JOHOR BARU, March 2 — Johor DAP chief Liew Chin Tong today "welcomed” former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s campaigning efforts on behalf of Barisan Nasional (BN) for the upcoming state election.

In a sarcastic tone, he said it was better that Najib came to Johor to campaign every day.

"In fact, Najib can also contest like he is the Johor mentri besar candidate.

"If I was Hasni, I would not expect Najib to come to Johor,” said Liew during a press conference at the DAP operations centre for the Perling constituency in Taman Nusa Bestari here today.

Liew made the comments in reference to caretaker Johor mentri besar Datuk Hasni Mohammad, who is also BN’s mentri besar candidate, should the coalition win the state election.

He was joined by Pakatan Harapan’s (PH) candidates for Johor Jaya, Liow Cai Tung, and Stulang, Andrew Chen Kah Eng. Also present was Bangi MP Ong Kian Meng.

Liew, who is also PH’s Perling candidate, was earlier commenting on Johor Umno deputy chief Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed’s claim that the Chinese community seems to be receptive to BN after he had arranged Najib’s visit to Johor last Sunday to help BN’s Perling candidate, Nicole Tan Hiang Kee, with her campaign.

He also refuted Nur Jazlan’s claim that he and DAP’s Iskandar Puteri MP Lim Kit Siang were "gypsy elected reps” for often moving from one seat to another.

He said that their actions were in response to the role of an elected representative.

"The point is Kit Siang and I did not contest safe seats as we want to open up new political terrain (for DAP and PH),” he said, adding that in Election 2018 he had contested the Ayer Hitam parliamentary constituency in an effort to win it for Malaysia.

Liew stressed that his role as PH’s Perling candidate in the state polls is to bring Johor into the future.

"Perling is at the heart of Johor Baru. If I can lead through Periling, policies can be implemented across the whole of Johor and not just for problems within the constituency,” he said.

Liew is facing a three-cornered contest for Perling with BN’s Tan and Perikatan Nasional’s (PN) Khoo Shiaw Lee.

The Perling state seat is in south Johor and has a total of 101,263 registered voters. It was won by PH’s Cheo Yee How with a 19,533-vote majority during the previous 14th general election in 2018.

Polling day has been fixed for March 12, with early voting on March 8.