Confirmed: Umno is under the thumb of Perkasa

FREE YOURSAY 'If I remember correctly this is the first time in history that a chosen BN candidate withdraws his or her candidacy on the nomination day.'

BN pulls out, Ibrahim Ali in straight fight for Pasir Mas

Ferdtan: When BN president Najib Razak did not name Perkasa chief Ibrahim Ali as BN candidate earlier in spite of former PM Dr Mahathir Mohamad's open endorsement of him, my wife remarked that Najib for once has a bit of guts not to listen to the ‘de facto PM'.

He named instead Perkasa vice-president Zulkifli Noordin, the one who uttered anti-Indian and Hindu sentiments, for the Shah Alam parliament seat. We thought it was the compromised deal to placate Mahathir to at least put one Perkasa leader to contest.

How wrong we were. Indeed, Najib is even worse - now he has two racist and bigoted Perkasa leaders contesting on the side of BN, with Ibrahim Ali been given a safe passage as BN-friendly Independent following the engineered withdrawal of the Umno-chosen candidate.

If I remember correctly this is the first time in the history of BN (or Alliance in the past) that a chosen BN candidate withdraws his or her candidacy on nomination day - for whatever reasons.

So we would like to ask all the Indians who believe in Hindraf and its chief, P Waythamoorthy, can you still believe Najib for his promises?

See how he cheated the people with such a farce of indirectly supporting a known racist by pulling out the BN candidate to ensure a win for Ibrahim Ali?

Cogent: This is another sandiwara of Najib and his cohorts in Umno. The fact that he has blatantly brought Zulkifli Noordin and manipulated to bring Ibrahim Ali with the inherent devilish mind of Mahathir clearly shows that Najib and the ruling party have no regards for the feelings of the Christian, Indians and the right-thinking Malaysians, many of whom are lovable Malays.

I have many Malay friends. They don't think like Zulkifli Noordin, Ibrahim Ali, Dr M and even Najib and his clique. We should therefore dispense with him, his adherents and the party, Umno, that they embrace.

Enlightened: I think this was the plan all along. Najib didn't want to be seen as a racist by fielding Ibrahim Ali but planned a nice ‘sandiwara' so Ibrahim could stand as a BN-friendly candidate and get the Umno candidate (who was a puppet all along) to pull out at the eleventh hour.

Anonymous #12566075: Firstly, Najib could have pressured by Mahathir to do so in supporting Ibrahim Ali.

Secondly, it could be a well-concealed plan to initially announcing Umno candidate and on nomination day not filing the papers.

Najib may just want to show voters he is against Ibrahim Ali by not nominating him under the BN flag in a compromise with Mahathir.

Quigonbond: So much for BN "transformation". It's all a lie. Now, we can all go to town that 1Malaysia is a sham and Umno stands for racism and extremism.

Up2U: At the very least, BN candidate Che Johan Che Pa could have gone missing and come out with some excuses why he did not made it to the nomination centre, but he turned up and did not submit his nomination paper despite duly given the authorisation from the BN chief and caretaker PM.

It just show that the real PM (puppet master) is pulling the strings.

Mushiro: This is a good ‘sandiwara' (shadow play) by Umno to hoodwink the Indians and Chinese. This also shows that Mahathir still call the shots in Umno and Najib has to listen obediently to him.

Multi Racial: This is what BN is good at - cheating the public and they dare to do it openly. It is obvious they already have decided to field Ibrahim Ali no matter what.

But they knew if they were to field him under the BN ticket, it will create a problem to their components parties like MCA, MIC, Gerakan and East Malaysia non-Muslim parties.

So they came up with the ‘sandiwara'. I want to ask Malaysians, can you trust a the leaders of parties who openly mislead you? If you do, God bless you.

I don't and I am going to vote for Pakatan.

LittleGiant: Can we say this is clearly a ploy by Umno? By allowing Ibrahim Ali to contest as an independent, Umno can pretend that it has nothing to do with him. But in actual fact it could offer all the support that Ibrahim Ali needs to ensure his victory.

And should Ibrahim Ali win, it is no problem for Umno to welcome and embrace this "great leader" again so that he can continue with whatever nonsense he has to utter about the non-Malays. Of course, with Umno's blessing.

Dark Knight: It must have been BN's intention all the while to field Ibrahim Ali through the back door. Please do not fool the citizens with such a sly trick. The only idiots who must fallen for this trick are the Hindraf lot.

Faz: It's like old time - what TDM (Tun Dr Mahathir) wants, TDM gets. Be it in Kedah for his son, Mukhriz, or in Kelantan for Ibrahim Ali.

What better option is there than to get paid for not contesting as the compensation from billionaire TDM will be substantial.

It's a win-win situation for Che Johan, Ibrahim, Najib and TDM. That is why Che Johan was there at the nomination centre yesterday.

The voters of Pasir Mas can call the bluff and throw out Ibrahim Ali to spite Che Johan, Najib and TDM.

The Patriot: It does not make sense! BN is making blunder after blunder. This plot in putting up Ibrahim Ali obviously to represent Umno is sending shockwaves not only in Peninsular Malaysia but also to the most remote places in Sarawak and Sabah.

Now I begin to believe that the possibility of Pakatan forming the next government is real indeed.

OMG!!: This only goes to prove beyond reasonable doubt that Ibrahim Ali, Zulkifli Nordin and Perkasa are part and parcel of Umno's election machinery and that Umno is a racist party to the core.

All right-minded voters should reject this racist party which has torn apart the country's racial and religious fabrics for 55 years.

Jesse: Najib is a wolf in sheep's clothes. He is as sly as they come. Wooing the non-Malays with one hand and holding the keris with the other. Ibrahim will be his barking dog while Zul will be his poster boy. - Malaysiakini