A VICTORY for Perikatan Nasional (PN) in the forthcoming six state elections on Aug 12 will be good for the economy, said lawyer and former minister Datuk Zaid Ibrahim.
Citing Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, Zaid said the 98-year-old veteran statesman will help get the country back on the right track, adding that “[Mahathir] has a proven track record” and that the country should “use his expertise while we can”.
“The Chinese and Indian business [communities] should learn from history; they always prosper when they have good relations with their Muslim neighbours,” he said in a statement on Twitter today (Aug 1).
“Today China has 120 million Muslims, but the neighbouring countries in Central Asia are also predominantly Muslims. The Chinese Road Belt initiatives will not be successful without the support of Muslim countries in Central Asia and Africa.”
Zaid further pointed out that even in the days of the Prophet, Chinese business delegations had visited him and his adviser Omar Al-Khattab in Medina.
“When Cai Lun and other paper inventors from China had a business conflict with Muslims in Baghdad, they were spared any punishment when the Chinese offered to teach the Muslims how to produce paper,” he asserted, adding that the excellent relationship between the Chinese business community and Muslims has survived the test of time.
“War-mongering is being formulated to scare the Chinese and the Indians of the ‘green wave’. The business communities are always wiser than the propagandists,” he noted.
The “green wave” as referenced by Zaid – named after the colour of Perikatan Nasional (PN) component party PAS – was coined after 15th general election (GE15) results that saw the Islamist party and its partner Bersatu sweep not just the east coast states of Kelantan and Terengganu but also Kedah and Perlis on the north-west coast and make inroads into other states in the peninsula.
During GE15, the “green wave” saw PAS and PN carrying out a clean sweep of all 14 parliamentary seats in Kelantan and eight in Terengganu, and opposition leaders have been reported to be unusually optimistic in terms of a repeat performance in the coming state elections in six states. – Aug 1, 2023
Main pic credit: The Star
