Port Dickson, October 06: PAS has become so desperate for votes in the Bagan Pinang by-election that it is prepared to allow its non-Muslim members in Pakatan Rakyat to quote verses from the Quran in its campaign, Umno vice-president Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein said.
This, he said, was unbecoming of a party which supposedly based its struggles on the tenets of Islam.
Working as a team: Hishammuddin and Barisan campaign workers expressing their solidarity in the by-election in Port Dickson yesterday.
“How can a non-Muslim who doesn’t understand Islam be allowed to quote from the Quran?
“I hope PAS and Pakatan Rakyat leaders will take note of this as religion is a very sensitive matter,” he told reporters after a meeting with Umno members.
Hishammuddin also advised Barisan supporters not to be emotional when campaigning.
“We should not become like the Opposition who are trying every trick in the book to make us look bad.”
In Port Dickson, Barisan candidate Tan Sri Mohd Isa Samad said civil servants who denounced the coalition was condemning themselves.
He explained that politicians were democratically elected as their leaders, and thus civil servants would need to work as a team with the politicians to ensure that the national administration runs smoothly.
“You should know that you are part of the Government,” he said.
“You don’t condemn policies that you yourselves have helped implement. You are also the ones who reaped the benefits brought on by the Barisan leadership,” he said at a Hari Raya gathering organised by the Defence Ministry and armed forces civil service employee unions of Negri Sembilan.
Cuepacs chairman Omar Osman, who was present, called on civil servants to show their undivided loyalty to Barisan by voting for Isa.
“Continuity is important and being a former Mentri Besar who knows the civil servants here, Isa is the right candidate who knows the needs of the people in Bagan Pinang,” Omar said.
There are about 500 voters in the two unions in the district of Port Dickson.
-Agencies