Minister Johari cries foul over sabotage by party members

Umno's Second Finance Minister Johari Abdul Ghani, who is expected to defend his parliamentary seat in the coming general election, has cried foul of being sabotaged by his own party members.

This came after images of placards reading "Say no to DJ" (Datuk Johari or Datuk Jo) and banners rejecting him in Titiwangsa went viral in the social media.

"We the grassroots of Titiwangsa plead to the prime minister to choose a candidate other than Johari," stated a banner, with hashtags #rejectJohari, #arrogantJoe and #aslongasnotJoeGhani.

The placards also showed an image of a big cross drawn on his face.

One of the images featured about 20 youths wearing T-shirts with messages "as long as not Joe Ghani, #ABJ".

"There is someone in my Umno division interested to be a candidate in Titiwangsa, so he started this character assassination," said the Titiwangsa Umno division chief without naming the person.

"Anyway, I have no issues on this as ultimately voters in Titiwangsa will decide," he said when contacted.

In 2013, Johari won the Titiwangsa seat with a slim majority of 866 votes.

This time around, he is expected to be challenged by Bersatu policy and strategy bureau deputy chief Wan Saiful Wan Jan and PAS Muslimat chief Nuridah Salleh.

There has been speculation in the past few weeks that Johari was among the potential candidates for the menteri besar post if BN takes power in Selangor. -Mkini