DR Wan Azizah Wan Ismail admitted that chances of Pakatan Harapan winning the coming Cameron Highlands parliamentary by-election on January 26 are slim as Barisan Nasional is capitalising on local sentiments.

The deputy prime minister also said the by-election would be a tough fight as the opposition had fielded an Orang Asli person as its candidate.

“We have always faced difficulties, even before we came into the government. But it is a little more difficult now because they are playing on local sentiments.

“I met them (the Semai people) recently. Of course, it (difficulty) is a part of the contest,” she told reporters after launching the Malaysia Positive 2019 Convention in Putrajaya today.

Wan Azizah, who is also PH president, was commenting on the chances of PH candidate M. Manogaran winning the Cameron Highlands seat, where he will face a four-cornered fight against BN candidate Ramli Mohd Nor and two independent candidates.

Asked about Manogaran winning the seat, Wan Azizah said his chances were good because of the change in government at the federal level.

Asked if disciplinary action would be taken against PKR Senator Bob Manolan following claims that he allegedly threatened a group of Orang Asli village headmen in Cameron Highlands recently, Wan Azizah, who is also chairman of the PKR advisory council said she had spoken to Bob about it and he had said it was not what he meant.

“On disciplinary action, I will leave it to the new president, Anwar Ibrahim. But we do not agree with him (Bob) making threats. We have to be careful about what we say,” she said.

When asked to comment on photographs of a woman wearing a PH t-shirt seen giving out money in Cameron Highlands, the deputy prime minister urged reporters to check the authenticity of the photographs and the claims.

“Really? You can wear the t-shirt, hand out money, and have a photograph taken. You need to check further. But we have already told our staff not to do anything against the law in an election,” Wan Azizah said.

Earlier in her speech at the launch of the convention, Wan Azizah said the failure of a government stems from its inability to identify and adopt the right position with the people.

She said the spread of false information directly led to doubts among the people, increasing racial sentiments, and causing racial and religious disharmony.

“One of the outcomes of having a positive mind is the ability to sieve through information. There is a lot of false information on social media. We should learn from the May 13 incident. We do not want a repeat of it,” she said. – Bernama, January 13, 2019.