Alienate us and lose Malay votes, Perkasa warns
By Yow Hong Chieh, The Malaysian Insider
KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 11 — Perkasa’s secretary-general Syed Hassan Syed Ali warned political parties today, that they risk electoral defeat if they attempt to alienate the Malay rights group.
Syed Hassan expectedly derided Umno’s move to distance itself from Perkasa. He pointed out that ties between Perkasa and Umno never existed.
Umno’s top leaders, who have kept silent so far on the topic of Perkasa, yesterday dropped their defences when approached on the matter and agreed that supporting the controversial group’s views could prove detrimental to Barisan Nasional’s (BN) struggle. Leading the fray was Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz, who told The Malaysian Insider that it was “about time” that Umno made a strong stand against Datuk Ibrahim Ali and his fledgling Perkasa.
Nazri, who has been the most vocal of all Umno leaders on the topic of Perkasa, even went a step further to assert that all of Perkasa’s members from Umno and its patron, former premier Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, were political “has-beens”.
“Perkasa has never stated that it has a relationship with Umno. It is just a coincidence that there are many Umno members in Perkasa. And there are many PAS and Malay PKR members in Perkasa too,” Syed Hassan Syed Ali said in a text message today.
“PAS and Malay PKR members who hold posts in certain areas together with Umno members joined Perkasa because they found that their party leaders had abandoned the fight for race and religion.”
Syed Hassan said that members from Malay political parties were signing up because they felt their leaders were afraid to speak out against the leaders of “certain races” for fear of losing political support, claiming that only Perkasa was brave enough to defend their rights.
“So the question of Umno betraying its friendship with Perkasa does not arise because there is no relationship to speak of between Umno and Perkasa. There is no relationship between PAS and PKR either. Perkasa is independent,” he said.
Syed Hassan also denied that Perkasa had ever asked any party to establish ties with it.
He said that Perkasa had nothing to lose if those parties chose to keep their distance, pointing out that the group’s 300,000-strong membership base would have a significant impact in the next general election.
“What’s for certain is that they will lose. I wonder why they are afraid to get close to Perkasa. Will Perkasa members’ votes not be counted by the EC (Election Commission) in GE13 (13th General Election)?” he asked.
The stage is now set for a battle of wills in Umno after Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad declared his support yesterday for Perkasa as a crutch for what he said was a weak Umno.
His remarks to the New Straits Times published today come even as Umno began this week to distance itself from the Malay rights group.
The Malaysian Insider understands that Umno president Datuk Seri Najib Razak has asked senior party leaders to disassociate from the controversial Malay group.
