Lawyer Siti Zabedah Kasim has fired back at Pakatan Harapan over the perception that she is splitting the opposition’s share of votes in Batu - where she plans to contest in the 15th general election (GE15).
When asked why Gerak Independent (GI), which Siti co-founded, appeared to be contesting predominantly Harapan seats, she explained that for Batu, she felt its constituents would understand her better than those in rural areas.
“Why are the people asking independents like me, who have a track record of what I stand for?
“Why aren’t people asking PKR? Why can’t they stand against the big guns in rural areas? Why are they asking me - just because it’s a safe seat for them?
“Why can’t Harapan, as a bigger coalition, go for all these so-called Malay heartlands - the Umno areas? They have the money, the vehicles, the machinery, they have thousands of people believing in them,” she told Malaysiakini.
Siti said she was previously told to run in seats held by the likes of incumbent Ampang MP Zuraida Kamaruddin and incumbent Titiwangsa MP Rina Harun - to which she commented that “talk is cheap”.
“I’m a nobody, so it’s easier to bully me and pressure me. They want to tell me what to do.
“I will stick to what I have decided. I announced it over a year ago so I didn’t just choose (the place to contest) like throwing a dart. I chose Batu because I believe it is an area where the constituents will understand where I’m coming from and the values that I carry,” the human rights activist added.
Request to contest under Harapan
Siti did, however, stress that she is unable to speak for others in her group.
Notably, GI co-founder Tawfik Ismail revealed yesterday that he has requested to contest under a Harapan ticket in Bagan Datuk.
The son of Malaysia’s second deputy prime minister, who was the MP for the now defunct Sungai Benut constituency, confirmed this with Malaysiakini.
He said requesting to contest under Harapan is a strategy to avoid split votes between him and the coalition’s candidate in GE15.
“(This is) to avoid splitting votes in pursuing identical goals. I am offering my nomination to Harapan as a candidate under their symbol,” he said.
This comes after Tawfik recently vowed to challenge Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi in GE15.
Earlier this year, GI announced its line-up of potential GE15 candidates for Subang, Petaling Jaya, Wangsa Maju, Kota Kinabalu, and Batu - all seats won by Harapan during the 2018 general election.
Of these seats, one belongs to DAP while the rest are PKR’s including Batu, which was won by P Prabakaran as an independent but who has since joined PKR.
On the issue of Tawfik’s strategy, Siti said via Whatsapp: “GI has always been open to working with Harapan. We remain independent but for the sake of unity to defeat the devils, we’re open to do this. To run under the Harapan banner.”
‘PKR nomination site a gimmick’
Earlier this month, PKR deputy president Rafizi Ramli unveiled a new website that allows Malaysians to nominate themselves as a candidate of his party for the general election.
The initiative was expected to enable PKR to “widen its talent pool”.
“Rafizi said everyone is welcome to be a PKR candidate, only because Harapan got a lot of criticism because they brought in rubbish people. Suddenly, they want to open up to everybody.
“It’s all just a gimmick. What we need to do is educate our voters. The understanding from voters is very much lacking because nobody wants to teach them their rights,” Siti said.
She added that regardless of whether she wins, she plans to hold workshops to provide her constituents with basic knowledge of their rights as citizens.
“I’m going to do some classes in my service centre on basic knowledge of their rights. Then, they would know what to do when they have been bullied by the police or any government agencies.
“How do you deal with these people? Do you just accept whatever the person at the counter tells you? It’s nice to respect people, but don’t think that you owe them anything,” she said.
Political funding
On the future of GI, Siti suggested that the group could possibly evolve into a political party, adding that her funding as a candidate for the Batu seat was by public crowdfunding.
On her opponents in Batu, Siti drew attention to another independent candidate Nur Fathiah Syazwana Shaharuddin, also known as Cleopatra.
“The first thing that hit me when I saw (Fathiah’s) poster asking for people to work, (is) I know she’s earning money.
“I said, ‘Wow, she must be either very rich or she’s planted by very rich backers or political parties’.
“Then, somebody told me that people on the internet found her Facebook and saw that she’s close to MIC leaders, close to BN people. She’s even said she’s not close to Harapan, so, who is she with?” Siti questioned.
Despite this, she wished her opponent luck on the campaign trail.
“To be honest, lagi ramai, lagi bagus (the more, the merrier). Bagi PKR lagi pening kepala (give PKR a bigger headache).
“Are these people going to tell her (Fathiah), ‘Why not challenge the katak (party hoppers) or Umno people?’ No, they won’t. They only put pressure on me because I’m an easy target,” Siti said.
Handling abuse, attacks
Since the start of her campaign, Batu hopeful Fathiah has faced verbal abuse - with social media users using derogatory labels to describe the candidate - which Fathiah reportedly has denounced.
In response to this, Siti similarly condemned such language.
“I hate the internet because of its cruelty. They think because they’re hiding behind their keyboard, they can condemn anyone. Luckily, God gave me a very strong constitution and I can withstand the comments. I just live with it.
“Even when a friend tagged me to talk about Rosmah’s appearance, I hated that because I never liked to say anything about somebody’s appearance. Nobody’s perfect in this world.
“When you attack somebody’s personality, looks and life, the way they dress, that speaks a lot about you. If you have nothing nice to say, don’t say anything. You want to attack? Attack on the person’s policy or work, things like that. I will never attack someone based on their looks,” Siti said.
While she personally gets many hateful comments online, she said she has yet to encounter similar vitriolic attacks in person.
“I get a lot of comments online but on the ground, I’ve met a lot of people and not one person has called me names. In fact, they were so happy and proud to see me.
“Sometimes the internet can be horrible so don’t ever believe anything you read online. A lot of these profiles are fake. You need to be strong, be brave. That’s my principle,” she added. - Mkini
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