Prime Minister urges Permatang Pauh folk to begin a new chapter

BUKIT MERTAJAM: Permatang Pauh residents have been urged to review the developments there over the recent past and consider if it is time to start anew.

Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said he felt as if time had stood still in the constituency.

“Politics is not about choosing a symbolic character, but a representative who can serve the people.

“It is time the people here start a new chapter,” the Prime Minister told a huge gathering at the Politeknik Seberang Prai here yesterday.

Permatang Pauh is the parliamentary constituency of PKR president Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail.

Najib said sincerity was necessary in politics. “We can’t say something today and do something else tomorrow, and make a U-turn some 18 years later.

“Do you know who did a U-turn after 18 years? We need not name him but the people know who he is.

“There have been too many U-turns from him until chairs could fly,” he said, in an apparent refer- ence to former prime minister and now Pakatan Harapan chairman Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, whom the crowd named when Najib asked if they knew who the person was.

Najib also declared that there was no more “reformasi”.

“Why is it gone? Reformasi was set up to fight a person who was said to be a dictator, a maha firaun and a maha zalim. But now that person is being embraced instead. Where is the spirit of ‘reformasi’ then?” he said.

Najib said although Permatang Pauh was no longer under Barisan Nasional, history showed that from 1969 to 1999, Umno only lost there in 1978.

“This means that Permatang Pauh was the land of Umno and Barisan Nasional. But the political landscape changed in 1999 and till today, Umno has not been able to regain the seat.

“However, throughout that period until now, Umno and Barisan have never stopped providing service to the people,” he added.

Najib then took a swipe at the Penang undersea tunnel project and compared it with the Mass Rapid Transit project.

“The MRT project was completed ahead of schedule and lower than budget. But, despite millions spent on consultancy fee in the state’s undersea tunnel project, the tunnel is still nowhere to be seen,” he said.

The grand event also made it into the Malaysia Book of Records for the largest community lunch session as 21,380 people sat on the ground to join Najib for lunch.