Loss of Cameron Highlands by-election a lesson for Pakatan Harapan: Muhyiddin
28 January, 2019
Pakatan Harapan’s (PH) defeat in the Cameron Highlands by-election on Saturday (Jan 26) serves as a lesson for PH to fix weaknesses in the ruling coalition, said Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) president Muhyiddin Yassin.
Muhyiddin, who is also home minister, said that although PH lost, the by-election provides an opportunity for them to get feedback from the people about their expectations of the government.
"The information we received from the grassroots on issues that bothered them were mainly cost of living, development and so on, we will look into them even though we lost.
"In the context of the current situation and circumstances, there is much that PH has to take into account, and we have to correct the existing problems," he told reporters when asked to comment on the result of the by-election here.
The by-election saw Barisan Nasional retain the seat after its candidate Ramli Mohd Nor obtained 12,038 votes, beating PH’s M Manogaran (8,800 votes) as well as two independent candidates, Sallehudin Ab Talib (314 votes) and Wong Seng Yee (276 votes).
Muhyiddin said, however, that he was convinced the outcome does not reflect the overall sentiment of the people nationwide.
Meanwhile, commenting on Bersatu Perlis' internal leadership conflict, Muhyiddin said that the party’s central leadership had taken control of the state entity to resolve the issue.
Without elaborating on the issue, Muhyiddin said the takeover was only temporary until a new leadership line-up was finalised.
"We have begun the process, and later we will announce the restructuring of the leadership at the state level.
"So in the meantime, I appeal to all parties not to issue any statements, and let the situation become calm and orderly," he said.
Perlis Bersatu faced an internal struggle when its secretary Wan Saiful Wan Jan was dropped from the leadership line up citing health reasons. However, Wan Saiful later claimed it was done due to other factors which raised questions over the integrity of the state leadership.
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