PERMATANG PAUH, Aug 23 — Fliers warning of a Cabinet of pigs, posters of a dead woman and caricatures of a duplicitous, many-faced Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim are showing up in Penang as campaigning in the by-election takes an increasingly personal and vicious turn.
Supporters of Anwar, who heads a multiracial opposition alliance, accuse their Barisan Nasional rivals of resorting to crude, racial politics by playing up images of pigs, an animal considered by Muslims as unclean.
They point to fliers being distributed in Malay villages that show a list of opposition leaders who would form a “BABI” Cabinet with Anwar as their chief should he come to power.
“BABI” is short for Barisan Anwar bin Ibrahim, but the word is also an apparent dig at the many Chinese leaders on the list.
“This is coarse language being used by the Barisan Nasional. The conclusion is they are using racial politics in campaigning,” Parti Keadilan Rakyat strategist Saifuddin Nasution told a news conference yesterday.
Pas Youth chief Salahuddin Ayub said he regretted the action and considered it cheap propaganda that should not have happened.
“There are many ways we can convince the people... but not like this. What more when we are having such exciting political fights in the country now,” he added.
The Kubang Kerian MP said it was done by certain quarters who were worried about Anwar winning Tuesday’s by-election.
Pas information chief Mahfuz Omar said it was a move to frighten Malays that a new Cabinet would be controlled by non-Malays.
“So maybe it means they are still trying to play with racial matters,” he added.
Not so fast, say BN campaigners.
They deny being behind the fliers and accuse the PKR of playing rough and dirty.
The evidence, they say, is to be found in the huge posters of dead Mongolian beauty Altantuya Shaariibuu plastered at road corners. Stamped above her head is a single word in red: Justice.
That is a clear reference to her murder and accusations by Anwar that Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak, chief of the BN by-election campaign, was somehow connected with her death.
Najib has repeatedly said he does not know the woman and was not involved in her murder.
Meanwhile, BN campaign workers claim that the PKR will create tensions to scare voters from coming out on polling day. “They will use their gangster ways to frighten people so that few people will vote, as they are afraid Anwar will lose,” said an Umno Youth leader who did not want to be identified.
Indeed, on nomination day last Saturday, two press photographers were beaten up by a group of men, many wearing the colours of PKR and Pas.
The opposition parties said the incident was not the work of their supporters.
Yesterday, police said they had nabbed two men believed to be part of a group planning to disrupt the by-election.
Police did not say whether the men belonged to any political party.
The accusations and counter-accusations of playing dirty are nothing new in Malaysian politics.
But the decibel levels have been way higher in Permatang Pauh as the by-election could well decide whether Malaysia will remain under the 14-party BN led by Umno, or fall to the four-month-old Pakatan Rakyat coalition.
Anwar, 61, who is facing off with genial local politician Datuk Arif Shah Omar Shah, 52, has said his target is more than the constituency. If he is elected to Parliament, his next goal will be to topple the BN government, he said.
Pakatan Rakyat was formed one month after the March general election and consists of the multiracial PKR, Chinese-led DAP and Pas.
The dirty campaign tactics have now become more personal.
A few days ago, an old story surfaced on the BN campaign trail that Anwar had “flirted” with the wife of a deputy minister. The opposition leader retaliated by saying he might reveal a “dark secret” about Najib at the seaside town of Port Dickson.
Neither side went into detail.
Anwar accused Najib of personally benefiting from the government’s submarine deals. The BN retaliated by saying Anwar had dished out contracts worth RM15 billion to cronies when he was deputy prime minister.
Expect more personal issues to be revealed as the campaign enters its final leg. Police expect about 30,000 people from outside the constituency to join the 58,000 voters of Permatang Pauh.
Malaysian Insider
No comments:
Post a Comment