Hanipa brushes off health speculation, says ready to serve

 

Amid reports that he is deemed too ill to stand for election, incumbent Sepang MP Mohamed Hanipa Maidin brushed off speculation about his health and asserted that he was ready to serve.

Hanipa said he was also prepared to accept the party’s decision if it decides to drop him as a candidate.

“I believe in Amanah’s wisdom, which would certainly consider ‘winnability’ as the main and dominant factor for choosing a candidate – at least that’s what I’ve always been told – unless that policy has been changed.

“I also don’t think Amanah’s experienced leaders would be naïve enough in candidate selection to dabble in ‘trial and error’ in the candidacy process in an election that the Umno president had described as ‘mother of all elections’,” Hanipa (above)said in a statement last night.

Amanah is supposed to have finalised its candidates’ list for the 15th general election yesterday.

It was reported that during a closed-door meeting a day before, Hanipa’s candidacy in the election had supposedly been ruled out for health reasons, and that he had supposedly accepted the reason.

Still actively serving

However, in his statement yesterday, Hanipa said he almost burst into laughter when he read that his health was cited as a reason to rule him out as a candidate.

He said that despite collapsing twice, he had continued working to serve his constituents and push legislation.

“It is quite funny that health is cited as the reason, as though fellow politicians regardless of their party affiliation are perfectly spry and healthy.

“Even funnier is that while I’m supposedly unwell, I have been taking an active role debating in Parliament, touching on nearly all bills involving different genres of the law.

“I, who is said to be ‘unwell’, is ironically asked to represent Amanah in the bipartisan special select committee announced by the Umno prime minister to draft the anti-hopping law. That special select committee met frequently and held quite a few meetings.

“The person said to be ‘unwell’ has ironically gone to the ground in Sepang nearly every week to meet the people. The Sepang parliamentary service centre Facebook page recording my activities in Sepang while I was MP is my Exhibit P-1,” he said.

The former deputy law minister also expressed admiration towards the late DAP leader Karpal Singh, whom he said never grew tired of speaking up for the downtrodden, even when himself having to use a wheelchair. - Mkini