by Looi Sue-Chern The Malaysian Insider MAY 20, 2014
A Barisan Nasional (BN) MP today caused a stir in the Penang legislative assembly after she hit out at the DAP candidate for the Teluk Intan polls, saying that she was ungrateful to the services of the coalition.
Opposition leader Datuk Jahara Hamid (BN-Teluk Air Tawar), in echoing her Umno colleagues’ views on Dyana Sofya Mohd Daud, said she was ungrateful to the Barisan Nasional as she is a product of its education system.
“We don’t have problems with young and beautiful women in politics. It is good as to have more women’s voices in Parliament.”
“The issue is the DAP candidate came from BN’s efforts as well. For example, she was a graduate of UiTM,” she said.
Jahara then described Dyana using the Malay idiom “kacang lupakan kulit” (forgeting where one comes from), while debating Penang governor Tun Dr Abdul Rahman Abbas’s address to the assembly yesterday.
Dyana Sofya Mohd Daud, a lawyer and political secretary of DAP veteran leader Lim Kit Siang, is a Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) graduate.
(UiTM is a local university exclusive to the Malays and the Bumiputera.)
RSN Rayer (DAP-Seri Delima) immediately demanded Jahara retract the statement, saying that such a remark was hurtful.
Also voicing discontent over Jahara’s remark was Dr Afif Bahardin (PKR-Seberang Jaya), who said he too was a UiTM graduate, unlike Jahara and Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak who received their higher education in Britain.
“It is not that young people like us from UiTM forget ourselves. We are just fed-up with BN,” he said.
Jahara replied that people should not forget that it is the BN government that provided the infrastructure and environment to allow Malaysians to receive their education.
Datuk Mohd Salleh Man (PAS-Permatang Pasir) then said it is the federal government’s duty to do that, so there is no need for BN to talk about it.
Even before she was the confirmed candidate of the DAP for Teluk Intan, Dyana has been the subject of criticism and a smear campaign.
The 27-year-old will enter a head-to-head battle against Gerakan president Datuk Mah Siew Keong for the Chinese-majority seat which was left vacant after incumbent MP Seah Leong Peng, who was also from DAP, died of cancer on May 1.
Polling day for the Teluk Intan by-election is May 31. – May 20, 2014.