‘REFORMASI TIN KOSONG’ ANWAR GETS A WAKE-UP CALL FROM UMNO – NOW IS THE TIME TO BRING ‘ACTUAL CHANGES’, NOT TALK TALK TALK! – EVEN AS PAS ‘SHOWS FOCUS ON DEVELOPMENT’ AS BOTH SIDES OF THE DIVIDE GEAR UP FOR KEY JOHOR POLLS
Forget ‘reformasi’, time to bring actual changes, says Nur Jazlan
Former MP Nur Jazlan Mohamed promises that Umno will help PH to win the Pulai parliamentary by-election on Sept 9.
PETALING JAYA: The time for “reformasi” is over, it’s time to put actual reforms and positive changes into practice, Umno Supreme Council member Nur Jazlan Mohamed told Pakatan Harapan supporters today.
Speaking at an election rally in Johor, Nur Jazlan promised that Umno members would help PH candidate Suhaizan Kaiat to win the Pulai parliamentary by-election on Sept 9.
He said a PH victory was crucial to ensure the unity government maintains its two-thirds majority in Parliament.
Nur Jazlan said that he will make maximum use of the two-week campaign period to convince Umno members in Pulai to throw their support behind Suhaizan.
He said Umno members would help ensure a victory to provide the BN-PH unity government a platform to change the direction of the country in a more positive way.
“I don’t want to use the word ‘reformasi’, I don’t want to hear it any more, the time for ‘reformasi’ is over, now is the time to change the course of the country,” said Nur Jazlan.
His use of “reformasi” was a reference to the slogan used since the 1990s by supporters of PKR leader Anwar Ibrahim at the beginning of his campaign for reforms. Anwar is now prime minister of the unity federal coalition government.
Nur Jazlan urged Chinese voters not to take this by-election lightly and come out to vote on Sept 9 as he believed they had contributed to the victory of former Pulai MP Salahuddin Ayub at the general election in November last year.
The Pulai parliamentary seat and the Simpang Jeram state seat were vacated following the death of Salahuddin on July 23.
In Pulai, Suhaizan will face Zulkifli Jaafar of Perikatan Nasional and independent Samsudin Fauzi.
In Simpang Jeram, PH is fielding Nazri Abdul Rahman of Amanah, who will be contesting against PN’s Dr Mazri Yahya of PAS and independent candidate S Jeghanaathan. FMT
PAS’s choice of Kelantan duo ‘shows focus on development’
A political analyst says the party wants to expand beyond Kelantan by emphasising it is looking into development-related issues.
PETALING JAYA: The appointment of an ulama and a professional as Kelantan’s menteri besar and deputy respectively is meant to give the impression that the PAS-led government is serious about developing the east coast state, an analyst said.
Azmil Tayeb of Universiti Sains Malaysia said the Islamic party hoped to expand its support base beyond Kelantan by emphasising through its choice of state leaders that it was looking into development-related issues.
The state has been plagued by water woes and a lack of job opportunities and investments coming in, as well as poverty.
Nassuruddin Daud, an ulama, took office as Kelantan’s new menteri besar last week, with former law lecturer Fadzli Hassan as his deputy.
He told FMT he also did not see the choice of an ulama-professional combination resulting in any rifts in the party, referring to the time a faction of professionals had left the party and subsequently formed Amanah in 2015.
He said the current ulama and professional faction in the party were almost ideologically similar.
“The previously more moderate professional faction had been purged from the party and later formed Amanah.”
Nassuruddin, the Kelantan PAS information chief, replaced Ahmad Yakob who, like previous menteris besar since 1990, had come from a religious background.
Fadzli had a legal background and was a lecturer before joining politics.
James Chin of the University of Tasmania said as PAS leaders are focusing on winning the federal government at the next general election, a potential rift between the ulama and professional groups in the state government would be minimal.
He said if there is any disagreement between the two groups, their differences will be in the state development method.
“The tension is about how to develop Kelantan rather than ideological differences as there are not a lot of differences between ulama and professional groups (in PAS),” Chin said. FMT
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