Perkasa’s Datuk Zulkifli Noordin believes his image does not need any repairing with any demographic in the Shah Alam race, saying he is also confident of Barisan Nasional (BN) recapturing Selangor in Election 2013.
The incumbent Kulim-Bandar Baharu MP has riled the Indian community with his comments about their faith, but he told the fz.com news portal that his BN candidacy was “living proof” of coalition chairman Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s commitment to political transformation.
“I am what I am,” Zulkifli said in a video interview uploaded in the news portal yesterday.
“It is a proof of Najib’s commitment to transform the political scenario in Malaysia, thinking outside the box. So I am the living proof of that transformation programme,” he claimed proudly, referring to his candidacy as someone not affiliated to any of the BN component parties.
The syariah lawyer and former defence lawyer for Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim is the first person to be running under the flag of “Friends of Barisan Nasional” in the May 5 general elections.
The decision to field Zulkifli has earned BN much criticism, not just due to his reputation as a Muslim hardliner and his position as vice president of the Malay rights advocacy group Perkasa, but also the recent controversies over his insults against the Hindu community.
In the interview, Zulkifli said Najib was brave to field a “rare species” like him in the upcoming elections and that Malaysians should appreciate that.
However, he voiced his surprise at his critics’ concern with his connection to Perkasa.
“I’m quite surprised people are so concerned about Perkasa, me with Perkasa. People never ask me whether I’m a part of of the Bar Council. I am a Bar Council exco member…” he said.
He also deflected the question of whether he was a champion of Malay rights by saying, “I am the champion of constitutional rights.”
Malaysian Indians have been especially angry by his nomination due to a video of Zulkifli referring to them as “Keling”, which they consider derogatory, that went viral recently just days after another video was released in which he questioned the purity of the Ganges River, considered sacred by Hindus, and asked an Indian trader why Hindu gods did not prevent the man’s shop from being flooded.
However, Zulkifli has said that he had made these comments when he was still a PAS member.
“We commit a lot of mistakes… During my time in the opposition, we were taught the politics of extremism, chauvinism, racism… until today. That’s why you can see as recent as about few weeks ago, one live member of PAS came out in the open admitting that they were so extreme in their politics they want to murder the former prime minister Tun Mahathir,” he said.
The former PKR man also said: “My first speech in parliament after becoming a Independent member was to admit the mistake and apologise to the people of Malaysia regardless of race and religion that I committed a serious mistake when I was with the opposition. And I apologised openly.”
Zulkifli became a BN-friendly Independent MP and critical of the opposition when he was dismissed from PKR on March 6, 2010 over a police report he lodged against Shah Alam incumbent Khalid Abdul Samad.
He also told fz.com that he was “101 per cent” confident that he would win Shah Alam against PAS’s Khalid Samad, who won the seat in Election 2008.
“After 5th of May you will see me as a wakil rakyat of Shah Alam, because I am confident of the prime minister,” he said.
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Zul is part of PM plan to change UMNO/BN from within - to be more racist.
What image???
Image of a Creepy Vampire luring Malays to vote for him hehehehe....
He is hoping that all the Malays in Shah Alam are racist like him as Malays form the bulk of the voters there and he knows that he won't get any votes from the non-Malays but he just don't care. I only hope that his assumptions on the Malays in Shah Alam is incorrect.
Still so arrogant and full of confidence of himself.Confidence and reality are different issues.If Najib endorse him it does not mean the whole of selangor or malaysia will accept him.You can bet he will be the cause of non malays deserting bn along with his number one ibrahim.If he is so useful and popular with all malaysians go and tag along when other non malay bn candidates have ceramahs with majority non malay voters.See what the response will be.
You are what you are AND we do what we want to Do . We will vote you out and you detested Barisan out of power! ABU.!
Zul appeared in the YouTube video clearly behind the banner which included the date 6th March, 2013. How can he mention that the derogatory words were uttered when he was in PAS ? He was dismissed from this party sometime ago.
Being racist isn't a crime. Lim Kit Siang had capitalised on racism ever since he came out of age.......
ReplyDeleteLet Zul be a little bit racist. Or someone out here love to draw guns and start shooting? As boys say, name the field and time.