Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) Youth chief Syed Saddiq Abdul Rahman has pledged to step down if the three top leaders of his party were to revert to their Umno ways.
He was referring to the party chairperson Dr Mahathir Mohamad, its president Muhyiddin Yassin and deputy president Mukhriz Mahathir, who were all formerly from Umno.
"I do acknowledge, it is unfortunate... that crony capitalism still existed and was bred during Mahathir's time.
"I cannot change the past but what I will make sure is that if that thing happens again, I will be the first person to step down and I will never allow my party and my country to go through the same thing," Syed Saddiq vowed during a debate session against Umno Youth exco member Shahril Hamdan at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre today.
He was responding to a question from an audience member, who had asked whether he truly believes that Mahathir, Muhyiddin and Mukhriz will fight corruption if they manage to come into power.
The audience member had earlier pointed out that the three of them were previously considered "Umno warlords".
Syed Saddiq had defended the top three leaders in his party with regards to money politics, claiming that Muhyiddin in particular was well-known for giving "salam kosong" (empty greetings) instead of "salam berisi" (filled greetings).
"Salam berisi" is a term which has been used to imply money politics.
The debate today was over the motion 'This House believes that Pakatan Harapan has a better economic agenda than BN'.
Among his arguments, Syed Saddiq stressed that corruption is closely linked to the country's economy and that Harapan has a stronger political will than BN to eradicate corruption in the country.
Meanwhile, Shahril said that BN has a good track record in handling the country's economy and has proven that they are able to invest and plan for the country's future.
He also insisted that Harapan does not appear to have a solid economic agenda at all.
"Fighting corruption is not an actual economic policy.
"Obviously there is a link to the economy, but you cannot premise your entire economic agenda on one issue.
"It is not, in a conventional sense, a revenue generator," he said.
Syed Saddiq then retorted that plugging up leakages and eradicating corruption could potentially save the government up to RM200 billion a year. - Mkini
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