KUALA LUMPUR, April 18- The candidate entrusted by Barisan Nasional (BN) to challenge Parti Keadilan Rakyat’s (PKR) big gun Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim for the Permatang Pauh parliamentary seat is seen as no easy opponent for the opposition leader.
Academician and Anwar’s one-time close friend, Datuk Dr Sidek Baba(Pic) said Anwar had met his match in BN’s Dr Mazlan Ismail “who is a fighter, has an excellent academic and professioal background, and is a local-born and a former PAS leader”.
“When he (Mazlan) is ready to fight (in Permatang Pauh), it’s like (Anwar) meeting his match. He is highly qualified, while his strong religious spirit and being a PAS leader before will definitely gain him sympathy from some of the PAS people and the fence-sitters.
“All these (factors) may give him (Mazlan) some advantage. It is a wise decision to send the best candidate there to face a leader who desperately wants to become prime minister,” the International Islamic University senior lecturer told Bernama after appearing on BernamaTV’s ‘Helo Malaysia’ programme last night.
Mazlan, 53, has a degree in electronic communications from the University of Salford, England and a PhD in intellectual capital management from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia. He has had experience in the corporate field with his last position as vice-president at Telekom Malaysia Berhad.
His political experience include being the Penang PAS general election machinery director when he was with the party.
Sidek recently shocked many people when he dissociated himself from Anwar after 30 years of friendship, citing Anwar’s moral issues, his support for religious pluralism and his questionnable credibility as the reasons.
For three years, Sidek did research on Anwar, interviewing 28 individuals who were close to the opposition leader and performed special prayers asking for divine guidance before deciding to severe his ties with Anwar. On claims by certain quarters that the opposition pact (Pakatan Rakyat) should be given the chance to govern the country, Sidek disagreed, saying that Malaysia was not like some of the Arab countries which recently saw violent regime change and he argued that “change for the sake of change is meaningless”.
“In evaluating a government, we should look as its track record and there must be continuity to this.
“Malaysia’s track record has been good in terms of economic growth and gross domestic product, while inflation is under control. Last year alone, the Inland Revenue Board collected RM125 billion, a rather huge amount.”
Sidek also said that the Malaysian government did not reject Islam, as claimed by its detractors, because it had done a lot for the religion and Muslim community including setting up various Islamic institutions like Bank Islam, and Islamic insurance, Islamic banking and Islamic bonds and sukuk, wakaf, zakat and many more, and soon a Quran university would be established.
On young voters who would be voting in the general election for the first time, Sidek advised them to think carefully and not judge the candidates based on what they saw on the outside as the truth would eventually emerge.
“Know your candidates; his present and his past. As for Anwar, I have enough proof on a lot of things about him as I have done research,” he said.
BERNAMA
