PDP Youth laughs off headmen signature drive
SARATOK: The Barisan Nasional (BN) leadership will not be fooled or influenced by cheap tactic of collecting headmen’s signatures for evidence of support as deployed by certain quarters.
Progressive Democratic Party (PDP) Krian Youth chief, Councillor Jeffery Jimbun, said the party’s supreme council had officially endorsed a candidate for Saratok.
“Please, kindly be informed that the lobbying for Saratok seat has stopped, the candidate has been identified,” he said.
Jeffery said this at the meet-the-people session at Rumah Pundul, Tanjung, Awik near here recently to introduce the people to Subeng Mula, a businessman widely tipped as PDP candidate for Saratok.
He laughed off a desperate lobbyist for accusing PDP of deploying headmen signature collection drive as the party has been assured by the prime minister the rights of contesting in Saratok as revealed by its president, Datuk Seri Tiong King Sing, recently.
“Getting the headmen’s signatures upon receiving government grants is standard operating procedure for any government department or agencies to officially record the transaction for administrative purposes.
“We cannot simply give a cheque to someone claiming to be a representative of a longhouse without official letter of consent from the longhouse chief,” he said.
Jeffery believed the issue was created by frustrated individuals who would stop at nothing to confuse and create anxiety among the people.
PDP president Datuk Seri Tiong King Sing recently stressed that there would not be any direct Barisan Nasional (BN) candidate for Saratok during the upcoming general election.
He said Prime Minister and BN national chairman Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak had agreed to this and that the BN candidate would come from PDP.
“I have met the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zaid Hamidi and discussed the issue at length with them. This time, the candidate will come from PDP and Najib has agreed there will not be direct BN candidate in Saratok,” Tiong told a meet-the-people session at Rumah Jabu in Nanga Senulau near here.
Tiong said PDP’s candidate for Saratok would be the best bet to win back the hearts of voters, who had twice rejected the party in (state-level) Krian.
According to him, PDP would endorse a hard-working young man as its candidate for Saratok.
Although no official announcement has been made, the only lobbyist currently going around on PDP banner is Subeng Mula, making him the most likely candidate for a Barisan Nasional component party.