KUALA LUMPUR: Former Chief Justice, Tun Abdul Hamid Mohamad, has raised the possibility of the opposition ‘importing’ supporters for their political ‘ceramah’ to boost up numbers while campaigning during the 14th General Election.
He also lashed out at the ‘toxic nature’ of the campaigning methods being practised by some politicians in order to gain votes during the election, and expressed disappointment at seeing politicians planting seeds of hatred within the people in order to lash out at their opponents during campaigning.
Abdul Hamid singled out opposition leader Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, whom he said had used Umno and the Malays to the extent that he became Umno president and prime minister for more than 20 years.
Dr Mahathir, he said, is not only out to topple Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, but also wants to destroy Umno without taking into account the welfare and future of the Malays.
“In each Pakatan Harapan ceramah helmed by Dr Mahathir, I sense that the opposition appears to be importing supporters in order to boost up the numbers of those in attendance.
“I managed to speak about this with the locals when Dr Mahathir was campaigning in Langkawi, because it appeared that the supporters in attendance were not locals, but mostly from outside.
“Even when I was watching Dr Mahathir’s ceramah in Putrajaya on YouTube, the majority of the supporters did not seem to reflect the characteristics of true blue Putrajaya folk, who are mostly civil servants.
“From the way they dress, act and yell ‘reformasi’ as Tun was speaking, I believe that these people were hired and imported from outside Putrajaya,” he said.
He also slammed Dr Mahathir’s mission to ‘upgrade’ the country’s judicial system if given the mandate, given that Dr Mahathir, when he was prime minister, had meddled in the promotion of judges.
“If the opposition is given the mandate, it is not far-fetched to assume that DAP would reduce number of civil servants by half. If this happens, will Dr Mahathir then realise that the hundreds of thousands of those cast away are Malay?
“As of now, we can clearly so who is being used. We will see more on May 9,” he said.