BERSATU Youth Chief Wan Ahmad Fayhsal Wan Ahmad Kamal has come full circle after the once-PAS critic announced he will be standing on the Islamist party’s ticket for the upcoming polls.
In a tweet late last night (Oct 2), the caretaker deputy national unity minister said he would be Perikatan Nasional’s (PN) candidate for Machang, and urged ballot-casters to vote for the “moon” – PAS’ logo – in the 15th General Election (GE15) on Nov 19.
“I accept this decision with repentance and full of gratitude,” he wrote. “God willing, I will do my best for the people of Machang and Kelantan!”
Even so, netizens were quick to re-hash some of Wan Fayhsal’s more popular online comments against PAS, including a since-deleted tweet from February 2019 where he said the party’s supporters are “stupid”:
Just under a year earlier in June 2018, the senator criticised “lebai PAS members” for being “friends” with former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, who is in prison for corruption (lebai is a term used by PAS’ opponents to mock the party’s apparent obsession with religious issues).
“Nik Abduh (Nik Abdul Aziz) admitted taking UMNO money,” he noted, referring to his PAS Youth counterpart’s infamous admission that PAS leaders like himself, Nik Abduh’s late father Datuk Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat (better known as Tok Guru) and PAS president Tan Sri Abdul Hadi Awang once received funds from their now political archrival.
A viral voice recording on the matter, which made rounds around the time of the previous elections in 2018 and was later confirmed to be Nik Abduh’s voice, added that PAS received RM2 mil from UMNO so that it could defeat DAP in the 2016 Sarawak state election.
Netizens also recalled another tweet from June 2018 in which Wan Fayhsal wrote: “Penyokong PAS tak tahu yang pimpinan dia terpalit ambil duit curi Najib. Habis la wala’un.”
Translation: “PAS supporters do not know that their leader is involved in taking Najib’s stolen money. It’s over for those loyal to PAS.”
“Here are the receipts”
A full list of “receipts” (a popular culture slang for proof or evidence, used when calling out someone for either lying or telling the truth) includes:
As expected, many poked fun at Wan Fayhsal – who earned himself the “Wan Jargon” moniker over his use of bombastic English words in social media videos and tweets – with one user taking things to the next level by sarcastically saying they want to report his Twitter account:
One quipped: “If people vote for him, they support his statement and admit to being stupid”, while another wished him and PAS luck for being “stupid together”:
In any case, going by the last election win, Wan Fayhsal’s maiden electoral contest may well be a successful one; during GE14, PAS’ candidate for the seat lost by just 2,824 votes.
Granted, it won’t be a clear-cut victory as he still has to face two-term incumbent Ahmad Jazlan Yaakub from Barisan Nasional (BN), who won with over 25,000 votes each time during GE14 and the elections before that in 2013, making it somewhat of a David versus Goliath fight.
After all, Ahmad Jazlan, a former Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) chairman and rural and regional development deputy minister, has been active in politics for almost three decades now.
On the contrary, Wan Fahysal’s rise to political stardom arguably only truly began when he was appointed as deputy youth and sports minister by Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin in 2020, and his eventual election as Bersatu youth chief.
So far, Machang is set to be a three-cornered fight – apart from Wan Fayhsal and Ahmad Jazlan, Rosli Allani Abdul Kadir from Pakatan Harapan is throwing his hat in the ring as well. – Nov 3, 2022
