The results of the Sungai Besar and Kuala Kangsar by-elections show that the rakyat do not believe former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s claims that Umno members have been bought.

This is the reasoning behind the pro-Barisan Nasional NGO coalition and Umno Grassroots Movement (GAUM) president Zulkarnain Mahdar’s decision not to pursue a libel suit against Mahathir.

“The results of Sungai Besar and Kuala Kangsar (by-elections) are the rakyat giving a signal that they don’t accept the accusations of ‘pemakan dedak’ (eating animal feed),” Zulkarnain told reporters outside the Sri Petaling police station today.

He had just lodged a second police report against Mahathir over the former prime minister’s June 7 blog post titled ‘Freedom of Speech’.

The first police report was also over the same blog post, but Zulkarnain said he had lodged that report under the Sedition Act.

This time, he explained, the report was lodged under the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) Act.

Mahathir in his blog post had said that the Umno members’ silence have been bought with ‘dedak’ and that those who still support Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak are traitors to the country.

Zulkarnain added that the results of the two by-elections also showed that the Citizens’ Declaration does not have traction with the rakyat.

“So, we think it would not be a smart thing to do for us to continue with the libel suit,” he said.

He had previously said that he would be filing a libel suit against Mahathir for his claims in his blog post.

Insisting that he has never received any money from Najib, Zulkarnain said he hoped Mahathir would reconsider his ‘biased accusations’.

“For us, our fight is based upon our faith in the party.

“So this accusation that we ‘makan dedak’ is a serious accusation, which is why we are asking the police to take some action,” he added.