NAJIB-HISHAM-ZAHID POWER STRUGGLE ERUPTS INTO THE OPEN: IN BID TO PUSH NAJIB – OR ALTERNATIVELY HIS BELOVED COUSIN HISHAM – FOR POST BN CHIEF, HIS HENCHMEN INCLUDING LOKMAN ADAM SUDDENLY TURN ‘PRO-CHINESE’ – WANT MCA MAN FOR TANJUNG PIAI WHILE ZAHID WATCHES WHICH WAY THE WIND BLOWS

An Umno supreme council member has mooted that BN maintains the status quo in Tanjung Piai and let MCA contest the by-election next month.

Lokman Adam said this would be a benchmark for whether voters would support a non-Malay candidate from the opposition.

He said there is a perception that a candidate from Umno or PAS needs to be fielded if they want to win the seat, where 57 percent of voters are Malay.

“However, there are no facts to support this. So one way to determine whether it is right or not is to ensure an MCA candidate contests.

“Some say that Malays won’t vote for a Chinese. If this was the case, Wee Jeck Seng would have been soundly beaten in the last general election.

“(Instead) Wee only lost by 524 votes. I am confident the majority of votes came from Malays who are not racist,” he was quoted as saying by Berita Harian today.

Tanjong Piai has been traditionally contested by MCA, although there are now calls Umno to take over the seat.

This is after Umno and PAS sealed a pact to formally work together, on the basis of Malay and Muslim unity.

This has raised concerns that non-Malays would be sidelined by the alliance, although they assure that they will champion all Malaysians.

Besides the Malays, Chinese voters make up 42 percent of the electorate and Indians one percent.

The Tanjung Piai parliamentary seat in Johor fell vacant following the death of its incumbent, former deputy minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Dr Md Farid Md Rafik.

In GE14, Farid defeated Wee, who is a two-term incumbent, by a slim majority.

Farid bagged 21,255 votes against Wee’s 20,731. The other candidate was PAS’ Nordin Othman with 2,962 votes.

Amanah president Mohamad Sabu has said that this would be a difficult seat for Pakatan Harapan to defend.

Reinstate Najib as BN chair, says Umno Youth exco member

An Umno Youth exco member today suggested BN component parties support its former chairperson Najib Abdul Razak to be re-elected to the post.

Shahrul Nasrun Kamarudin toyed with the idea in a statement to the press, which he sent in response to a news portal’s report that presidents of Umno, MCA and MIC had agreed to appoint Hishammuddin Hussein as BN secretary-general.

The youth leader said Najib is more fit to return to lead the coalition, citing that he had been doing a good job in mounting a ‘rebellion’ against the Pakatan Harapan government.

This was in comparison to Hishammuddin, whom Shahrul said had chosen to go “berehat” (on leave) after BN was defeated in the 14th general election last year.

“I am not questioning the loyalty of Hishammuddin to Umno as long as he has not left the party. However, after GE14 and when Umno was facing its defeat, Hishammuddin had chosen to go on leave.

“There is no doubt about Hishammuddin’s experience, but during this period when BN has become the opposition, we need a ‘rebellion’ icon to regain the people’s support, especially the youth.

“Whether one likes it or not, Najib Razak has been creating the rebellion momentum for the youth through his ‘Bossku’ programme, when other Umno leaders distanced themselves from him.

“Najib had moved using the full advantage of the social media to speak about failures of PH government policies, where the youth are seeing him as a fighter who had gotten up again to fight all the allegations thrown against him all these while,” he said in the statement.

Last week, an exclusive report by Malaysia Gazette stated that the presidents of the BN component parties had held a meeting where they discussed changes of positions within the coalition.

Quoting sources, the portal said that the leaders – Zahid Hamidi (Umno), Wee Ka Siong (MCA) and SA Vigneswaran (MIC) – had unanimously agreed for Hishammuddin to become BN secretary-general.

Prior to BN’s defeat during the May 9 election last year, Hishammuddin was Umno vice-president. However, he decided not to contest in the Umno party election held later that year.

MKINI