The Malaysian Insight

IN a last ceramah before polling today,  Anwar Ibrahim promised not to forsake the people of Port Dickson when he was prime minister.

Anwar, who is running for election for the Port Dickson parliamentary seat to return to Parliament, assured voters in the seaside town they would take priority even when he had take care of the of the entire nation.

“I know that when I become prime minister, Port Dickson will be taken care off. I want a strong mandate from the people of Port Dickson,” Anwar told the crowd in his final address, in Bagan Pinang, Negri Sembilan, yesterday night.

The PKR president-elect also dismissed his opponents’ allegations of his unpaid summonses that had recently surfaced on social media.

“I want to stress that PAS and independents have attacked me personally in this campaign. The fines were served when I was in prison. They have all been paid.”

Anwar is in a seven-way battle for the seat. He is up against PAS’ Mohd Nazari Mokhtar, who is an air force veteran, and five independent candidates Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan, Isa Samad, Lau Seck Yan, Stevie Chan and Kan Chee Yuen 

The former deputy prime minister also touched on the scandals surrounding Felda in Bagan Pinang, which is a Malay heartland. 

“Felda before FGV had a surplus of RM8 billion, but after FGV, it does not even have RM8. That is not called business, that is called stealing.” 

Contender Isa is the former Felda chairman who was under investigation by the Malaysian Ant-Corruption Commission (MACC). 

Anwar stressed there should not be double standards for ministers and the average Malaysia, especially when it came to corruption. 

“If a policeman takes RM50 it is corruption but if a minister takes RM500 million they call it commission. This should not be the way.”

The former Permatang Pauh MP also apologised to the constituents if he had caused offence by  riding in Defence Minister Mohamad Sabu’s car during a visit to the army camp.

“This is the first election where a candidate of the ruling government is not campaigning using government machinery and assets.

“I was in Mat Sabu’s car for a while only but people made so much noise. I apologise for using his car.” 

The Port Dickson seat fell vacant after Danyal Balagopal Abdullah, of PKR, quit as MP to make way for Anwar, who is attempting a political comeback.

This is in line with PH’s plan to have him take over the prime minister’s office from Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

In the 14th general election, Danyal got 36,225 votes, defeating Barisan Nasional’s Mogan Velayatham and Mahfuz Roslan of PAS, who received 18,515 and 6,594 votes, respectively. – October 13, 2018.