He formally announced his move at an event to hand over his membership form to PKR president Anwar Ibrahim at the Dewan Kampung Baru Machap in his constituency today.

In his speech, he also described his move as a sort of homecoming as he was a registered member of the PKR Ampang branch in 2017.

“Today I bring a message to youths and others my age, that there is still hope. We still have hope to rise up and bring change. So it is on this ground that I, just like all of you, ordinary people who desire change, made this major decision to join PKR,” he said.

Maszlee had been a member of Bersatu under Pakatan Harapan (PH), briefly aligning with Pejuang in August last year before becoming an independent representative last November.

He acknowledged today that his move came at a time which was “not very encouraging” and a bad choice in view of PKR’s recent defeats in the Melaka state election.

He said there were those who asked why he was joining a party that had lost and whose president was being attacked by his foes and some friends.

“I told them that this is the value of fighting for a cause as this shows I am not a political opportunist who switches parties for position and money,” he said.

Along with his own membership, he said that over 500 others from Simpang Renggam had also joined the PH component party.

After handing his form to Anwar he received a mock PKR membership card, and the event closed with him pulling on a blue PKR t-shirt.

Maszlee, who was education minister in the former PH government, was sacked by Bersatu last May alongside former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, Muar MP Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman, Jerlun MP Mukhriz Mahathir and Kubang Pasu MP Amiruddin Hamzah, after the group declined to sit with the Perikatan Nasional bloc in Parliament after the fall of PH.

While Syed Saddiq formed Muda and the others formed Pejuang, Maszlee opted to remain independent as a member of the opposition.