PAS should support Harapan's Tg Piai candidate - Saifuddin quips
PAS should be supporting the Pakatan Harapan candidate Karmaine Sardini in the Tanjung Piai by-election, Foreign Affairs Minister Saifuddin Abdullah said.
However, he made it clear that he was joking...
- UPDATED at 12.35PM with response from Amanah vice-president Mahfuz Omar.
PAS should be supporting the Pakatan Harapan candidate Karmaine Sardini in the Tanjung Piai by-election, Foreign Affairs Minister Saifuddin Abdullah said.
However, he made it clear that he was joking.
"You have to ask PAS, how are they going to campaign in Tanjung Piai now because they are working very closely with Umno... I think PAS should support the Harapan candidate.
"There were occasions in the past when PAS campaigned that Muslims should vote only for a Muslim (candidate) when there were Muslim vs non-Muslim candidates.
"But that's not really what I want, I want the more open democracy," Saifuddin (above) said with a laugh.
He was speaking to reporters after attending the Ministers' Question Time in the Dewan Rakyat today.
BN had yesterday announced that they would be fielding MCA's Wee Jeck Seng in the Tanjung Piai by-election to go up against Karmaine (below), who is the Tanjung Piai Bersatu chief.
Earlier today, PAS had said they will back Wee as BN's Tanjung Piai by-election candidate.
PAS secretary-general Takiyuddin Hassan had also said his party's top leaders will be attending the nomination day this Saturday (Nov 2) as a show of support.
“PAS is confident that the candidate was chosen based on local needs in Tanjung Piai - which we believe is the best formula to win votes and strengthen the opposition’s voice on the national level.
“And this will bring about a mature political approach that is not extreme,” he had said.
Takiyuddin also said that the PAS’ support for BN was in line with the Umno-PAS cooperation charter.
Mahfuz describes it as 'stupidity'
Separately, Amanah vice-president Mahfuz Omar (photo) described PAS' support for Wee as BN's candidate for Tanjung Piai as "stupidity".
"This is an act of stupidity towards their members and their supporters and all of Malaysia with this new statement supporting the MCA candidate.
"Even though in Cameron Highlands, they said that it is compulsory for Muslims to support Muslim candidates when it is a fight between a Muslim and non-Muslim candidate, but when it comes to this, there are suddenly new grounds that might be used by the PAS leadership to justify their support of a BN candidate from MCA," Mahfuz said to reporters in Parliament today.
This is politics where PAS is only looking for opportunities for their own benefit, he said.
"So it is very reasonable for the people of Tanjung Piai to reject this kind of stupid politics from the PAS leadership and Umno," he said.
The Tanjung Piai by-election was triggered by incumbent Mohd Farid Mohd Rafik’s death from a heart attack on Sept 21.
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