BN washes hands of 'amputated legs' campaign

VIDEO| 2.39 mins

The Sungai Limau by-election campaign took a tasteless turn as two amputated legs of a mannequin are each spotted hanging at two towns in the constituency.

Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Jamil Khir Baharom (left) who called for an urgent press conference to reveal this today, described it as an awkward and disgusting act.

The late Sungai Limau rep Azizan Abdul Razak had his two legs amputated in Penang Hospital due to diabetes.

He passed away on Sept 26, leaving the seat vacant for the present by-election.

"This is a conspiracy to instil hatred among the locals against BN," he said, adding that this had nothing to do with the coalition.

He said the replicas were spotted by BN campaigners before noon today at Bukit Besar and downtown Titi Batu.

On the fake legs the words 'kaki ustaz' (the uztaz' leg) were painted in red, leaving little doubt whose they are supposed to represent.

"This is done by irresponsible quarters to raise sympathy for Azizan (right), which is very disgusting and it should not be done," he lamented.

Not work of internal saboteur

This is not the first time the former Kedah MB's amputation became campaign fodder, earlier Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin kicked up a storm when he joked about the matter in justifying the rise in sugar prices due to the abolition of subsidies.

Muhyiddin eventually apologised following demands from PAS.

Meanwhile, when asked if the stunt was the job of a BN insider, Jamil Khir denied this saying there was no internal fighting in the by-election machinery.

The Jerai MP said BN component parties' members were united to fight against their common enemy.

"I feel upset upon learning about this, and I don't want this to be related with BN.

"Hopefully no one will mistake us as playing dirty tricks," said Jamil Khir, who is also Umno supreme council member.

He also urged all quarters stop provocations as the campaign period approached closing.

He added that a campaigner has lodged a police report over the matter and the fake legs have been taken down with the assistance of the police.

Mukhriz: We didn't do it

Kedah Menteri Besar Mukhriz Mahathir told Bernama that BN members would never resort to doing such things, which would only cause anger among the people in Sungai Limau.

He said this was because BN had established good relationship with Azizan long before he became Kedah MB and the relationship had continued during his tenure.

"He was respected by both his friends and his enemies. Because of that, BN will never do anything that will hurt the feelings of those who loved him.

"Those who put up the mannequin legs were probably trying to make people furious and hate BN. Of course we didn't do it. Why would we want to mess with the people here?

"I really hope that the voters in Sungai Limau will not be fooled by this dirty tactic," he said.