Good luck, Azmin tells ex-MBs in quest to wrest Selangor

He says the three former MBs will not succeed as people are well aware of their histories.

Mohamed-Azmin-Ali-bendera-selangor-malaysia PETALING JAYA: “Good luck.”

This is the message Selangor Menteri Besar Azmin Ali has for the three former MBs reported to have been roped in to help topple the Selangor government under him in the upcoming 14th general election (GE14).

The three are Muhammad Muhammad Taib (MB from 1986 to 1997), Abu Hassan Omar (1997 to 2000) and Mohamad Khir Toyo (2000 to 2008).

Azmin, who is also PKR deputy president and Pakatan Harapan vice-president, said BN’s plan would not succeed as people are well aware of their histories.

“We know who these three are and why they are no longer serving. Everybody knows about them.”

He said Umno needed all the luck it could get if all it was relying on was the stature of each of these previous MBs.

He said the move also reflected on the failure of the current Selangor Umno leadership to draw support from the people.

“They are forced to use oldies to attract support,” he told reporters after the launch of the Selangor Bio Bay Gallery here today.

On Sept 17, Prime Minister Najib Razak, who is Umno president, had announced the return of Muhammad into the party.

Muhammad, 72, had joined PAS in April 2013 after having been an Umno member for almost 50 years. He later moved to PKR in September 2015.

Following this, Selangor Umno chairman Noh Omar was reported as saying that Muhammad, Abu Hassan and Khir would join forces to ensure BN regained control of the state which it lost in the 2008 general election.

Azmin said wresting Selangor would be an uphill task as the current state administration had achieved significant success during its rule thus far and the PH pact was enjoying enormous support from voters.

He said Noh was also unable to gain the support of young voters for Umno or BN.

Azmin also denied that PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim had attempted to seize power of the federal government by trying to unduly engineer defections of MPs from BN to the opposition on Sept 16, 2008.

He said the BN MPs had wanted to cross over willingly without inducement.

“What happened was that the BN MPs were uncomfortable with BN policies, including in Sabah and Sarawak.

“They made the decision willingly to back Pakatan Rakyat’s policy. We did not need to buy their support.”