BALIK PULAU – Voting for Barisan Nasional (BN) or Perikatan Nasional (PN) in this general election (GE15) will see a return of disgraced former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak and his wife Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor, said Pakatan Harapan’s (PH) Jelutong candidate.
RSN Rayer, who is seeking to defend Jelutong in Penang, claimed that the only way for the convicted couple to return to the limelight is to regain political power.
Speaking at a Pakatan Harapan (PH) ceramah here last night, the DAP man slammed rival coalitions BN and PN, accusing their candidates of doing “nothing substantial” to prevent the systematic abuse in the government they led.
He added that while PN has been criticising Najib and Rosmah, the leaders also worked with BN to form a government after the PH administration collapsed in 2020.
This, he said, was despite Najib’s corruption and power abuse, which he has been charged and convicted for.
“Can one tell if the present BN candidate in Balik Pulau did anything to prevent Najib from plundering the coffers?
“What will happen if such a candidate is voted in? Will he speak up against public institution abuse?”
On September 1, Rosmah was sentenced to 10 years in jail and a historic RM970 million fine – an amount her defence lawyers labelled as “unprecedented” eclipsing the RM210 million fine imposed on Najib over his SRC International Sdn Bhd corruption case.
Meanwhile, Rayer did not spare former ally Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad from criticism, casting doubt over the former prime minister’s intentions in GE15.
He said the Pejuang chairman cannot be trusted following 2020’s Sheraton Move which saw him resigning as prime minister and the PH government collapsing despite its victory in the 2018 general election.
“We in PH know that he played us. We know that he could have easily surrendered the prime ministership to then-deputy prime minister Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail.
“But Dr Mahathir did not – choosing to resign, despite various overtures to not do so.
“He said he had no choice, but he could have reached out to us in PH. We were, after all, his comrades in government.
“For some selfish reasons at the expense of endangering a stable government then, he resigned,” he alleged.
He added that following Sheraton Move, the country faced the Covid-19 pandemic and a slow economic recovery.
“Was it necessary in the first place?”
In the Jelutong contest, Rayer is up against Datuk Baljit Singh (PN), Koh Swe Yong (Parti Rakyat Malaysia), Yacoob Noor (independent), Datuk T. Loganathan (BN) and Martin Lim Huat Poh (Warisan).
In 2018, Rayer won handily with a 38,171-vote majority. – The Vibes, November 15, 2022
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