Bersatu leader Azmin Ali today indicated that he was ready to contest against opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim for the Gombak parliamentary seat in the 15th general election.
While not naming his challenger, Azmin made several clear references to Anwar and his wife Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail by recounting the Kajang Move saga.
"Those who are interested in Gombak (parliamentary seat) are welcomed. You can send your wife, your children.
"They work hard to create this narrative that we are traitors, and that the seats held by these traitors will be contested against.
"I want to ask who the real traitors are? Has the rakyat forgotten the Kajang Move? Today I will reveal who is the father of all traitors," he said at a Bersatu event today.
The Kajang Move was a highly-cloaked plan by some PKR leaders in 2014 to trigger a by-election in Kajang in order to pave the way for Anwar to replace Abdul Khalid Ibrahim as menteri besar.
However, a spanner was thrown into the works when Anwar was convicted of sodomy days before the by-election, leaving the then PKR president Wan Azizah to contest the seat.
Azmin said this after Anwar declared he was ready to contest for a parliamentary seat held by a “traitor” of PKR and Pakatan Harapan in GE15.
Azmin reportedly took a swipe against Anwar during his speech by listing the PKR president’s own betrayals to the voters, such as the Kajang Move and Port Dickson by-election.
“People of Malaysia, please remember. History cannot be erased,” Azmin said.
MPs who had deserted PKR and joined Bersatu after the Sheraton Move were Azmin Ali (Gombak), Zuraida Kamaruddin (Ampang), Saifuddin Abdullah (Indera Mahkota), Kamaruddin Jaffar (Bandar Tun Razak), Mansor Othman (Nibong Tebal), Rashid Hasnon (Batu Pahat), Santhara Kumar (Segamat), Ali Biju (Saratok), Willie Mongin (Puncak Borneo) and Jonathan Yasin (Ranau).
Anwar was previously speculated to contest in Tambun which is currently held by Youth and Sports Minister Ahmad Faizal Azumu, who is also the Bersatu deputy president.
This was welcomed by DAP Perak earlier whose president Nga Kor Ming said Anwar’s presence would provide them with the “final push” to make it a Harapan-led state.
Nga, however, said that he could not specify where Anwar should contest in, but stressed that it would support should the Harapan chairperson decide to do so.
"Traitors not only come from Gombak (Azmin) and Ampang (Zuraida), don’t forget there is also a traitor from Tambun.
"I didn’t say where (Anwar should contest) but our stance is that we welcome him (in Perak),” he said at a press conference today.
List not finalised
In a separate development, PKR deputy president Rafizi Ramli has declared that he is eyeing the Pandan parliamentary seat in GE15.
Speaking to reporters in Penang, he said he has made his stand clear to the party leadership, who has yet to finalise the list of candidates for the election.
“I have made it clear that I want to defend Pandan, pending the party’s decision.
“This is because I can campaign more effectively at the national level for PKR candidates if I stand in Pandan where we have very good support and are quite established,” he was quoted as saying by Free Malaysia Today.
Pandan was the seat Rafizi won in 2013 in his first parliamentary debut. He served it for one term.
He was unable to contest in GE14 due to his pending appeal against a 30-month jail sentence by the Shah Alam sessions for leaking banking details belonging to the National Feedlot Corp and its chairperson Mohamad Salleh Ismail.
Wan Azizah won the seat in 2018 by a majority of 52,543 votes. - Mkini
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.