Barisan rep calls Dyana Sofya ‘ungrateful’, causes uproar in Penang assembly
Looi Sue-Chern, The Malaysian Insider
A Barisan Nasional (BN) assemblyperson today caused a stir in the Penang legislative assembly after she hit out at the DAP candidate for the Teluk Intan polls, saying that she was ungrateful to the services of the coalition.
Opposition leader Datuk Jahara Hamid (BN-Teluk Air Tawar), in echoing her Umno colleagues’ views on Dyana Sofya Mohd Daud, said she was ungrateful to the Barisan Nasional as she is a product of its education system.
“We don’t have problems with young and beautiful women in politics. It is good as to have more women’s voices in Parliament.”
“The issue is the DAP candidate came from BN’s efforts as well. For example, she was a graduate of UiTM,” she said.
Jahara then described Dyana using the Malay idiom “kacang lupakan kulit” (forgeting where one comes from), while debating Penang governor Tun Dr Abdul Rahman Abbas’s address to the assembly yesterday.
Dyana Sofya Mohd Daud, a lawyer and political secretary of DAP veteran leader Lim Kit Siang, is a Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) graduate.
(UiTM is a local university exclusive to the Malays and the Bumiputera.)
RSN Rayer (DAP-Seri Delima) immediately demanded Jahara retract the statement, saying that such a remark was hurtful.
Also voicing discontent over Jahara’s remark was Dr Afif Bahardin (PKR-Seberang Jaya), who said he too was a UiTM graduate, unlike Jahara and Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak who received their higher education in Britain.
“It is not that young people like us from UiTM forget ourselves. We are just fed-up with BN,” he said.
