PASIR GUDANG, May 6 — A group of disgruntled Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (PPBM) members here voiced their unhappiness with the party’s state leadership’s choice of candidates for the 14th general election (GE14).
It is understood that the dissatisfaction of the group stemmed from a “failed coup” by 19 Johor PPBM division chiefs in holding a media conference to denounce their party’s unfair selection of GE14 candidates in the state.
A party source told Malay Mail today that the state’s top leadership had heard about the planned media conference organised by the party’s 19 division chiefs and acted quickly to subdue the matter.
“On Friday morning, both leaders Tan Sri Muhyiddin and Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman cancelled their morning campaign in northern Johor to rush to Putrajaya for an emergency meeting.
“By evening, the situation was settled between most of the party’s 19 state division chiefs after a substantial amount of “compensation money” amounting to hundreds of thousands were offered as pre-election campaign costs for the affected divisions,” the party source told Malay Mail today.
However, a group of 30 Pasir Gudang PPBM grassroots members, led by the division’s secretary Norzri Mokhtar, today still voiced their displeasure of the party’s leadership for having parachute candidates in place of the division’s own members at the Tasek 64 flats in Bandar Seri Alam in Masai.
“Some of us at the division level want an explanation from the party’s leadership on the reason why the originally designated candidates from the divisions for the GE14 were not selected.
“For reference, the party’s Pasir Gudang division head Dr Hashim Yusoff who worked hard was not named as a candidate and was instead replaced by a member from another division to contest as PPBM’s parliamentary candidate,” claimed Norzri.
He claimed that there are 19 other division chiefs who are unhappy for not being selected or were asked to contest in constituents that they were not keen on as they had no grassroots support.
It is learnt that the 19 division chiefs were the ones who wanted to initiate the media conference.
Norzri did not name the candidate, but it was understood to be the Pakatan Harapan (PH) Pasir Gudang parliamentary candidate from PPBM Datuk Seri Che Zakaria Mohd Salleh, who is also the party’s Parit Sulong division chief.
On April 18, Malay Mail ran a story on Johor PPBM’s continued postponement of the party’s state candidates due to two conflicting lists.
PPBM is considered the lynchpin party under PH to spearhead the campaign to canvass for Malay votes in Johor.
Norzri said due to the earlier unhappiness, he had personally approached the party’s top leaders Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, Datuk Seri Mukhriz Mahathir and Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin two weeks before Nomination Day.
He claimed that there was no reply till today from the leaders that showed a lack of consensus within the party and also a possible ploy within the state party’s leadership.
“We have worked hard since September 2016 for the party and our divisions. The division chiefs and committee members are the ones that worked hard to sacrifice for the party.
“We want Tan Sri (Muhyiddin Yassin) to look into this,” said Norzri.
