Arif pours cold water over hot revelations
Malaysiakini.com
Aug 25, 2008 
K Kabilan

The last-minute rabbit pulled out by PKR from their by-election bag of surprises in the form of FT Mosque imam Ramlang Porigi is not set to drive undecided voters to start supporting Anwar Ibrahim.
MCPX

This was Barisan Nasional candidate Arif Shah Omar Shah's bold response when asked this morning to comment on the revelations made by Ramlang in the wee hours today.

arif on campaign 250808 01"No impact," said Arif when met while having his favourite teh-o (tea without milk) at a warung during his campaign rounds in Kampung Petani in Kubang Semang this morning.

Just minutes past midnight yesterday, Ramlang was herded into a hastily arranged press conference by the PKR for him to reveal that he was instructed by his superiors to be a witness to a swearing undertaken by alleged sodomy victim Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan on Aug 15.

Ramlang also threw doubts on the truthfulness of Saiful's swearing upon the Quran that he (the latter) was sodomised by Anwar.

Ramlang's role in the swearing ceremony had attracted controversy when it was discovered that he was an Umno member from Permatang Pauh, tempting tongues to wag that he had been ordered to oversee Saiful's swearing ceremony.

However Ramlang unexpectedly joined forces with PKR to dispel such a notion, stating that he had no role to play in the swearing ceremony, apart from being a witness as instructed by his superiors.

He also said that he was an accidental Umno member, refusing to even openly state that he would be rooting for Anwar in tomorrow's by-election.

However his revelation yesterday is set to put a huge dent in BN's and Umno's campaign to win votes by discrediting Anwar over his refusal to swear upon the Quran.

Najib's hand revealed

azmin ramlang pc 250808 01While Ramlang refused to state anything about the involvement of any Umno politicians in making the arrangement for Saiful to swear upon the Quran at the 15-minute press conference, he however exposed Deputy Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak's links with the affair in an interview with PKR's Suara Keadilan.

He told the party organ that the swearing ceremony was arranged by Najib's special aide.

While Anwar was conspicuously missing at Ramlang's press conference, he did not nevertheless waste his time to hold a media briefing of his own later in the morning to claim a moral victory over his detractors.

anwar yayasan aman pc 250808 03"This proves that Najib is involved in making these allegations against me," he told reporters at his by-election headquarters in Penanti.

He was confident that Ramlang's revelations would help him win back some Malay voters who were undecided previously.

On the other hand, Arif too was equally confident - that Ramlang's expose will not drive away any Malay voters from him.

"He was just a witness. He did not play any role in making Saiful to swear. After all that was an issue involving Anwar, Saiful and Allah," he told Malaysiakini.

Surrounded by several local mosque imams while having his hot cup of drink, Arif said that the Malay voters were not interested in Anwar's personal issue.

"And I too don't want to comment on that matter. But the voters here know the truth about playing religious issue," he said to the nods of the imams with him.

PKR going straight to voters

He said that he was surprised by the "extraordinary support" given to him by the voters, especially the Malay voters.

arif on campaign 250808 02"As I said, the imam (Ramlang) has not created any impact at all," he added.

Locals whom Malaysiakini spoke to this morning were also in the dark as to who was Ramlang, much less as to what he had revealed in his press conference earlier today.

This could be due to a total lack of coverage in the mainstream media on Ramlang's press conference and on the two late ceramahs he had participated last night.

When asked as to how they will disseminate Ramlang's expose to the voters, several PKR leaders last night admitted that they had to burn the midnight oil in trying to prepare leaflets, pamphlets and VCDs to be distributed directly to the voters before the polling day tomorrow.

They hope that their direct-to-voters campaign will help them entice the fence-sitting and non-convinced voters to change their minds to vote for Anwar.

There are also plans afoot to let Ramlang participate in PKR walkabouts in their last-minute campaign in the constituency.

Anwar faces Arif, also the Seberang Jaya state representative, and Angkatan Keadilan Insan Malaysia (Akim)'s Hanafi Mamat in the by-election. Permatang Pauh has 58,459 registered voters, of which almost 70 percent are Malay voters.                    

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