In final lap to polls, Kit Siang says confident Malaysians know right from wrong
The senior politician recalled that in one incident, he was approached by a young Malay while on the stump for Pakatan Harapan’s Amanah candidate in Kuala Kangsar.
Lim said the youth had wanted to express support for his advocacy of national unity, religious tolerance, good governance and healthy democracy.
Another occurred just this morning in Sekinchan, Sungai Besar, where a trader related how she had told off a caller allegedly from MCA who warned her that Amanah was no different from PAS.
According to Lim, the trader fired back at the caller, whom he described as an “MCA telephone propagandist, by asking why the party was not protesting Umno’s so-called alliance with PAS.
“Both these ‘high points’ in the Sungai Besar and Kuala Kangsar by-election campaign restored my confidence in the future of Malaysia and my faith in ordinary Malaysians, regardless of race, religion or region, and their ability to distinguish right from wrong, good and bad, however intense and saturated the propaganda offensives of Umno/Barisan Nasional (BN) machinery,” he said in a statement.
Despite these positive responses, however, Lim admitted that the by-election campaigns were also marred by several “low points”.
This, he said, includes the alleged use of public funds by the Barisan Nasional (BN) election machinery to woo voters in both the federal seats.
The “atomic bomb” gaffe by PKR’s Rafizi Ramli was another “low point”, Lim said, pointing out that it silly how something that was clearly uttered in jest was taken out of context to become a threat.
He said there was no way a human being could simply “hurl atomic bombs” at others, pointing out that the bombs that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki in World War II had each weighed about 4,500kgs.
Lim also railed against what he described as the “low-class antics” of destroying and defacing Amanah and Pakatan Harapan’s campaign banners and billboards, as well as Umno minister Datuk Ismail Sabri Yaakob’s alleged boast that he could pen a book his (Lim’s) anti-Malay and anti-Islam ways.
One other “low point”, the Gelang Patah MP said, was reports of PAS’s alleged warning to Muslim voters that they would face damnation in the next world if they do not vote for the Islamist party.
Lim added that such a threat was tantamount to a violation of election laws, specifically Section 9(1) of the Election Offences Act which makes it an offence for any person to make threats including “temporal or spiritual injury, damage, harm or loss” to influence voters.
Noting that the twin by-elections will likely be the last two electoral contests before federal polls arrives in two years, Lim urged voters in both constituencies to send a clear message to the BN leadership when they cast their ballots this June 18.
“Let the voters of Sungai Besar and Kuala Kangsar, on behalf of 30 million Malaysians, send out a clear and unmistakable signal to Najib and the country that Malaysia is prepared to become a normal democratic country after six decades of nation building and elections where the occupants of Putrajaya could be peacefully and democratically changed, as has happened six times in the United Kingdom with peaceful and democratic transitions of power in the past 60 years ― and which has become the norm in Philippines and Indonesia democratic processes!” he said.
The parliamentary Sungai Besar by-election in Selangor will see a three-way contest among BN’s Budiman Mohd Zohdi, PAS’s Dr Abdul Rani Osman and Amanah’s Azhar Shukur.
The federal Kuala Kangsar by-election in Perak will see a four-way fight among BN’s Mastura Mohd Yazid, PAS' Dr Najihatussalehah Ahmad, Amanah's Ahmad Termizi Ramli and, independent Izat Bukhary Ismail Bukhary.
Polling for both constituencies will take place this Saturday.
from Malay Mail Online | All http://ift.tt/1Pt6pv3
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