AN UMNO Supreme Council member has criticised former Penang deputy chief minister Prof Dr P. Ramasamy and PAS information chief Ahmad Fadhli Shaari for running “misleading” campaigns ahead of the Kuala Kubu Baharu by-election.
“I once debated with Ramasamy in 2008 in Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM). Back then, he had just won the Batu Kawan parliamentary seat,” Datuk Mohd Puad Zarkashi recalled in a Facebook post on Thursday (May 2).
“Back then, I had already said that he cannot go far (in politics). Ramasamy is a professor who had switched to politics but ran out of steam halfway through. Many professors are not realistic when entering politics.
“Ramasamy had recently formed a new political party (Urimai), but he knows that he has no means of attracting supporters. He isn’t an icon of the Indian people. He joined politics without grassroots (support) and this is why his party wouldn’t dare contest in the KKB by-election.”
Puad also came to the defence of Pakatan Harapan’s (PH) candidate for the KKB seat, DAP’s Pang Sock Tao, in response to Ahmad Fadhli, who previously broached the issue of her vernacular schooling.
“There is no need to make an issue over Pang graduating from an SJKC. (These schools) are not illegal,” he said, referring to Chinese vernacular schools.
“Even if she graduated from a beauty school or a ‘sekolah pondok’, what’s the problem with that?”
On April 29, Pang revealed that she had scored straight As for her SPM and UPSR examinations after Ahmad Fadhli had challenged her to disclose where she completed her primary and secondary schooling.
Fadhli, the PAS information chief, then said he hoped that the “issue” of her coming from a vernacular school would continue during the by-election campaign.
The May 11 by-election will see a four-cornered fight between Pang, Perikatan Nasional’s (PN) Khairul Azhari Saut, Parti Rakyat Malaysia’s Hafizah Zainuddin and independent candidate Nyau Ke Xin.
Kuala Kubu Baharu is a mixed seat with a voter breakdown of Malay (46%), Chinese (30%), and Indian (18%) and others (6%).
Polling day will be on May 11, with early voting falling on May 7. – May 2, 2024
Main pic credit: The Merdeka Times
