Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) president Anwar Ibrahim chided former colleague Mohd Rashid Hasnon for claiming he was afraid of defending his Port Dickson seat, a Malay-majority constituency. 

Anwar was responding to a claim by the Johor Perikatan Nasional exco member that he would relinquish his Port Dickson seat and contest in Ampang in the next general election. 

The Pakatan Harapan (PH) chairman took aim at Rashid, saying the latter was sent to contest in Batu Pahat due to his poor performance as the Pantai Jerejak assemblyman in Penang.  

“He was sent to Johor (Batu Pahat) because of his poor performance in Penang. 

“He claimed that I wanted to contest in Ampang. Who is in Ampang? Zuraida Kamaruddin. Even if he wanted to defend her, this is not the way. Zuraida is in Ampang and she is a Malay. 

“I am leading a Malay-majority party with multi-ethnic members. I have never said I am only defending the Malays like Umno and Bersatu,” he told reporters after attending a PKR women’s wing event.  

Yesterday, Rashid said that news of Anwar contesting in Ampang showed that the former deputy prime minister was not confident of retaining his Malay-majority seat in Port Dickson. 

He questioned Anwar for wanting to contest in Ampang, which was a mixed area with 51% of Malay voters and 32% of Chinese voters. 

“Anwar as PH prime minister candidate is afraid of losing in Malay majority seat. He is not confident of winning the votes from the Malays. He now wants Ampang. 

“Why does he not want to contest in Malay heartland? It is because he knows the Malays no longer trust PH,” he said. 

Rashid is a former PKR member and the former Penang deputy chief minister I. 

He joined Bersatu together with several PKR MPs, including Mohamed Azmin Ali, following the Sheraton Move in 2020, which saw the collapse of the PH government. – September 25, 2022.