BN took the state illegally fromPakatan and now they are trying to legalize their stay with the voters by tarnishing the image of Pakatan leaders.

DAP rep cries foul over smear campaign

Humayun Kabir | June 30, 2011

Perak DAP leader A Sivanesan claims that the state government is using an online portal to tarnish the image of Pakatan leaders.

TAIPING: The Barisan Nasional state government has been accused of engineering character assassinations of top Pakatan Rakyat leaders through its Perak Today online portal.

DAP state vice chief A Sivanesan told FMT today that BN had now moved from the mainstream media to the online media to influence youths with its political propaganda on the alleged inefficiency of Pakatan leaders in serving their constituents.

Apart from himself, the Sungkai state assemblyman said others on the hit list were former menteri besar Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin (Pasir Panjang assemblyman and Bukit Gantang MP), Perak DAP chief Ngeh Koo Ham (Sitiawan state assemblyman and Beruas MP), DAP state secretary Nga Kor Ming (Pantai Remis state assemblyman and Taiping MP) and state DAP deputy chief and former Pakatan state speaker V Sivakumar (Tronoh state assemblyman).

Sivanesan said BN’s plan was simple: deny the state assembymen and MPs allocations for developing opposition-held constituencies and tell the voters that only the BN government could bring the necessary development to these areas.

“The message is vote out these ‘inefficient’ opposition lawmakers for BN to make progressive development in the next general election,” he said.

‘Perakians have not forgotten’

Sivanesan said Perak Today had recently portrayed him as sleeping on the job in not serving the needs of his constituents and not bringing development to his area.

The DAP leader said he had brought about some progressive development to his constituency like stopping the recurring floods in his area during Pakatan’s 11-month rule of the state, prior to BN’s political coup.

“Now, how can I bring development to my area when the development funds are in the hands of BN who call all the shots?” he asked

He said besides the online propaganda campaign to smear the image of Pakatan leaders, the state BN also invited Umno’s top two, Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak and his deputy Muhyiddin Yassin, to visit the state frequently.

According to Sivanesan, by holding certain national functions in the state, BN was attempting to portray itself as being caring about Perak’s welfare and economy.

“They (BN) took the state illegally (from us) and now they are trying to legalise their stay with the voters but they forget that Perakians still have not forgiven them for taking over the state forcefully from an elected state government,” he said.