PASIR MAS, March 22 — Kelantan Pakatan Harapan (PH) appointed over 100 non-Malay members into its interracial relations committee last night, with an eye on the general elections.
The committee members will work with their respective division’s elections director to help the Opposition pact’s campaign for ethnic minority support in the state.
“Those who are appointed tonight, please work hard so we can govern Malaysia better and we can govern Kelantan too,” state PH chairman Husam Musa told a crowd of dozens here.
“Everyone can feel the hardship of living under Umno, but some are uncertain. If we meet them, talk to them every day, chat with them, do good to them, find out where they live and speak positively … We are one voice, we have only one problem,” he added.
The ceremony was held in Kampung Aur Duri, a rural area at the outskirts of the Salor state seat here, where the residents are mainly ethnic Chinese who work odd jobs.
Husam, who is also Salor assemblyman, said the village was chosen since it has been where Chinese New Year celebrations were held in his state seat.
“Every year we meet here, and this is a historic place,” said Husam.
Husam presented letters of appointment to 12 members who head each Parliamentary seat’s committee, most of them Chinese, but there were also representatives of the Indian and Siamese communities.
The state committee chief, Parti Amanah Negara’s Tan Ah Wang, told Malay Mail after the ceremony that the committee was first mooted last year.
“Each community would better understand one of their own. So we would go in each community to get closer to them,” said Tan.
Also present were Kelantan DAP chief Chua Chin Hui, and Ketereh Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia chief Radzi Jidin.
Non-Malays made up around merely 6 per cent of Kelantan’s 1.83 million population.
