State polls: PAS to test uncharted territories

PAS Sarawak Commissioner Jofri Jaraiee

MIRI: PAS will be breaking new grounds in the coming 11th state election as it fields a non-Muslim in Kakus while its state commissioner Jofri Jaraiee readies himself for Pujut – a predominantly Chinese constituency.

Jofri, 51, told The Borneo Post that fielding a non-Muslim in Kakus would indirectly prove that PAS was open to all.

As for Pujut, Jofri, a Malay from Bintulu who has been working here for decades, claimed PAS had been preparing for its assault on Pujut for more than seven years now.

Pujut has 26,244 voters and about 32 per cent are Bumiputeras.

Jofri said he was aware he would most likely have to take on a Chinese from either SUPP or United People’s Party (UPP) and also a Chinese from the DAP in Pujut.

He said he picked Pujut instead of Senadin – 55 per cent of its 27,913 voters are Bumiputeras – because PAS merely wanted to be the voice of the people, regardless of race and religion.

“PAS is an Islamic party that accepts all groups of people, regardless of their race. Besides, based on the country’s parliamentary system, any party can contest anywhere.”

Jofri added that PAS had prepared a lot of groundwork in Pujut for the last seven years.

“We have always been voicing the people’s problems. Now is the opportunity for me to serve the people of Pujut as their elected representative.”

On hudud, he reckoned it was not an issue in the state. Further, Muslims are not the majority in the state, thus implementing hudud in the state would be difficult.

“(If the issue of hudud is played up) it would give us the chance to convey the message of Islam to all races in the state.

“We also want to give the true picture of our party and its objectives to the people.”

On how many seats PAS was confident of winning in the state polls, he replied: “All the places where we have candidates. Let’s wait and see later.”

 

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