BERSATU deputy president Datuk Seri Ahmad Faizal Azumu (Peja) has shot down wishful thoughts that the recent freeze of the party’s bank accounts by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) will diminish its chances of winning seats that it will be contesting in the upcoming state polls.
This is despite the Perikatan Nasional (PN) Perak state chairman admitting that the freeze of the party’s accounts has affected the party’s preparations in the face of elections in six states in June or July.
On the contrary, Faizal is confident that with the hard work of party members and supporters within the PN coalition, Bersatu will be able to win big in the state polls of Selangor, Kelantan, Terengganu, Negeri Sembilan, Kedah and Penang.
He further emphasised that the experience of coping with lack of funds during the 14th General Election (GE14) has taught Bersatu many lessons about moving on with its existing strength and eventually enabled it to wrest both state governments and the central government from the control of Barisan Nasional (BN).
“With Bersatu’s account having been frozen for more than a month, we admit there’s an impact on the party especially to pay staff’s salaries but again, there’s nothing much that we can do about it. It even makes life difficult for us to move effectively in light of the next state polls,” the former Perak Menteri Besar told Malay daily Utusan Malaysia.
“However, lessons from GE-14 have taught us a lot of experience to rely on our existing strengths. Imagine how we paint the Bersatu flags ourselves, but this shouldn’t undermine the fact that we are able to win and form a government.”
He added: “This is not impossible with the continued momentum of the people’s support in GE15, God willing, we can win many seats, especially in Selangor.”
Faizal went on to echo the denial of Bersatu president Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin during a debate on the motion of thanks on the royal address in the Dewan Rakyat yesterday (Feb 15) that the accusation of him or the party being involved in any act of corruption is merely slander and lies.
He further defended the PN chairman’s innocence given that the latter has uttered the word Wallahi (I swear to God) that he never used his position as prime minister (PM) for the benefit of his family.
“This is a message that the people need to see, that the Bersatu president has denied the false accusation against him. Imagine how he was first accused of embezzling RM600 bil. Then that changed to RM530 bil, RM90 bil, RM45 bil and soon after, RM300 mil.” added Faizal. – Feb 16, 2023
