‘Lembah Pantai will be ours’, says Muhyiddin
(NST) – BARISAN Nasional is confident of regaining the Lembah Pantai parliamentary seat in the 13th General Election, said BN deputy chairman and Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.
He said there was no doubt the seat would return to BN after Parti Keadilan Rakyat failed to carry out their promise to serve the people of Lembah Pantai well.
“Based on the response we received from the people here, we are confident of wresting Lembah Pantai this time,” he said after a breakfast session with residents of Kondo Rakyat Desa Pantai here yesterday.
Muhyiddin, who is also BN Federal Territory chairman, said the response to the government’s transformation programmes proved that people were more confident and appreciated the efforts to reduce costs, especially through the 1Malaysia People’s Aid (BR1M) programme.
However, he said BN leaders must not be complacent and should continue their commitment to ensuring the goal was achieved.
Reminding BN representatives not to be “overconfident”, he said: “I do not want us to be too optimistic that we underestimate the opponent’s ability, because anything could happen at the last minute”.
He said the development and progress enjoyed by the Lembah Pantai people were initiated by BN leaders who represented the area for years before 2008.
“On the whole, the local community say they will vote for BN and are just waiting for polling day. I have asked them what PKR’s Nurul Izzah (Anwar) has done for them so far. Mostly nothing was the reply,” he said.
He added this was unlike BN’s Senator Datuk Raja Nong Chik Zainal Abidin, who is Umno Lembah Pantai division head and Federal Territories and Urban Wellbeing Minister.
He said even though Raja Nong Chik was not the elected representative for the area, he still went all out to ensure that the grouses of the people were addressed.
“I’m sure the grassroots and voters see his hard work and understand BN’s struggle for them.”
Raja Nong Chik is expected to be nominated the BN candidate for the constituency.
In the 2008 general election, Nurul Izzah won the Lembah Pantai seat, beating BN’s Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil by a majority of 2,895 votes.
Muhyiddin urged the people to be wary of possibly false allegations made by the opposition in the campaigning in the election.
“Do not fall prey or be fooled by the opposition’s tricks.”
He also expressed his disappointment over a misleading fatwa made by Pas spiritual leader Datuk Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat recently.
“Pas is promoting deviant teachings and its leader, who claims to be a religious scholar, tends to act like God,” he said in commenting on the remark by Nik Aziz, who is also Kelantan Menteri Besar, that Umno members’ prayers would not be rewarded and had no meaning as that party rejected Islamic principles.
“This is not the first time he has done this. Nik Aziz has issued fatwa to penalise and belittle Umno many times.
“We have even been called infidels in the Amanat Haji Hadi (Haji Hadi message).”
Muhyiddin said the recent fatwa by Pas only showed that the party stood for Parti Ajaran Sesat and not Parti Islam SeMalaysia.
On the other hand, he said Umno’s effort to champion Islam was clearly proven in the drafting of the Federal Constitution in which Islam was designated the official religion of the Federation.
“Umno has championed Islam from the very start, even before independence.”
