Dr M’s allusion: Perkasa won Hulu S’gor
(Free Malaysia Today) – The Barisan Nasional had won the Hulu Selangor by-election because of the overwhelming support from Malay voters. Quizzed on this at a press conference here today, former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad suggested that perhaps the Malay voters backed BN because of Perkasa, a Malay pressure group diSmissed as racist by some.
“We will never know,” said Mahathir, who had officiated at Perkasa’s inaugural annual meeting last month.
The former premier pointed out that in the past, many Malays did not support BN, but the trend changed during last Sunday’s contest.
Umno’s tolerance of Perkasa despite component parties like MCA blaming the movement and its chairman Ibrahim Ali for the loss of Chinese support, is seen as the Umno leadership’s tacit approval of Perkasa.
Certain quarters even suggested that Perkasa, whose sole purpose of existense is to defend Malay rights and privileges, is an offshoot of Umno.
