Bersatu supreme council member questions Perikatan’s choices for Selangor polls

Ben Tan
·3-min read
Malay Mail
Malay Mail

KUALA LUMPUR, August 1 — Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) supreme council member Dr Muhammad Faiz Na'aman has expressed his dissatisfaction with the Perikatan Nasional (PN) coalition’s selection of candidates for the August 12 Selangor state election.

“We reject the culture of sucking up in politics and there must be logic in nominating the candidates,” he said in a recent Facebook post after PN revealed its line-up for Selangor last Wednesday.

Dr Muhammad Faiz also said that he has been accused of sabotaging his party and PN’s campaign efforts due to his comments but asserted that it is his duty as a Bersatu supreme council member to champion the voices of the party’s division chiefs and youth leaders from Selangor.

“Let’s think back, who are the ones responsible for arranging the cartel and Mak Lampir groups to ride on PN?

“Whose data and statistics caused us to lose in the Melaka and Johor state elections? So, who is sabotaging who first?” he asked.

“Cartel” is the term used for Datuk Seri Azmin Ali’s followers when he was PKR deputy president, while Mak Lampir – a figure from Indonesian folklore similar to a crone – is a gibe on former minister Datuk Seri Zuraida Kamaruddin.

Malay daily Utusan Malaysia previously reported Dr Muhammad Faiz saying that the main reason for his discontentment was because Bersatu was willing to nominate candidates who had previously lost in last November’s general election.

He said that among the candidates considered ineligible because the people in Selangor had rejected them in GE15 were Azmin (Gombak), Datuk Seri Rina Harun (Sepang), Sasha Lyna Abdul Latiff (Ampang) and Dr Afif Bahardin (Shah Alam).

He said the same people have now been named as PN’s candidates for the state seats of Hulu Kelang, Batu Tiga, Bukit Antarabangsa and Taman Medan respectively.

“I have seen this issue since the Melaka and Johor state elections where we lost due to having the wrong candidates. The data presented in the meeting supposedly showed that these candidates had value, but it was later revealed to be the opposite after the post mortem.

“The same situation is being repeated again,” Dr Muhammad Faiz was quoted as saying by Utusan Malaysia.

Dr Muhammad Faiz said that in Bersatu there were also non-Malay candidates who are followers of former Ampang MP Zuraida.

He said Zuraida has since left Bersatu for Parti Bangsa Malaysia which she also left following an internal crisis last year.

“Some of the Zuraida’s followers have joined the Muafakat Nasional non-governmental organisation and Gerakan.

“These people have suddenly reappeared as PN candidates,” he said.

Dr Muhammad Faiz said there are also cases where PN candidates were not from any party but from NGOs, were former gangsters, or former officials and questioned why they were nominated when they had never served in Bersatu before.

Selangor has 56 state seats and PN is contesting all of them.

Bersatu is fielding 21 candidates, PAS (17), Gerakan (eight) and Bersatu’s allied wing (10).

Nomination day which also signals the start of official campaigning was last Saturday.

Polling day is on August 12 while early voting is on August 8.

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