Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim took to the stump last night, declaring he opposes corruption, not Umno, in an attempt to win votes in Barisan Nasional’s (BN) stronghold of Merlimau.
PAS currently faces an uphill battle in the one-sided by-election and is hoping that Anwar’s appearance would jump-start its campaign.
“I was told that Merlimau is an Umno stronghold, I already know… but I did not enter politics to make enemies, I joined politics because I want to uphold justice and fight against tyranny.
“I am not hostile to Umno, I am only hostile to evil leaders that do not solve problems affecting the people and practices corruption,” he said to a crowd of over 500 supporters.
Anwar’s ceramah was the first among Pakatan Rakyat’s (PR) top leadership while PAS president Datuk Abdul Hadi Awang and spiritual leader Datuk Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat have yet to appear in the state seat’s by-election.
he Opposition leader admitted that Merliamu will difficult to capture from BN but pointed to the Arab uprising which overthrew governments in Tunisia and Egypt.
“In Egypt, people thought that it was impossible to have change… we must be confident and believe that it is possible. We must be confident,” he said.
He also promised that PR will not neglect that fate of the Malay community.
“It is not possible for us to neglect the problems of the Malay people... but which Malay problems are we talking about? Children of Tun (Dr Mahathir Mohamad)? Families of Tan Sri? The prime minister’s family?
“I choose Malays that are at the bottom,” he said.
He added that the Malays must also ensure the rights of other communities as they are also part of the country.
While at a BN youth ceramah nearby, banners were put up that insulted Anwar and labelled him as a sodomite.
On Sunday, leaflets were distributed in Merlimau with spliced images of Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim with Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan and Azmin Ali’s sister, Ummi Hafilda.
However deputy prime minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin suggested that the leaflets were distributed by PR to gain voter sympathy.
The Merlimau by-election was called following the death of Datuk Mohamad Hidhir Abu Hassan on January 20.
The seat’s electoral roll has 10, 679 votes, with 6,935 Malay voters, 2,218 Chinese voters and 1,510 Indians voters.
In 2008, the late Mohamad Hidhir retained the Merlimau state seat after he defeated PAS’s Jasme Tompang by a majority of 2,154 votes. In Election 2004, he won the seat by 5,087 votes.
Merlimau is located within the Jasin parliamentary constituency, a stronghold of BN, which won all the five state seats in Election 2008.
The by-election will see a straight fight between PAS’s Yuhaizat Abdullah and Umno’s Roslan Ahmad.
BN currently controls 23 seats in the Melaka assembly while DAP is the only opposition with five.
The Election Commission (EC) has set the polling date as March 6.
