DWARF among giants Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) which is entangled in a three-cornered fight with UMNO and PAS in this Saturday’s (April 26) Ayer Kuning state by-election has thanked UMNO Youth chief Datuk Dr Muhamad Akmal Saleh for helping its campaign messaging gain traction.
This came about after the firebrand Merlimau state assemblyman snubbed PSM for putting his face in the latter’s banner even though he is not a candidate with Mandarin wordings which means “Vote BN = Vote Dr Akmal”.
“Are you afraid of Dr Akmal? No need to be afraid of me as long as you don’t touch the religion, race and royalty matters which are enshrined in the Federal Constitution,” he penned on his Facebook page.
“But if you dare to touch even a little, we won’t budge an inch to defend our religion, race and homeland.”
In rebutting the Melaka Rural Development, Agriculture, and Food Security Committee chairman, PSM deputy chairman S. Arutchelvan contended that the banner is “basically factual as it raises serious contradiction especially when UMNO-BN (Barisan Nasional) tries to portray itself as the party of unity”.
“If without Akmal intervention, this banner wouldn’t have reached a bigger audience,” Arutchelvan teased.
“BN also works hard to portray PAS as an extremist party. The lesser of the evil argument has been PH (Pakatan Harapan) and BN mantra to oppose PAS and PN (Perikatan Nasional) for a long time.”
On that note, Arutchelvan defended PSM’s messaging as essentially “putting UMNO at par with PAS”.
“What we are saying is that BN is lying when it says it is promoting unity. PAS has been promoting Undi UMNO = DAP. Now we haven’t seen Akmal protesting that,” he justified.
“Anyway, Akmal need not ask PSM to explain. We are sure MCA (vice-president) Tan Teik Cheng, DAP Youth chief Woo Kah Leong, (Tourism, Arts and Culture Minister) Datuk Seri Tiong King Sing and even PKR youth chief Adam Adli can concur with us on Akmal. These are all members of the Madani government.
“We call upon the voters to reject all parties who promote racism. Akmal claims that he’s only opposing those who talk against 3R. But we’re sure there has been more police report lodged against Akmal on 3R compared to any PSM leader.”
For the record, PSM’s candidate K.S. Bawani who is also the pastry’s secretary general will be facing BN-UMNO’s Dr Mohamad Yusri Bakir and PN-PAS’ Abd Muhaimin Malek in the three-way tussle.
Ayer Kuning forms one of the two state seats in the Tapah parliamentary constituency (the other being Chenderiang). There are 31,940 eligible voters consisting of 55.97% Malay voters, Chinese (22.9%), Indians (14.38%) and Others/Orang Asli (7.5%).
Interestingly, human rights activist and lawyer Siti Kasim – alongside former DAP stalwart Prof Ramasamy Palanisamy – have recently rallied for PSM to shine in the by-election which is been held following the untimely death of its UMNO incumbent Ishsam Shahruddin on Feb 22. – April 22, 2025
