UMNO Youth chief Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki has questioned Bersih 2.0’s motive in not highlighting enough election offences committed by Pakatan Harapan during the Cameron Highlands by-election last week.

In a statement, Asyraf accused the election watchdog of being biased for only detailing a few offences from the current government.

“Umno Youth is questioning Bersih’s motive and, if they claim to be ‘bersih’ (clean), they should not just report about the offences committed by the government but should also urge the authorities to investigate them.

“If they claim to be an independent body, Bersih 2.0 can no longer close its eyes and ears and must start questioning the government for its election offences. They cannot be seen as Putrajaya’s tool,” Asyraf said in a statement.

He then took Bersih 2.0 chairperson Thomas Fann to task for criticising his speech with PAS deputy president Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man where Fann had deemed Asyraf’s speech as racist.

“Why every time there is a speech about Malay and Muslim, the speech is deemed offensive and racist? Why Thomas Fann must be prejudiced to what I have to say?

“If Thomas Fann didn’t know, DAP too played the race card. Lim Guan Eng had said that if Barisan Nasional wins in Cameron Highlands, the non-Muslims will not become Members of Parliament. How did Bersih 2.0 miss this?” Asyraf said.

In the statement published today, Asyraf included 12 election offences committed by Pakatan Harapan in the by-election.

Among the offences are: pamphlets in Mandarin claiming that more budget will be allocated to Chinese schools if Pakatan Harapan wins in Cameron Highlands, distribution of money to the Orang Asli which Pakatan Harapan leaders claim to be “duit minyak”, PKR senator was recorded threatening the Orang Asli chiefs and the use of government vehicles during the campaign period.

Bersih 2.0 recently published its report claiming 23 election offences throughout the Cameron Highlands by-election, with the most worrying ones involving the use of race and religion to campaign for votes.

Incitement of racial and religious sentiments was committed a total of four times throughout the two-week campaign – once by Barisan Nasional, twice by PAS and once by an unknown person using flyers.

The flyers linked Pakatan Harapan candidate M. Manogaran to the death of fireman Muhammad Adib Mohd Kassim.

By party, Barisan Nasional committed the most offences at 14, Pakatan Harapan at 5, PAS at 2, and two more offences by unknown persons.

Independent candidates Sallehuddin Ab Talib and Wong Seng Yee were not found to have committed any offence. – February 1, 2019.