A “VOTE Muslim First” (VMF) campaign is being organised to push for a Malay candidate to run in the Tg Piai parliamentary by-election – a seat, which is usually contested by MCA and DAP.

A group of independent observers, known as Gerakan Pengundi Sedar (GPS), said the racial breakdown of the constituency justified fielding a Malay-Muslim candidate.

GPS director Assiddiq Fauzan told The Malaysian Insight that in Tg Piai, 57% of the voters are Malay, so automatically this is a Malay majority seat.

“We look at the constituency, if it’s a constituency with majority Chinese voters, like say Serdang, then it makes no sense to have a VMF campaign like this,” Assiddiq said.

Umno and PAS have inked a charter to work together in the interest of the Malay-Muslim community’s greater good and this latest campaign has come after another group began a movement for the community to buy products and services offered by Muslim businesses.

However, Assiddiq, denied that this campaign has anything to do with running down other races, but said GPS’s objective is to uphold the rights of Malays, Bumiputera and Muslims as enshrined in the constitution.

“We cannot say that we are racist, the campaign is a right of the democratic majority in this country as stated in the constitution. There is no issue of racism here,” he said.

“GPS is a body of independent observers, our goal is to uphold the constitution, we see now that the rights of the Malays, Bumiputera and the Muslims are being ignored.”

Assiddiq said that GPS will poll Tg Piai voters, in addition to organising forums and meetings to educate them.

GPS will make a stand on which candidate to back in the event Pakatan Harapan and Umno-PAS both field Malay-Muslim candidates.

“If both field Malay-Muslim candidates then we will help the rakyat make the best choice possible.

“We will help them choose based on the candidates’ background in terms of integrity and so on,” he said.

“We will canvass the rakyat to vote for the most suitable candidate.

“For this poll, we will take sides, maybe in the by-election we will root for the opposition candidates, in the future we may be voting for the government.”

Assiddiq said the main objective of the VMF campaign is to target younger voters. GPS also said it will deploy 80 to 90 personnel in Tg Piai during the by-election.

The Tg Piai seat fell vacant last week after Bersatu lawmaker Md Farid Md Rafik died of a heart attack.

In the 14th general election (GE14) last year, MCA’s Wee Jeck Seng, the seat’s two-term incumbent, lost to Farid by a slim margin of 524 votes.

Wee said he is ready for another run at the seat but ultimately it is up to the Barisan Nasional central leadership to decide.

“It is too soon to tell whether I will be chosen to contest.

“It is up to party leaders to decide, and I will honour and follow their decision,” the MCA man told The Malaysian Insight.

“As a division chief, I have the responsibility to defend the seat and I will definitely make myself ready.”

PAS deputy president Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man has said the Islamist party will sit out the by-election because it was traditionally a BN seat.

The party will instead help BN in its campaign, even if a non-Muslim candidate is fielded, as was the case in past elections, he said.

However, the Islamist party’s Johor commissioner Abdullah Hussein said he hoped BN would field a Malay candidate this time.

“Basically, we have no problem with anyone contesting, we just hope it will be a Malay-Muslim candidate. The majority of the people there are Malays.

“In a general election, the focus is less on whether it is a Muslim candidate or not, but (for a by-election) it will be easier for us to work with a Malay-Muslim candidate,” Abdullah said. – September 28, 2019.