JITRA: Almost 440 Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (PPBM) members quit the party on Sunday, citing their disappointment with the approach taken by their president, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
Kubang Pasu division deputy information chief Ab Manaff Kechik, who led the exodus, said their action was driven by their disappointment with Dr Mahathir, whom they described as having “gone overboard” in his political approach.
Ab Manaff, who was the proposer for PPBM candidate for Kubang Pasu parliamentary seat candidate Datuk Amiruddin Hamzah, who is contesting under the PKR symbol, also announced his resignation from all posts in the party.
“I am also withdrawing as the proposer for Amiruddin who is contesting for the Kubang Pasu parliamentary seat,” he said.
Ab Manaff claimed Dr Mahathir has gone overboard in his attempt to fulfil his personal agenda, which could jeopardise the unity of Muslims and Malays.
“His gutter politics and desire for vengeance could jeopardise the unity of Malays and Muslims in the country.
“We are disappointed by his actions and decided to leave the party and give our support to the BN candidate for the parliamentary seat and two state seats here.
“I will also take part in campaigns and ceramah to help BN candidates to retain the seat,” he told a press conference at the Kubang Pasu BN operations centre.
Present at the event was Kubang Pasu Umno division secretary Datuk Samsudin Ahmad who represented BN. Samsudin also received application forms from Ab Manaff to join Umno, witnessed by 60 members.
Meanwhile in BERA, 130 DAP members from Triang resigned from the party.
Former Bera DAP Youth vice-chief, Kang Chun Chen, 30, who led the resignations, said also with them seven Bera DAP Youth committee members.
He said their decision to quit was made over their disagreement with the opposition’s Triang state seat candidate, Leong Yu Man, whom they said has her own personal interests in helming the election machinery. Leong, they claimed, had done nothing to acknowledge the hard work put in by the machinery to campaign for her.
“She has not gone down to the ground, and also has her own personal interests by placing her family member in the Triang DAP senior committee
“We, the election machinery, prepared numerous facilities out of our own pocket but all the recognition goes to her and her family,” he said.
Kang also admitted that BN had all this while helped the Chinese community in Triang, despite the seat having been in DAP hands for five terms.
Kang said the decision was also made after many members expressed their displeasure with the party using the PKR logo for the election.
He said DAP, having been established much longer than PKR, should not bow to the other.
“There aren’t many of us but we are sure many more will follow our footsteps in supporting BN. It’s clear now that only BN can help the people of Bera, not DAP.”
