PAS today brushed off BN' s tactic of dragging in a witness in PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim's first sodomy trial, Ummi Hafilda Ali, for its Merlimau campaign, seeing little impact in the move.

In fact, said PAS election director Abdul Halim Abdul Rahman, the party welcomes the emergence of such ‘dubious' characters.

"It's just childish politics... In fact I think that this tactic of theirs will backfire so it'll be good if more of these askar upahan (hired mercenaries) join the campaign," he told reporters in Merlimau today.

NONE Yesterday, Ummi Hafilda ( left ) attracted about 200 people to her talk in Kampung Chinchin by promising to ‘expose' scandals involving opposition leaders.

She, however, only delivered the rehashed heart-rending but previously heard story of her involvement in the events leading up to Anwar's sacking in 1998.

Those in attendance, mostly middle-aged Malay kampong folk, were enthralled as they had never heard Ummi Hafilda speak in person before.

BN is also launching heavy attacks Pakatan Rakyat, and Anwar, using PKR turncoats who share reasons why they left the party, honing in mostly on how the former deputy prime minister is ‘selling out' the Malay community in order to become prime minister.

Such emotional appeals on the Malay psyche are seen also on anti-PAS leaflets and comics now littering Merlimau.

NONE But according to Abdul Halim, this sort of issues will only have a chance of sticking during a general election as the people of Merlimau are more concerned over local issues.

"In any case, Anwar is now facing trial and he is not the candidate. The candidate is from PAS, a party which is known for its integrity," he said.

DAP slams Ali's RM272 mil tram plan

Among the ‘local issues' championed by PAS was the said mismanagement of the Malacca government, evidenced by its ballooning debt.

This, said DAP's Ayer Keroh assemblyperson Khoo Poay Tiong, will only get worse if Chief Minister Mohd Ali Rustam's plans to build a tram system in Malacca goes through.

"Even though it is funded through the private funding initiative, the state government will need to pay back RM272 million in the next twenty years, meaning RM1.13 million a month," he said at the press conference.

azlan The Malacca government estimates that the tram will carry 40,000 passengers daily, but Khoo believes this is unlikely due to poor local transportation to feed the trams.

He added that this project comes after the massive failure of the monorail which stalled a mere four hours after its launch when Malacca declared herself a developed state.

"Mohd Ali took over as chief minister in 1999 and the debt in 2000 was around RM460 million. In 2007 it reached RM1.1 billion.

"Now it stands at around RM700 billion but not because we paid it off but because the Malacca government in 2008 sold off its water agency to the federal government for a debt contra of around RM770 million," he said.