IT is pointless to vote for Barisan Nasional or Umno, said Pakatan Harapan chairman Dr Mahathir Mohamad, as even its own leaders and members have lost faith in the party and are abandoning it.

Dr Mahathir said this as he stumped for PH on the last day of campaigning for the Cameron Highlands by-election tomorrow.

He told a crowd of mostly Orang Asli voters today that BN’s lynchpin party, Umno, was bleeding members and lawmakers after the coalition lost federal power in the 14th general election.

“Their party leaders themselves came to see me when they lost the election. 

“The former Negri Sembilan menteri besar (now Umno acting president) Mohamad Hasan (and then Umno president Ahmad) Zahid Hamidi came to see me when they lost. They said they wanted to cooperate.

“I said, cooperate for what?” Dr Mahathir told a ceramah in Felda Sg Koyan 1, Jelai, today.

“Their members are leaving them in droves and want to join Pakatan Harapan. Umno members themselves no longer believe in the party. 

“Umno is rejecting Umno. I am confident Umno has no future. So, what’s the point of voting for Umno?” Dr Mahathir, who is also prime minister, told the crowd.

Umno has been campaigning aggressively for BN among the Semai tribe in Jelai in the hopes that the community will remember the coalition’s contributions to them over the past 61 years.

BN is also fielding an Orang Asli candidate, Ramli Mohd Nor, against PH’s M. Manogaran. Also in the contest are two independents. 

The by-election will see a four-cornered fight involving BN’s Ramli Mohd Nor, PH’s M. Manogaran and two independents – Sallehudin Abd Talib and Wong Seng Yee.

The Orang Asli make up 21.9% of all voters in Cameron Highlands and in GE14, only about 10% of them voted for PH. PH strategists have argued that the ruling coalition needs at least 30% support from the community if it hopes to have any chance of winning tomorrow.

It has been revealed that soon after losing power, Zahid and Mohamad had met Dr Mahathir to discuss a possible tie-up between Umno and the PH government.

To drive home his point that voting for BN would be pointless, Dr Mahathir said the opposition coalition was lying to the Orang Asli in claiming it could help them.

“It wants to lie to the Orang Asli, so it fields an Orang Asli candidate. But how are people who mired in debt supposed to help you?”

In its campaign over the past two weeks, Pahang’s BN-led government said it would still be able to develop the community despite not being in sync with the federal government, controlled by PH.

However, Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng had revealed that Pahang owed the federal government RM3.1 billion and has recorded a budget deficit since 2014. – January 25, 2019.