Petaling Jaya MP Maria Chin Abdullah took to social media to refute the charges made against her. ― Picture by Miera Zulyana

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 24 — Following harsh criticism from netizens on her role in the attempt to change the government yesterday, Petaling Jaya MP Maria Chin Abdullah took to social media to refute the charges.

In a brief statement, Maria Chin reminded Pakatan Harapan lawmakers that they must remain firm in their commitment to the ideas and principles in which the coalition was formed and to rise above political machinations.

“It is vital for Pakatan to stay firm to our commitment and ideals, to galvanise the grassroots and to rise above these fights over premiership.

“It is imperative for elected representatives to remain committed to these ideals to (a) focus on the economy, institutional reform and the everyday challenges facing the Rakyat such as the rising cost of living and the eradication of poverty; and to (b) respect the present democratically elected government and allow it to function fully.

“If reorganising the coalition is necessary, it must only be done by consensus. Pakatan Harapan’s spirit of shared prosperity and realising democratic reforms must be maintained,” she said.

“Any other changes must follow the democratic electoral process. Any attempt to do otherwise will go against the will of the people,” she added.

Maria was lambasted online after she posted a brief comment on Facebook regarding criticism of her following her appearance among other Opposition and PKR lawmakers supposedly aligned to Datuk Seri Azmin Ali at the Petaling Jaya Sheraton last night.

“There’s a lot of off-track remarks, vicious disinformation, speculation and abusive languages used against me. To them you are no better than Umno as you failed to even want to find out the truth,” she said briefly on her Facebook.

At the time of writing, her post had garnered 56 shares and 413 comments, many of which question why she was seen together with Opposition lawmakers, namely Umno and PAS which she had been a constant critic of.

“You were the leader of Bersih, an organisation that stands for clean & fair elections/politics. Then you stood for election espousing the same principles....But now?? So disappointing to see you be part of Azmin’s cartel and part of this backdoor government. Power and money talks. What an absolute disgrace you are...” wrote Allen Tan in response to Maria’s Facebook post.

“You have betrayed the peoples that have voted for you. You are now working with gangs that are trying hard to ruin PH and this is bad for the country!” wrote David Tian in the comment section among a slew of other criticism levied against Maria Chin.

This, however, is not the first time such criticism has been levelled against her; the first was after news broke out that she was among 22 MPs who had a clandestine meeting with Azmin on November 18, last year.

At the time, Maria denied she was at the meeting but stated that it was merely another meeting for lawmakers to discuss economic matters.