BALIK PULAU – Gerakan president Datuk Seri Dominic Lau considers his apparent rift with Bayan Lepas PAS chief Iszuree Ibrahim to be a thing of the past and wants to move on after the latter was recorded on video shooing Lau from a PAS event.
Lau said that the impression that Iszuree is upset with him should be handled within PAS.
“It is an internal matter and I just want to move on,” he said while on campaign rounds for the Penang election here today.
Media reports depicted that Lau, who is contesting the Bayan Lepas seat for Perikatan Nasional (PN), was asked to leave a rally organised by PAS.
Iszuree, a former Penang PAS secretary and ex-Penang Island City Council councillor, could be seen telling him off.
Gerakan and PAS are contesting under PN’s banner alongside Bersatu.
PN is contesting five other state elections in Kedah, Selangor, Negri Sembilan, Kelantan, and Terengganu, held simultaneously on August 12.
According to Sin Chew, Gerakan deputy president Oh Tong Keong confirmed that the party was not invited to attend the rally, which was graced by PAS president Tan Sri Abdul Hadi Awang in Sg Dua at the Tasek Gelugor parliamentary area.
Lau gave his version that he had attended the event based on a phone conversation with Hadi’s political secretaryi and a scheduled meeting was fixed at 9pm last night.
However, Hadi, the Marang MP, arrived late at only around 10.30pm, leaving Lau no chance to meet him. So Lau decided to leave for a predetermined function in Bayan Lepas.
Lau however did not answer directly if it was Iszuree who had told him to leave the event although there were some video clips on social media seeming to show Iszuree asking him to leave with his hand raised.
Previously, a group of PAS grassroots members had protested against Lau’s candidacy in Bayan Lepas for PN, saying that a PAS member should be fielded instead to contest the Malay-majority seat. They also claimed that in PN’s candidates list for Penang issued earlier, it was Iszuree’s name marked to run in Bayan Lepas.
Subsequently, PN announced that its presidential council had decided that Lau would be fielded in Bayan Lepas.
Lau said that his campaign has completed its first phase of introducing himself to the constituents in Bayan Lepas where generally the response has been encouraging.
The second phase will kick off tomorrow with Lau’s determination to offer solutions to the problems plaguing the constituency, involving issues like traffic woes, the Penang South Island reclamation project, the growing presence of migrant workers, and affordable housing.
The third phase would be PN’s unveiling of a realistic manifesto unlike the one released by rival Pakatan Harapan. – The Vibes, August 2, 2023
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