Primary goal: Suhaili insists that his declaration of support for the unity government is for the sake of his constituency.
PETALING JAYA: Despite the harsh spotlight trained on him by Bersatu leaders for breaking ranks with the party, Labuan MP Datuk Dr Suhaili Abdul Rahman has shrugged off the criticism, saying that he did not betray them.
“Do I feel guilty? Why should I? I did not betray the party as I am still loyal to the party. I did not abandon ship. But the ship abandoned me when the leadership decided to throw me out, suspending me for six years. So, which is which?” he said.
The six-year suspension, which took effect on Nov 7, came about after he issued a statement on Oct 30 declaring his support for the unity government.
Suhaili, who did not mince his words when contacted by The Star, said: “Shifting my support will not end my political career.”
“Come next general election, I can contest under any logo, and God willing, I will win as I had done this for the sake of the people,” he said, claiming that he had even “stronger support” in Labuan now.
Suhaili maintained that he was not giving blind support to Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s leadership and that there was no agreement “tying him up” with the Prime Minister.
“After meeting the Prime Minister, I returned to Labuan, and Bersatu members asked me if we would remain with the party.
“I said ‘yes’ as I am not crossing over to any other party. I only said I would support the PM for the benefit of the people,” said Suhaili.He said fellow Perikatan Nasional MPs had been amicable towards him so far.
“No one had threatened me in any sort of way,” he added.
But he said that any meeting with the Bersatu top leadership was “out of the question, as they already kicked me like nobody’s business”.
He acknowledged, however, that his suspension was “their call as the party leadership. Who am I to question them?”
Suhaili said his constituency would be getting RM4mil in allocations annually, and there would be other funds channelled on a quarterly basis with strict guidelines on their usage.
“I am only doing the right thing. I checked with my constituents a few months before I made the announcement. I told them that when 12 months are up from my elected date and if I have yet to receive the funds, I will support the government for the sake of the allocations,” he said.
He claimed that Perikatan missed out on being in the ruling government due to the decision made by the Bersatu leadership not to join the unity government without consulting Perikatan MPs.
“As the leadership decided our fate to be the opposition without consulting us, I decided the fate of my constituency without consulting the leadership,” said Suhaili.
He dismissed talk that his allegiance to Anwar, in exchange for getting allocations, was “bribery”.
“This is utter rubbish. How can it be bribery when I asked for allocations openly, in writing, on the day I declared that I would support the Prime Minister?
“The Prime Minister himself told Perikatan to talk to Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof on the allocations for constituencies under opposition MPs,” he said.
As such, he said there was no element of bribery.
“The request for allocations was made officially, and the money channelled through official agencies,” added Suhaili.
He also spoke of his predicament as an MP.
“I cannot keep giving excuses of having no funds because I am in the opposition. In the first year, we could tell them, ‘Don’t worry, next year, we may be in the government. Please wait.’ But after one year, do I repeat the same story?” he said.
“So I had to make up my mind and decide. Labuan is backwards, and the constituents are poor.”
Suhaili, who is a former Umno man, said he would remain a Perikatan MP till the end of his term.
On his seating arrangement in the Dewan Rakyat, he said that he wants to be within the parameters of the opposition bench but away from the “hardcore bloc” of other Perikatan MPs.
Suhaili refuted allegations that he had tried to coax other Bersatu MPs to switch allegiance as well.
“I do not even know the other three well. And I was not the first to do so. I am not a broker to get Bersatu MPs to support Anwar,” he said.
Besides Suhaili, three other Bersatu MPs had made a similar move: Datuk Iskandar Dzulkarnain Abdul Khalid (Kuala Kangsar), Mohd Azizi Abu Naim (Gua Musang) and Zahari Kechik (Jeli).
Bersatu has suspended Iskandar Dzulkarnain for four years, while the “punishment” for the other two has not been made known yet.
