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Tuesday 25 January 2011

Muhyiddin to unlock Interlok

LABIS: Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin has a formula to resolve the Interlok controversy and will discuss it with MIC leaders.

He said he would meet with MIC deputy president Dr S Subramaniam tonight and later with MIC president G Palanivel.

“In the BN (Barisan Nasional) spirit, we want to discuss (the matter) with MIC, and I believe the formula will be delved into in a day or two.

“I hope that once a decision has been made, the issue will not be raised again because of more importance is the spirit of cooperation in the context of BN,” he was quoted as saying by Bernama.

Muhyiddin, who is also education minister, said all matters pertaining to the novel had been raised and the government was considering the best approach to resolve the issue.

He also said that certain quarters had twisted his statement on the matter and politicised the issue.

Many quarters had not read the novel but there had been many reactions because they could be easily influenced by such matters, he said.

Opposition getting desperate

Muhyiddin, who was in Labis ahead of the Tenang by-election, also accused the opposition of becoming more desperate and beginning to adopt various dirty tactics such as distributing slanderous pamphlets.

He, however, expressed confidence that the electorate would not be easily deceived by the slanders and lies spread by the opposition.

“We are aware that they (opposition) will not stop making up stories to scare the voters. That’s a normal tactic, but in most cases, the voters know the truth and are not deceived,” he said.

In the by-election, the BN is fielding Mohd Azahar Ibrahim as its candidate while PAS is fielding the Labis Wanita PAS head, Normala Sudirman.

Muhyiddin urged voters who had evidence on the dirty tactics adopted by the opposition that violated the law to report the matter directly to the uthorities such as the Election Commission (EC).

Besides the dissemination of slanderous pamphlets, there were also allegations that certain groups were taking the identity cards of the voters aimed at preventing them from casting their votes, he said.

Muhyiddin said there were also allegations made that Wanita Umno for the division was not supporting the BN candidate and this was being spread through pamphlets and banners.

He said issues concerning the BN candidate did not arise at all because everyone had given their full commitment to support Mohd Azahar.

“We have no problem, there is no personal issue on the candidate. Our candidate (Mohd Azahar) is the best. We have vetted our candidate 100%, otherwise we would not have fielded him,” said the deputy prime minister.

The opposition tried to discredit the BN candidate’s personal character although Mohd Azahar was clean and a good person, he said.

Asked on the chances of the BN candidate, Muhyiddin said the voters whom he had met had expressed confidence in Mohd Azahar who was widely known as the son of a former Tenang State Assemblyman, the late Ibrahim Daud.

On claims that Normala refused to shake hands with male voters, Muhyiddin said BN did not want to exploit the issue because it was a personal matter and left it to the voters to decide.

On another development, Muhyiddin questioned the motive of the special sitting of the Selangor State Legislative Assembly aimed at amending the Selangor state constitution.

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