M'sian PM Ismail Sabri Yaakob says he is a 'nice, gentle guy' for not sacking ministers who opposed election

Sabri's UMNO is targeting 80 seats in parliament.

Tan Min-Wei | October 18, 2022, 01:14 PM

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Ismail Sabri Yaakob, Prime Minister of Malaysia, said that he didn't fire the Perikatan Nasional cabinet ministers who opposed a new general election because he was a "nice guy".

A dissolving situation

With the dissolution of parliament and Malaysia gearing up for its 15th general election, popularly referred to as GE15, the component parties of Malaysia's former government seemed to have stepped up their rhetorical broadsides on each other.

According to the New Straits Times and Malaysiakini, Ismail Sabri has taken aim at 12 Perikatan Nasional cabinet ministers.

These ministers wrote to Malaysia's king, objecting to the dissolution of parliament on Oct. 6. But Sabri went ahead and dissolved parliament on Oct. 10 anyway.

Sabri said during an UMNO event at Bagan Datuk, that he had made a mistake in not sacking the objecting ministers right away, but he had not done so as as he was a "nice, soft-spoken (or gentle) guy".

According to New Straits TimesPerikatan's Hamzah Zainudin, who served as Ismail Sabri's Home Affairs Minister, said he was merely acting on the wishes of his party leadership by submitting the letter.

Target of 80

Sabri's Barisan Nasional coalition, of which UMNO is the largest party, holds just 40 seats in parliament, out of a total of 222, far short of a secure majority.

As a result, it partnered with the Perikatan Nasional, a coalition made up of the breakaway Bersatu party, the Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS), and a few others.

However, UMNO and its Barisan allies will apparently "go solo" in the upcoming GE campaign, instead of having a formal alliance with Perikatan.

UMNO, according to Sabri, has a target of 80 seats, in order to be sure of a stable government.

But Sabri appears to also be hedging against not meeting that target, saying that when he last spoke to his cabinet ministers that "their relationship should remain once the polls are over", according to The Vibes.

This may indicate that he will possibly need some of their support in order to form a majority in parliament.

Many of the Perikatan Members of Parliament (MPs) are former UMNO, including Bersatu head and former prime minister, Muhyiddin Yassin.

Apparently no rifts in the party

While UMNO itself has experienced friction with their coalition partners, they may be divided further with an apparent split between Sabri's "government cluster" and the "court cluster" of Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, UMNO's president.

The latter group has been named as such by some sections of Malaysia's media, made up of politicians facing corruption charges, including Ahmad Zahid.

Ahmad Zahid has reportedly been calling for an early election for several months, but Sabri had thus far resisted those calls.

Appearing together at the same Bagan Datuk event, according to The Vibes, Sabri rubbished claims of a rift between the two men, saying that there were no issues between them.

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Top image via BN Perak/Facebook