Tariq Ismail, who is also PPBM’s Sri Gading division head, said Sariffuddin’s claim of DAP parliamentary leader Lim Kit Siang pulling the strings and dictating PH was an attempt to manipulate the feeling of the Malays.
“It is an established Umno tactic to demonise DAP. It’s not a new phenomenon,” he said in a statement today.
“They have countless times played upon the emotions of the Malays and stirred racial sentiments as though the nation’s leadership will fall into the hands of DAP and thus will diminish the special position of the Malays.
“Honestly, is Umno so threatened and their welcome in the Malay community so depleted that they would resort to fooling the Malay community that the Malay parties in Pakatan Harapan are being dictated by power broker DAP?” he added.
Tariq claimed that Sariffuddin had condescendingly accused Malay leaders in PH, including those from components PPBM, PKR and Amanah, of being weaklings and easily manipulated by DAP.
He said “the laws of mathematics” would not allow DAP to assume the nation’s leadership, referring to the post of prime minister.
‘I would also assert that the assumption made by Tengku that Malay leaders outside of Umno in general are too weak and too dumb actually reflects the situation in Umno,” he said.
“This is proven each time the Umno cabinet members open their mouths to speak,” he claimed.
Sariffuddin had yesterday said that the PH’s leadership arrangement was an “Ali Baba” strategy where the frontman was Malay but the real power broker was behind the scenes.
He said DAP and Lim knew that Malays would not support them outright.
He said they were playing a “trick” because PKR de facto head Anwar Ibrahim’s influence on PH was waning and they needed a new Malay figure – referring to former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohammad who is chairman of PH and PPBM – at the front to “camouflage” them.
Sariffuddin also said it was no secret that a vote for PH was a vote for DAP – not PKR, Amanah or PPBM.
“For Kit Siang personally, the alliance with Mahathir is meant to erase his image as anti-Malay and anti-Islam. But what Kit Siang fails to understand is that the Malays can sense they are being used by DAP,” he said.