Meroyan tak jadi calon

I wrote this post five years ago on June 11, 2013, barely a month after the last general election,

• Meroyan kalah pilihanraya

excerpts;

Puad, the former deputy education minister apparently still can't accept  that he lost his BP parliament seat and now out of the Umno's mainstream. 

Of course he needs to blame someone else for it. 

Well, looks like he is still sore that the Johor Umno liaison committee headed by Datuk Ghani had advised the Umno HQ to drop him as a candidate following feedback about Puad in Batu Pahat  being very bad. 

He had however managed to bypass that recommendation by throwing tantrum in KL a day before the BN list of candidates was announced.

Puad contested and lost the Batu Pahat parliament seat, which is the only Malay-majority parliamentary constituency that BN lost in Johor. 

The other four which BN lost were Chinese majority Bakri, Kluang, Kulai and Gelang Patah. 

Anyway, I guess Puad just can't shut up and wait for the due process of Johor Umno's power transition by attacking his former mentor (He got his first real break into politics after Datuk Ghani appointed him as his political secretary). 

Or maybe it's  just that he  wanted to cosy up to the new Johor Menteri Besar in the hope that he could remain relevant after the electoral defeat.

Surprisingly, despite losing the Batu Pahat seat and then throwing such a silly tantrum like that, Datuk Puad Zarkashi was elected as an Umno supreme council member at the party election later that year. At that time I was wondering what's wrong with the Umno people who voted for him.

He was later on appointed as the director-general of the Special Affairs Department (Jasa), which actually shocked me at that time. Can't they see that something is wrong with the guy?

Not enough with those, he was even made a member of Media Prima board of directors where he caused havoc among some spineless editors at the news organisation. Puad's statements, many of which were idiotic in nature were then categorised as "must cover, must use" for publication.

I was told that just recently a journalist working for one of the Media Prima newspapers got in trouble with a big time editor for writing a story which hinted the possibility of Puad not being selected as a GE14 candidate. The small time editors who instructed the story to be written were however spared.

As it turned out, Puad was indeed not selected to be a candidate when the Johor BN's list was announced on Monday.

True to his self, Puad reacted angrily despite BN chairman DS Najib Razak and his deputy DS Ahmad Zahid Hamidi having called him to explain why he was not selected as a candidate.

Zahid, in fact had to issued a long statement on the matter as Puad continued with his tantrum as reported here,

Puad Zarkashi must accept reality

excerpts;

Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said the Batu Pahat Umno division head must accept the reality that the constituency was in a critical state with an erosion of support for BN.

He said by placing another candidate to contest in the parliamentary constituency, BN hoped it could wrest it back from PKR.

“…but if the district voting centre is temporarily closed due to protests and he wants to contest on any ticket, that is up to him,” he said in a press conference held after his working visit to Sarawak at the VIP room in the Kuching International Airport here yesterday.

“…but (if that happens) he is not showing a strong party spirit even though he is a member of the UMNO Supreme Council and director-general of Jasa. This is a democratic country, it is up to him,” he said.

And today, when Zahid was in Batu Pahat for the closing of Minggu Amanah Saham programme, Puad refused to meet him.

Instead he chose to throw another fit, as reported here,

Puad Zarkashi resigns from Jasa

He posted his decision to quit Jasa on Facebook.

I'm reproducing what he posted in full ;

25.4.2108. HARI TERAKHIR DI JASA

Alhamdulillah hari ini hari terakhir saya di JASA. Saya tidak mengubah keputusan untuk meletak jawatan. Memang, ramai juga yang akan mengutuk saya. Saya tetap tabah. Berakhirlah riwayat saya di JASA. Tempat panas sehinggakan DAP membawa usul ke Parlimen di sidang Parlimen terakhir awal tahun ini supaya JASA dibubarkan. Sebelum ini dalam bajet PH mereka mencadangkan supaya JASA ditutup sahaja.

Kalau mahu disebut satu persatu memang banyak yang telah dilakukan sehingga JASA semakin dikenali termasuk di kawasan pedalaman Sabah dan Sarawak dan juga di kalangan pelajar Malaysia di luar negara.

Apakah saya marah dan merajuk? Itulah tuduhan oleh mereka yang tidak mengikuti sejarah saya. PRU tahun 1999 nama saya dipotong di saat akhir kerana saya dituduh penyokong Anwar kerana pernah menjadi guru di sekolah beliau Yayasan Anda Akademi. Saya tidak lari. PRU 2004 nama saya langsung tidak tersenarai walaupun ketika itu saya adalah Timbalan Ketua dan setpol YAB MB Johor (TS Ghani Othman). Saya juga meletakkan jawatan sebagai setpol serta merta. Tetapi saya juga tidak lari.

PRU ke 2013 saya kalah kerana tsunami Cina. Ramai tokoh lain juga kalah tetapi mereka tetap dapat bertanding kali ini. Saya juga tidak lari. Di PRU 2018 ini, saya digugurkan dalam tempoh 24 jam setelah menerima panggilan dan sebelumnya ditemui oleh TS Fatmi Salleh yang mengesahkan pencalonan saya. Pengguguran saya berlaku tanpa perundingan walaupun saya adalah ahli MT, KP JASA dan Ketua Bahagian.

Sebab itu saya berani mempersoalkan sistem memilih calon kali ini adalah ROSAK. Sebab itu apabila TPM mendakwa saya digugurkan kerana berlaku kerosakan sehingga sokongan terhadap BN merosot di Parlimen Batu Pahat maka ia meyakinkan saya sistem memilih calon UMNO kali ini adalah rosak dan corrupted.

Bagaimana dikatakan berlaku kerosakan sedangkan UMNO Batu Pahat berjaya menambah dan memindah pengundi hampir 7000 orang sehingga menyebabkan Parlimen Batu Pahat menjadi top five pertambahan tertinggi pengundi Melayu di Johor.

Apakah saya akan dikenakan tindakan disiplin kerana menjawab komen TPM secara terbuka? Kalau begitu kenapa Ahmad Said yang membawa usul supaya DS Razif dipecat sebagai MB tidak dikenakan tindakan dan dicalonkan semula.

Memang sistem kita rosak sehingga calon tidak bermoral dipilih. Calon yang tidak membantu parti juga terpilih.

Walaupun mempertahankan Kerajaan melalui JASA seperti tidak berbaloi tetapi meletakan jawatan adalah langkah terbaik. Terima kasih kepada seluruh staf JASA kerana bekerja sama dengan saya siang dan malam melaksanakan tugas dan tanggungjawab dengan dedikasi. Maafkan saya kerana memimpin JASA dengan cara yang keras dan tegas. Allah juga yang akan membalas pengorbanan anda semua.


Totally childish, if you asked me.

This Puad is a real embarrassment, especially for Umno.

Dropping him as a candidate was the best decision by BN so far for GE14.