Anwar: Let S’gor Pakatan discuss call to appoint Wan Azizah as MB
(fz.com) – Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim says Selangor Pakatan Rakyat should decide on the call by some PKR members for Datin Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail to be made Selangor menteri besar following her victory in the Kajang by-election yesterday.
“Let Selangor discuss,” the de facto Pakatan leader said when queried on the matter at the Parliament lobby today.
Anwar declined to say more on the subject, choosing instead to joke that because of Pakatan’s “Kajang Move,” Wan Azizah is now set to move to Kajang.
The “Kajang Move” was initiated by a group in PKR who wished to see Anwar taking over as the Selangor MB after being elected as the Kajang assemblyperson. But the move was disrupted when Anwar was convicted of sodomy just before the nomination day.
Wan Azizah, the PKR president and Anwar’s wife, was then chosen as the Pakatan candidate for Kajang.
In yesterday’s by-election, Wan Azizah garnered 16,741 votes against 11,362 by BN’s Datin Paduka Chew Mei Fun. However, the voter turnout was only 72% compare to 87.9% in GE13.
Despite Wan Azizah winning with a reduced majority, Anwar said the popular votes for Pakatan had increased from 57% to 59.7%.
“This is very very commendable indeed,” he said.
Anwar said Wan Azizah had the support of all the races, and also won more than 50% of the Malay votes in the constituency.
“Now Umno can no longer continue with its propaganda to say that Malays did not support Keadilan and PAS. Majority of the Malays in Kajang supported Pakatan Rakyat,” he said.
“Catastrophe for MCA”
Speaking on the MCA’s claim that the party garnered 25% of the Chinese votes, Anwar said it was a catastrophe for the Chinese party as it had been harping on the strategy that Kajang was a battle of survival for MCA.
If the claim by MCA was true that the party’s Chinese support in Kajang had increased from 18% in GE13 to 25% in the by-election, Anwar said the party would need to wait until the next century to win back the support of the majority of Chinese Malaysians.
“If you can come back 7% (of Chinese support), you have to wait until probably next century,” Anwar said.
You don’t see this as an alarming sign?
“No, you have a Malay candidate Azizah, MCA saying that battle for survival of MCA, their line of campaign, the GE strategy was different, here the MCA went: ‘Please help us, because winning for MCA means the survival of MCA as a relevant Chinese party.’
“(Chew) is a Chinese candidate, representing the Chinese interest, and if that’s the most they can get, this is catastrophe as far as MCA is concerned,” said Anwar.
On the other hand, the opposition leader said it was remarkable for PKR with a Malay candidate to be able to secure 75% Chinese support.
Also, he said that it was reassuring that the PKR and PAS have managed to win more than 50% of the Malay votes.
“This is a major breakthrough in terms of accessing on our strength,” he added.
