Hulu Selangor win key to capturing Selangor, says Noh

Barisan Nasional (BN) must win the Hulu Selangor by-election as defeat will shut the coalition's chances of re-capturing the state in the next general election, Selangor BN deputy chief Datuk Seri Noh Omar declared today.

“BN must win, if we don’t win, we cannot take over Selangor after the 13th General Election,” Noh told 1,500 BN delegates at the state BN convention here.

“It will not be an easy job, we are facing the state government, and they will use all available machinery,” he added.

Noh also repeated his attack against local election watchdog, Mafrel for not speaking out against Selangor Mentri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim for allegedly abusing his powers when presenting land titles to villagers in Hulu Selangor last weekend.

Mafrel had criticised the federal government for approving various housing and school projects in Hulu Selangor although the campaign period has not started yet. It starts after nomination on April 17 until polling day on April 25.

The Hulu Selangor by-election was called following the death of PKR MP Datuk Dr Zainal Abidin Ahmad late last month.

Noh however did not touch on BN’s possible candidate choice for the by-election. Local Umno leaders have been demanding that a candidate from the Malay party should be fielded despite MIC's insistence on maintaining status quo for the parliamentary constituency — which is fielding candidate from the Indian party. .

The Agriculture and Agro-based minister instead chose to highlight the weaknesses and failures of the Pakatan Rakyat-led (PR) Selangor government, including failure to increase state revenue and alleged misuse of zakat funds.

“In the last election we were badly organised, but now we can see that Pakatan has failed to fulfil most of its promises,” said Noh before reading out some of the promises made by PAS and PKR during the Election 2008 campaign.

“I remember PAS before the election declaring if they won the election, by the next morning they would have closed the Carlsberg factory, but now PAS and DAP cannot agree on selling alcohol,” he said referring to the dispute between the two PR members last year on the sale of alcoholic beverages in Muslim majority areas.

He added that PAS leaders were also inconsistent when its leaders defended executive councillor Elizabeth Wong who wanted to quit the government after her compromising pictures appeared on the internet.

“She wanted to resign, but what was unusual was that PAS women leaders who wear head scarves persuading her to stay,” said Noh.

Noh also accused the Selangor state government of undermining the national automotive industry by purchasing Toyota Camry cars for the state executive councillors.

“When they bought the Toyota Camry it was an insult to the local industry, if everybody thinks like them, refusing to buy Proton, where will the workers go?” asked Noh.

He reminded party leaders to take advantage of the issues affecting the state government that he mentioned in his speech in their campaign against PR.

The rare convention was organised to draw up plans to recapture the state in the next general election which must be held by 2013.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak who is also Selangor BN chief will deliver a special address to the delegates this afternoon.

courtesy of Malaysian Insider