BN’s Gelang Patah candidate Abdul Ghani Othman’s first message to his constituents is to fight “racial polarisation” allegedly brought in by the opposition

“There has been some attempts to upset what has been the 'Johor way'... This attempt to polarise support within the context of community will be restricted by the voters themselves,” he said after submitting his nomination papers at the Johor Baru Tengah City Council building.

Asked to elaborate on the polarisation claim, Ghani said it is polarisation of political support based on race.

NONE “I hope we will not have a situation where the voting is based on polarisation within the community, because this has never been the experience in Johor (in the past) where we managed to defend BN seats in 2008 with the support of all (races).

“We must go all out to fight against such attempts to bring polarisation, (meaning electoral) support based on race,” he said.

The 'Johor way', a term frequently used by Johor BN leaders to unite Johoreans against the alleged divisive politics of 'outsiders', generally refers to the dependability and uniformity of the support of all races for the BN.

NONE The BN claims that the Chinese and Indian minority communities in Johor have been given fair treatment by the state government, especially in the development of vernacular education.

Ghani will engage DAP’s Lim Kit Siang in a straight fight in Gelang Patah, the first Chinese-majority seat contested by an Umno candidate.

BN has fielded two new faces in the two state seats under Gelang Patah - Dr Zaini Abu Bakar (Nusajaya) and Liang Ah Chy (Skudai).

Liang will face DAP’s incumbent Dr Boo Cheng Hau while Zaini will square off with PAS vice-president Salahuddin Ayub. Nusajaya was won by Abdul Aziz Sapian from Umno in the last general election.

Ex-sergeant drops out after 15 minutes

There was a dramatic moment during the nomination process when R Rajendran, 55, a retired army sergeant and MIC member, submitted his nomination papers, only to withdraw after 15 minutes.

After submitting his nomination papers, he told media that he is not happy that the previous MP had failed to solve his problem.

Reluctant to answer questions from reporters who tried to find out more about his background, Rajendran told the reporters, “Let me relax first”.

After waiting in the nomination hall for about 15 minutes with two Indian ladies who were his seconder and proposer, he suddenly approached one Election Commission (EC) official to say that he wished to withdraw his nomination.

NONE He then walked over to Ghani, who sat on another chair after filing his nomination papers, shook Ghani’s hand, patted his shoulder and said that he will support Ghani in the general election, attracting dozens of photographers.

After that he proceeded to fill up documents for his withdrawal, before joining the candidates from both BN and Pakatan Rakyat for refreshment and even the official candidacy announcement ceremony.

Asked by reporters later, Ghani denied that he has convinced Rajendran to withdraw from contesting.

“I was seated there, he came up to me and said, ‘Look, I’ve seen you before and I’ve discussed something with you.’ I said, ‘Okay-lah, let’s go to the polls, we’ll see.’ That’s all! After that he went back to the counter then later he told me he had withdrawn... I was surprised,” Ghani said.

On the other hand, Kit Siang and Salahuddin expressed relief after learning that the EC has accepted DAP candidates to contest using the rocket logo.

“(The logo crisis) showed the solidarity and loyalty of the component parties (which agreed to lend their logo to DAP). This is a very good development which indicates that in the future, probably we will have not only a coalition but a party that represents all races, religions and territories, a party that represents all Malaysians,” Kit Siang commented.

On his candidacy in both the Nusajaya state seat and Pulai parliamentary seat, Salahuddin said he has a 50 percent of chance of winning both seats as his campaigning in those areas had started since a year ago.

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