'I have no right to dispute someone's madness' - Zahid

JOHOR BAHRU – Umno president Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi criticised Kedah Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Muhammad Sanusi Md Noor's statement which gives the impression that Umno will be buried in Johor.

The Deputy Prime Minister insisted that the statements made by Sanusi, who is also the Perikatan Nasional (PN) election director during the Pulai parliamentary and Simpang Jeram State Legislative Assembly by-elections were baseless.

"Ask him (Sanusi) for saying that, I have no right to dispute the madness of a person," he said when met outside the Dewan Jubli Intan, Sultan Ibrahim here, today.

Previously, Sanusi was reported to have described Johor as no longer being Umno’s stronghold but instead would be buried by the PN wave that hit the states in the state elections on Aug 12.

Meanwhile, Zahid who is also BN chairman said that the situation had changed when PH that was BN's opponent nine months ago in the 15th General Election (GE15) was now its partner in the Pulai parliamentary by-election.

"I am confident in the Pulai Parliament because Pulai Umno Division chief Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed has a good relationship with PH colleagues even though he was an opponent in GE15.

"However, he is now organising a number of programmes to unite the two parties. In addition, the late Datuk Seri Salahuddin Ayub himself was also polite to Umno members and supporters, so it is quite easy in Pulai," he said.

He added that the unity government candidate would win this by-election because the total number of votes received by PH and BN in GE15 in the Pulai Parliament was 94,000 votes, while the PN candidate only received about 20,000 votes.

"But the political landscape has changed, so we also need to change the layout of the campaign journey, we realise this is a slippery climb but in politics, it is not impossible," he said.