JOHOR BAHRU, July 10 — Pakatan Harapan chairman Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim criticised the coalition’s political detractors for alleging that he is being manipulated by the Chinese community, especially those aligned with DAP.
He said the criticisms included being a ‘tool’ for the Chinese and yielding easily when it comes to demands from the community.
“Tell me, what have I done wrong? Is it offering better education or Sara (Sumbangan Asas Rahmah financial aid) to the Chinese community?
“Or is it due to my friendship with the Chinese from DAP?
“For me, it’s better and more virtuous to have Chinese from DAP as friends than those from another Chinese party,” he said in a highly charged speech at a PH grand finale event held in conjunction with the Johor state election in Taman Pelangi Indah here late last night.
However, Anwar, who is the prime minister, stopped short of naming the Chinese-based political party that is believed to be a component of the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition.
Present were PH leaders from the coalition’s component parties. They were also joined by PH candidates Maszlee Malik (Puteri Wangsa) and Muhammad Faezuddin Puad (Kempas).
The event last night, attended by about 1,000 people, was the third of three state election campaign programmes attended by Anwar throughout Johor yesterday.
Earlier, Anwar said the PH government had done its best to address the Chinese community’s issues, especially the long-awaited federal recognition of the Unified Examination Certificate (UEC).
“Let’s take the UEC, for many years the MCA had struggled with the issue.
“In the end who resolved the UEC issue? Not MCA, but we in the (PH) government,” said the PKR president.
Anwar also brought up Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman’s (UTAR) RM83 million tax bill and penalties which were blamed on the PH government despite the issue being absolved.
He said a particular party in BN had unfairly faulted the government for failing to honour the UTAR issue in the past.
“They have the same access as us. Why didn’t they ask the deputy prime minister (Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi), who is also the BN chairman to amicably look into this?
“Why do they insist on publicly attacking us in such a manner?” he questioned, adding that the issue was also unfairly being manipulated as a political campaign by the party.
Anwar said the government had worked hard to resolve and settle the UTAR issue that was prioritised due to its link to the Chinese community’s education.
He said this was the first time that he had openly talked about such challenges faced by him and the government.
“Prior to tonight, I had deliberately avoided commenting on other parties in the unity government to avoid any heated confrontations,” he said.
Anwar is expected to make another visit to Johor later today in support of the PH candidates who will be contesting in this weekend’s state poll.
PH is contesting in all 56 state seats, with 20 candidates from PKR, 19 from Parti Amanah Negara and 17 from DAP.
A total of 172 candidates are contesting in the election with polling day on Saturday.
