Anwar will be a ‘giant killer’ only once – Peja quips

Anwar will be a ‘giant killer’ only once – Peja quips


INTERVIEW | After being defeated by Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim in last year’s general elections, Ahmad Faizal Azumu has warned his future potential rivals to “be careful”.

Faizal, better known as Peja, was defeated in last year’s general elections, losing his seat by 3,736 votes to none other than Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim.

Voicing his doubts that Anwar would contest the seat again next term, Faizal was confident that victory would be in his favour in the next general election.

Asked why he felt Anwar would not contest in Tambun, he confidently responded: “He is going to lose. This is Si Peja we are talking about. He (Anwar) can only be a giant killer once”.

Tambun had seen a battle of political heavyweights in November last year between Faizal and Anwar - where terms like “giant killer” and “Godzilla” were echoed.

Some even likened Faizal, once part of Harapan himself, to the perceived underdog David, in the biblical battle against the giant Goliath.

The state was branded with various slogans by the two, with Faizal’s most notable banner being “Datuk Seri Ahmad Faizal Azumu never lost in Tambun” – an apparent wordplay on the town’s famous amusement park, the Lost World of Tambun.

“But I did lose... My next (billboard) would be ‘Never Lost Twice in Tambun’” he joked, during his interview with Malaysiakini.

On a serious note, Faizal said he wanted to continue serving the state on a parliamentary level.

“I would like to serve on a parliamentary level (in Perak) if possible.

“As Perak PN’s chairperson, I could have decided to run as an assemblyperson in the last election, but I figured that I already had the opportunity last term and helmed the state.

“But I would like to stay in Tambun,’ he said.

Despite the six state elections just around the corner, Faizal said he would not contest as a “parachute candidate”.

Instead, the Bersatu deputy president said he would work hard to help PN win all the seats.

“There are a lot of things that need to be done, especially moving the (party) machinery, we need to gather all the other states’ machinery to get them to help the (election) states,” he said.

Citing PN’s study that it would win 80 percent of votes in the state polls, Faizal said that Malay voters are largely behind them due to BN and Harapan’s cooperation in the coalition government.

“The study shows that the support, especially from the Malays, shifted to PN and had increased dramatically since GE15.

“Initially, the Malays were ‘confident’ about Umno’s decision, by the Umno president (Ahmad Zahid Hamidi) and their (slogan) 'no Anwar, no DAP, no Bersatu’.

“But after GE15, suddenly they are together. It caused the Malays to change their minds and now support PN,” he said.

Below are excerpts from the interview:

This study that 80 percent of voters will vote for PN, was conducted in all six election states?

The study was that 80 percent of Malays are now in support of PN. It was conducted in all six states that will hold elections. If I’m not mistaken, the study had about 3,000 respondents from each state.

We are also running another study for non-Malays that has already been completed.

Is Bersatu also making inroads in urban states like Selangor and Penang?

Oh yes, you don’t even have to conduct a study. You can go to Butterworth and have prawn mee in Sungai Dua, Sungai Besar (Selangor) or have a picnic in Port Dickson (Negeri Sembilan). You can breathe the air and feel that the Malay sentiment has shifted support for PN.

In your opinion, is the predicted increase of 80 percent of votes in Malay communities due to the ‘green wave’?

There is no “green wave”. When DAP leaders were upset that Malays were supporting PN in the last general election, they attempted to scare them (voters) with those points.

First, they said that if Malays supported PN they would get a “Taliban” government, where the women would have to wear tudung, supermarkets would have two cashiers for men and women and all sorts.

When the results came out and it clearly showed that Malays supported PN, they started talking about the “green wave”.

This is not the “green wave’, it is called the Prussian “blue wave” (the colour of PN’s logo)

Post GE15, PN chairperson Muhyiddin Yassin rejected the Yang di-Pertuan Agong’s suggestion that the coalition forms a unity government with Harapan. In your opinion, do you think Muhyiddin should have at least consulted PN leadership before making the decision?

I think I will reserve my comments on that. I have the answer, but I think I should reserve my comments.