IPOH, March 11 — Barisan Nasional’s (BN) Datuk Hasni Mohammad has promised to redress the racial composition in the Johor government if he is reelected tomorrow.
The caretaker mentri besar who is up against four other candidates for the Benut seat in the state election told Free Malaysia Today in an interview at the official residence in Johor that he was unhappy that most of the past state executive councillors before dissolution were Malays.
“I didn’t feel comfortable that the government was made up of mostly Malay assemblymen, while elected representatives from the Opposition were mostly non-Malay.
“That was not good. Johor is not like that. In Johor, the Malay community makes up 55 per cent to 56 per cent of the population, with the Chinese and Indians making up the remainder. It’s very balanced.
“So the elected representatives in government must reflect the racial composition in Johor. Johor is so unique that it can be an example to the national leadership,” he was quoted as saying.
Hasni said this was among the reasons he sought for a fresh state election.
The Umno man told the news portal in the interview published this morning that the Johor election so far has been largely personal attacks against federal leaders, rather than focusing on state issues.
However, Hasni expressed confidence that the Johor voters will not be swayed by such tactics.
“I’m confident that voters know the goal and purpose of this state election,” he told the news portal.
Hasni said BN’s “Ikhtiar for Johor” manifesto is a pragmatic action plan with no empty promises.
He added that the action plan is ready to roll out as the Umno-MCA-MIC wins the election.
The Election Commission announced a total of 2,539,606 voters out of 2,597,742 registered voters are eligible to cast their ballots tomorrow. Johor also has 36,729 postal voters.
So far, 21,407 have cast their ballots during early voting Tuesday.
