Jan 12 rally aims to influence court decision, says Muhyiddin

SEREMBAN, Jan 8 — Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin has reminded certain groups against trying to ‘show their strength’ by dragging the rakyat to participate in assemblies aimed at opposing the judicial system that has been upheld all this time merely for the personal interest of certain individuals.

The deputy prime minister (picture) said such action was probably taken to influence court action against the individuals concerned because the assembly was clearly not national in nature but more personal that hoped to achieve a certain objective.

“I cannot make an assumption, but is it possible that this is the reason why they are dragging as many party members and the rakyat to attend the assembly?” he said at a media conference after holding a meeting with the chairmen of Village Security and Development Committees (JKKK), local leaders, members of Local Councils, and JKKK of new villages, here today.

Also present was Negri Sembilan Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan.

Several groups were reported to be against the gathering besides urging Opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim to explain the purpose of the proposed assembly because coincidentally it was being held several days before Shamsidar Taharin, who is the wife of PKR deputy president Mohamed Azmin Ali, takes the witness stand in a libel suit involving Anwar.

Muhyiddin said the party concerned should leave the matter to the court without drawing public sympathy because if the court felt that the individual concerned should be called upon to take the witness stand, the decision must be accepted and respected.

The deputy prime minister said the move masterminded by the opposition pact could be due to the fact that they were not confident of the country’s judicial system and were afraid of the decision to be made by the court whereas the whole population accepted and supported the judicial system that had been adopted in Malaysia for so long.

On the reaction of the Sultan of Selangor, Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah who expressed shock and regret at the statement made by DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng, who was reported to have asked the government to allow the word ‘Allah’ to be used in the Malay language version of the bible, Muhyiddin who is also Umno deputy president, said that as the head of religion in the state of Selangor, the Sultan’s statement must be respected.

The Secretary of the Selangor Islamic Religious Council, Datuk Mohd Misri Idris said in a statement today that at a special meeting last Sunday that was also attended by the Selangor Mufti, the Sultan of Selangor had decided that the word could only be used by Muslims.

Meanwhile, on the rejection of Transparency International Malaysia (TI-M) to become an observer in the 13th general election, Muhyiddin said everyone should respect the decision of the corruption monitoring body to decline the invitation of the Election Commission.

He said the rejection could be due to the fact that TI-M was not interested or that it was confident that the system practised here was transparent and thus it was not proper for the organisation to become an observer.

“We cannot say ‘you must come or you have to come’, that is their choice and we must respect the decision made by any party, what is there to dispute,” he said.

With regard to the preparation of the state Barisan Nasional (BN) in facing the general election, Muhyiddin, who is also the BN deputy chairman, said the component parties were now at a high level of preparedness and were confident that the rakyat would vote for the BN to remain in power.

He said the BN was also confident of retaining the 21 State Assembly seats that it won earlier and wrest the 15 seats won by the opposition besides winning seven of the eight Parliamentary seats in the state.

“Nevertheless, as usual, I wish to remind every level of the BN leadership to strengthen the party especially in terms of work that must be carried out at the divisional or area level to ensure increased support from all the races besides addressing the matters raised in the social media,” he said when asked on the closed-door briefing on the preparation made by all leaders of BN component parties in facing the general election earlier.

Muhyiddin said that following the briefing, he wanted all leaders at every level to know and understand the attitude of the voters in all areas by carrying out ‘man marking’ on every voter. — Bernama