Outcast Hee hops out of Election 2013

Hee attends a BN division leaders’ meeting in Kuala Lumpur April 10, 2013.—File picKUALA LUMPUR, April 12 ― Datuk Hee Yit Foong, once described as the most hated woman in Perak, will not defend her Jelapang state seat in Perak that she had won on a DAP ticket in 2008.

Hee said, however, that she would support Barisan Nasional (BN) in Election 2013.

Hee is known for her pivotal role in the 2009 Perak constitutional crisis that saw the state in turmoil for nearly a year, after hers and the defection of two other former PKR representatives caused the former Pakatan Rakyat (PR) government’s fall from power.

At the time, the former Perak assembly deputy was said to have left the DAP in a huff, after repeatedly complaining to have been sidelined in the state administration and left out of positions of power.

She turned into a BN-friendly independent following her defection, a decision that earned her scathing criticism from Jelapang voters, most of whom are said to be hardcore DAP supporters.

Media reports in the months after she left DAP said Hee turned into an outcast in her own constituency, having to move around in a delegation complete with bodyguards to keep her safe from angry voters.

But in an interview with Oriental Daily published last year, Hee said she wanted to recontest Jelapang “under the BN flag”, even adding that she would let now-caretaker prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak announce the details later.

She boasted that anger against her had dissipated over the years following the Perak crisis, even adding that those who once took out newspaper advertisements to declare they no longer supported her have now returned to apologise.

But according to a report in The Star Online today, Hee confirmed she would not stand in Election 2013.

“I will help with the campaigning for the Barisan candidate,” she said.

Hee said she hope the Barisan leadership would put a local “born and bred” candidate there, according to The Star.