PAS digs up BN candidate's past
Whispers about a major ‘scandal’ involving BN candidate Mohd Azahar Ibrahim have turned out to be a case of procedural irregularity while he was Segamat assistant district officer.
Whispers about a major ‘scandal’ involving BN candidate Mohd Azahar Ibrahim have turned out to be a case of procedural irregularity while he was Segamat assistant district officer.
PAS vice-president Salahuddin Ayub (left) told a packed press conference today that Mohd Azahar had in 2003 caused “an illegal sale” of a plot of land belonging to one Mansor Mohamad.
Mansor had failed to pay the bank instalments, prompting Azahar to hold an inquiry. This led to a proclamation of sale of Mansor's land.
"But Azahar did not even conduct a proper inquiry and did not notify Mansor that his land is about to be auctioned off," said Salahuddin.
In 2008, the Muar High Court had ruled in favour of Mansor with costs after a lengthy lawsuit in which he named the Segamat District Land Office as defendant.
“Is it not because of the Umno candidate’s negligence and recklessness as an ADO that tarnished the good name and the integrity of the Segamat Land Office, hence eroding public confidence towards the agency in handling their land?” asked Salahuddin.
Also present at the press conference in the PAS operations room was Mansor himself.
“On the morning of the auction day itself, I went to the bank and paid RM10,000. I begged with (Mohd Azahar) not to sell off my land but he still insisted,” he said.
The 54-year-old businessman said that his intentions were genuine and that he meant no malice against Mohd Azahar, and he will also not be assisting PAS or Pakatan in their campaign.
‘Attacks not personal’
Meanwhile, Salahuddin repeatedly maintained that this expose was not a personal attack against Mohd Azahar.
“What we are revealing is just the integrity and the qualification of the Umno candidate in representing the Tenang state constituency.
“So no, these are not personal attacks. A personal attack is when Umno or pro-Umno bloggers spread lies about a candidate’s non-existent khalwat (close proximity) case like in the case of the previous by-election in Galas.
“A personal attack is when people are trying to find out incriminating evidence about someone else’s marriage or family. That’s a personal attack,” said Salahuddin.
“But since the candidate said that he wants to solve the land issues in Tenang as reported before, we trust that he should be transparent and not hide anything from the public.
“So is this a public representative that Tenang voters want?” added Salahuddin.
When asked if there are going to be more revelations from PAS about their opponents, he replied cryptically: "Wait and see”.
Azahar: Issue has long been settled
In an immediate reaction, Mohd Azahar (wearing songkok) told Malaysiakini that the matter has been settled in court.
"(PAS) just wants to manipulate this issue," he said.
Asked about Salahuddin's criticism that he is not qualified to be a wakil rakyat based on this incident, Mohd Azahar merely said: "This is just provocation".
