Taib should have left 5 years ago: Anwar
Pakatan Rakyat leaders have ridiculed the prime minister for his claim that long-serving Sarawak Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud will step down.
PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim referred to Najib Abdul Razak's speech last night, during which the announcement was made.
“Is this another cheap gimmick by Najib to cloud the vision of the public? If it is true that Taib will step down, the question is when? 2015? 2020?” Anwar asked at a press conference in Kuching today.
“Secondly, who is his successor? Is it going to be his brother, who has failed to groom his son as a successor? This must be answered."
Asked about a suitable date for Taib to step down, Anwar replied: “Five years ago. He should not be contesting (in this election)."
Last night, Najib tried to calm obviously growing urban disenchantment with Taib – who is the focal point of Pakatan Rakyat's campaign – by promising that Taib will step down, but stopped short of setting a deadline.
His speech, coupled with the fact that he is camping himself in Sarawak from yesterday up to the eve of polls, signals that Taib may be falling out of Putrajaya's favour.
In a related development, PKR secretary-general Saifuddin Nasution produced a newspaper clipping dated Nov 7, 1995 which quoted Taib as saying that he would step down in “five years”.
Saifuddin said that, when the deadline arrived in 2000, even the most powerful prime minister in the nation's history – Dr Mahathir Mohamad – could not hold Taib to his word.
Thus, he rationalised that Najib, who has not held a general election to seek his own mandate, would not be powerful enough to ensure that Taib keeps his word.
Saifuddin said that now that Najib had given his assurance that Taib would step down, it would appear that Putrajaya is now dictating Sarawak's future.
Should Taib hang on to his post, that this is likely to cause fissures between Sarawak and Putrajaya.
“This is something that the voters have to keep in mind,” Saifuddin said. |