SLIM POLLS | Pakatan Harapan last night deployed some of its senior leaders to work the Chinese ground for Parti Pejuang Tanah Air's (Pejuang) candidate Amir Khusyairi Mohamad Tanusi, who is contesting as an independent candidate in the Slim by-election.
While an ambivalent Harapan has held back from deploying its topmost leaders such as PKR president Anwar Ibrahim and DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng, the moderately senior line-up included PKR's Tanjung Malim MP Chang Lih Kang (above) and DAP's Teluk Intan MP Nga Kor Ming.
Chang is PKR vice-president while Nga is the DAP deputy secretary-general. Both are MPs in Perak.
Taking the stage at a ceramah near the Slim River KTM station, Chang and Nga spoke in Malay but peppered their speeches with Cantonese and Mandarin respectively.
The site of the ceramah is near the Sungai Slim Utara polling district, which is the only Chinese-majority polling district in Slim.
In the overall, Chinese voters only make up 10.5 percent of the voters in Slim while Malay and Indian voters make up 75 percent and 12.8 percent respectively.
Also present at the ceramah was Amanah president Mohamad Sabu. Amanah is the only Harapan party that has gone all out for Pejuang in the Slim by-election.
A popular topic among the speakers was Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Mohd Khairuddin Aman Razali, who violated a compulsory 14-day quarantine after returning from Turkey on July 7. He turned up in Parliament on July 13.
The Health Ministry revealed that Khairuddin was fined RM1,000 after he was criticised by Seputeh MP Teresa Kok in the Dewan Rakyat, prompting complaints that ordinary citizens were treated more harshly, including prison terms, compared to VIPs.
Another speaker was Pejuang's pro-tem deputy president Mukhriz Mahathir who turned former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak's visit in Slim against BN.
"I believe any community does not teach their people to steal and then be proud about it," he said in reference to Najib's "Malu Apa BossKu" (What is there to be ashamed, my boss) slogan.
Najib led BN to defeat in the 2018 general election amid claims of grand corruption.
He has been convicted of abuse of power and money laundering over the theft of RM42 million from state-owned SRC International Sdn Bhd and is standing trial for the alleged theft of another RM2.28 billion from 1MDB. Najib remains free while appealing his sentence.
However, BN returned to power in March this year after Bersatu pulled out of Harapan and joined forces with BN, PAS, GPS, PBS and Star to form the Perikatan Nasional government.
A group of PKR defectors led by Gombak MP Azmin Ali also joined them, giving them a thin majority.
Amir Khusyairi is contesting as an independent candidate as Pejuang is not yet formally registered. It is being led by former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
He is an underdog against BN's Mohd Zaidi Aziz. A third candidate, former teacher S Santharasekaran, is also contesting as an independent candidate.
The Slim state seat fell vacant after its four-term assemblyperson Mohd Kusairi Abdul Talib, who was from BN, passed away on July 15.
In another development, PKR vice-president Tian Chua also campaigned for Pejuang at a separate ceramah in Slim last night.
Tian Chua previously received brickbats as he was perceived to be close to Azmin. Azmin led 10 MPs, including himself, to defect to PN.
Azmin was also campaigning in Slim yesterday, for BN's Zaidi.
Slim voters will go to the polls on Aug 29. - Mkini
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.