PAS need not reveal Mahkota post-mortem, Fadhli tells 'jet-lagged' Puad

There is no need for PAS to reveal its electoral post-mortem results to the media, the Islamist party’s information chief Ahmad Fadhli Shaari said.

He said this in response to Umno supreme council member Mohd Puad Zarkashi accusing PAS of being in denial over Perikatan Nasional’s defeat in Mahkota.

“There is no need for us to announce our post-mortem results to the media.

“For example, when Umno lost in the Kemaman by-election by a majority of 37,220 votes, we didn’t go around asking Umno to comment about how a former army general could lose with such a large majority.

“But if you really want a comment on Mahkota, then it is, congratulations! It’s the same like how Umno won big during the Malacca and Johor state polls, only to get routed during the last general election,” he said in a statement today.

On Saturday, BN’s Syed Hussien Syed Abdullah won the Johor state seat in style, winning by 20,648 votes after obtaining 27,995 votes compared to PN’s Mohamad Haizan Jaafar, who only got 7,347.

On Dec 2 last year, PN’s Ahmad Samsuri Mokhtar won the Kemaman by-election by garnering 64,998 votes, while BN’s Raja Mohamed Affandi Raja Mohamed Noor polled 27,778.

Earlier today, Puad said that while Bersatu and Gerakan were examining their defeat in Mahkota, PAS was in denial.

“PAS suffers from a denial syndrome. Perhaps it thinks the results only affected Bersatu, but the Islamist party itself got trounced in Nenggiri,” the Johor state assembly speaker was reported as saying.

‘Jet-lagged after China trip’

Taking potshots at Puad, Fadhli said the former was probably still suffering from jet lag following his recent trip to China.

“Perhaps, after returning from studies in a communist school, he is still jet-lagged.

“People usually get over jet lag within a day or two. If Puad is still having jet lag after a week, perhaps whatever he learnt from the communist school was working,” he said.

On Sept 24, Johor Bersatu chairperson Dr Sahruddin Jamal and his team lodged a police report against Puad over his study trip to China with several other party leaders.

Sahruddin said he was worried that this could spread communism among Umno members and the Johor state assembly.

A day later, Puad described the accusation as “stupid” and reminded Bersatu of their own leader Muhyiddin Yassin’s trip to China during the latter’s premiership.

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