Playing the same old broken record may cause PAS to lose Terengganu and Kedah

Playing the same old broken record may cause PAS to lose Terengganu and Kedah





THE old broken record of PAS president Tan Sri Abdul Hadi Awang is being played time and again and the same is being parroted by others from the same camp.


After Hadi claimed that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim (PMX) had erred when the latter retorted that “the stability of a government relies more on its policies rather than its ethnic composition”, Hadi’s statement was followed by Perikatan Nasional (PN) Federal Territories’ information chief Mahathir Mohd Rais.

The PN candidate, who lost his deposit during the last general election to Segambut MP Hannah Yeoh claimed that the New Economic Policy (NEP) instituted in 1971 had “failed to rectify these imbalances by empowering the Bumiputera”.


The same song was again chorused by Selangor state Perikatan Nasional (PN) chairman Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali who should know by now that his own state government in Selangor when he was Menteri Besar comprised non-Malays and non-Muslims.

While Mahathir’s rhetoric about the NEP has been disputed by PMX before on a number of occasions during his election campaigns, Azmin is no brainer when he claimed that the Malay leaders “must not be from the corrupt breed as found in the PH-BN (Pakatan Harapan-Barisan Nasional) coalition”.

Anwar was quoted back in 2006 by an English daily saying, “The NEP is used as a tool to benefit leaders, their families and their cronies”.

Meanwhile, Azmin’s allegation which implies that there are Malay leaders from PH-BN who are from the corrupt breed, may not go well with both his opponents and netizens who are now waiting for the court trial involving PN’s president Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin. Several others are also facing trials for corruption.

For this reason, instead of harping on Bumiputra and NEP, PMX’s first priority was to eradicate poverty affecting the B40 community in the country.

He did not choose only states that support his unity government; instead, he went to states that are run by the Opposition to show that his Madani government is focused on providing solutions for the people of Malaysia, where they are most needed.

In his recent trip to Sabah, he announced that the water woes in both Sabah and Kelantan will be given priority, knowing that this alone will win the hearts of the people instead of playing the Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s oldies.

Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim (second from left) during a recent trip to Sabah to join the Kaamatan Festival.


The former longest serving PM of 22 years and 22 months has always played on racial sentiments to divide the nation while Hadi ceaselessly promote supremacy of the race based on his version of Islam.

When he used the same broken record, Dr Mahathir was trounced badly in his own constituency Langkawi, a sign that his race-based narrative no longer attracts the voters anymore.

There is no guarantee that the same narrative used by Hadi will give PAS its victory in Kedah and Terengganu, especially when the country’s economy is only beginning to turn.

Race and religious centric polemic is often at the expense of Malaysians of other races and religions. If not curtailed, it will affect investors’ confidence when assessing the political stability of the country. – June 6, 2023