By Adib Zalkapli (Malaysian Insider)
HULU SELANGOR, April 18 — The first day of the official Hulu Selangor campaign saw the main contenders, Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Rakyat, exchange allegations of Jewish links against each other in the race for the majority Malay vote.
Malays form more than half of the 64,500 voters who will have to pick between BN, PR and two independents contesting the April 25 by-election, the 10th since Election 2008.
A BN campaigner from Johor, Rosdi Amir slammed Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, claiming it was ironic that the opposition leader himself was linking the ruling BN government with Israel for hiring communication consultant, APCO Worldwide.
“His media adviser is an Pakistani-American, who is funded by the Jews,” Rosdi bluntly told his audience in Kampung Pasir Kerling without giving any names, while campaigning for P. Kamalanathan.
Kamalanathan is facing PKR’s Datuk Zaid Ibrahim and independents Johan Md Diah and V.S. Chandran for the seat left vacant by the death of PKR MP Datuk Dr Zainal Abidin Ahmad, who won by a narrow 198 votes in Election 2008.
Speaking in the constituency located more that 7,000 kilometres from Tel Aviv, Rosdi alleged that Anwar’s tenure as visiting professor at an American university was funded by Jewish groups.
“[More] proof that he is funded by the Jews was when he was appointed as lecturer John Hopkins University with the financial assistance from the Jews,” he added.
He claimed that Anwar would end up as a ‘Jewish puppet’, should he takes over the government.
“They like to manipulate weak leaders from various countries,” Rosdi said.
Citing more Jewish links for PR, he accused DAP of being under Jewish control as it is a member of the Socialist International.
Rosdi described the International Jewish Labour Bund, World Labour Zionist Movement, Israeli Labour Party and New Movement-Meretz, all members of the Socialist International as the backbone of the organisation.
“Do we want them or their friends to become our leaders,” said Rosdi, a practicing lawyer.
“I’m only presenting facts here,” he told the all-Malay crowd while showing his prepared notes.
Some 300 metres away at a PKR-organised rally, Anwar used Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s criticism of APCO to support his argument against what he called a company with strong links to the Israeli military.
“Strangely today, Dr Mahathir too disagrees with APCO but Umno Youth leaders are trying very hard to defend it,” Anwar told the Malay-majority crowd.
Dr Mahathir has been waging a campaign against Israel for its occupation of Palestinian territories and has disapproved the use of APCO by the Najib administration for public relations work.
PKR Youth chief Shamsul Iskandar Mohd Akin also repeated accusations that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s government is close to the Israelis.
“For the first time in the history of our country the government hires Jews, Zionists as consultants,” said Shamsul before hundreds of party loyalists.
“They accused Anwar of being a Jewish agent but they hired a Jewish company, when we showed the contract in Parliament, they chose to be silent,” he told the crowd.
The government’s alleged link with the Israelis was first raised by Anwar in Parliament last month when he said Najib’s 1 Malaysia was a carbon copy of Ehud Barak’s One Israel, claiming APCO was behind both campaigns.
But APCO has denied the allegations and Anwar has been referred to the powerful rights and privileges committee in parliament for making the accusations.
“Let us save our country from leaders who are conspiring with Zionists,” said Shamsul.
BN is already facing the risk of losing Malay votes after Najib announced that Petronas has stopped supplying gasoline to Iran ahead of further global sanctions.
The prime minister, however, denied the reports saying that the transaction was a one-off sale and there has been no more request.