officially left and effectively dissolved the Pakatan Rakyat coalition in June 2015.