KUALA LUMPUR – Perikatan Nasional’s (PN) defeat in the Mahkota state assembly by-election proves that PAS is not a party that can be trusted as a friend, said Umno Veterans secretary Datuk Mustapha Yaakub.
Speaking to Scoop, Mustapha claimed that PAS had sabotaged Bersatu’s candidate from the start of the campaign, leading to a landslide victory for Barisan Nasional (BN), thus weakening the morale and efforts of the PN machinery.
“While Bersatu was saddened by the predicted defeat in the Mahkota by-election, some PAS leaders were rejoicing at the loss.
“Before the nomination of candidates in the by-election, the said leader predicted that PN would lose by a majority of over 20,000 votes.
“Coincidentally, BN won by a majority of over 20,000 votes. Then the leader (Tan Sri Annuar Musa) proudly proclaimed that his prediction was accurate.
“It is not wrong to make predictions because they are not always true. But Annuar’s prediction in Mahkota was clearly an attempt to sabotage Bersatu, PAS’s coalition partner in PN.
“It weakened the fighting spirit of Bersatu’s machinery and belittled the party,” he said when contacted yesterday.
Annuar, who is the Muafakat Nasional chairman and also a PAS member, had previously predicted that BN would win by a large margin in the Mahkota State Assembly by-election, repeating the success achieved in the Nenggiri by-election.
He said this confidence was based on the results of the Johor State Election last November, which showed that BN received more than 16,000 votes while Pakatan Harapan (PH) received more than 11,000 votes.
The Mahkota by-election results on Saturday saw BN candidate Syed Hussien Syed Abdullah winning by a large majority after receiving 27,995 votes, defeating PN candidate Mohamad Haizan Jaafar, who received 7,347 votes.
Mustapha also said that although there was dissatisfaction among Bersatu leaders, they had to swallow their anger because they were afraid that PAS would not help campaign for their candidate.
“While PAS only made a half-hearted effort in helping the Bersatu campaign.
“Annuar’s Facebook status proudly proclaiming the accuracy of his prediction clearly shows that PAS had expected PN to lose from the start.
“If Annuar predicted a landslide victory in Nenggiri but PN lost despite the entire PAS machinery campaigning, why bother in Mahkota where PN was bound to lose?
“Annuar’s strategy of betraying his friend clearly proves that PAS is not a party that can be trusted as a friend.
“It’s like a business partner who only cares about profit and backs out when they know they’re going to lose. That’s PAS,” he said. – September 30, 2024