BALIK PULAU: Perikatan Nasional’s partner, Gerakan, has joined the chorus of voices asking for the National Day celebration not to be politicised.
Gerakan president Datuk Dr Dominic Lau said he was against the idea of Perikatan using a different logo and theme in the four states under its control instead of those announced by the Federal Government.
“I do not agree that we use a different theme because not all issues should be politicised. We do not want to give the image to the people that we are politicising National Day,” said Lau, who is also Perikatan deputy chairman, after meeting residents at Taman Sahabat in Teluk Kumbar here yesterday.
He was commenting on Perikatan Youth chief Ahmad Fadhli Shaari’s statement on Saturday that the four states under the coalition might use a different National Day logo and theme for their state-level celebrations.
Ahmad Fadhli is also the PAS Youth chief. Gerakan is a member of Perikatan, along with PAS and Bersatu.
The issue, said Lau, was discussed at the Perikatan central leadership level, adding that Ahmad Fadhli had given his feedback on the reasons behind his proposal.
‘’There have been discussions at the Perikatan central level. I have voiced my stand that we do not agree to using a different theme in the Perikatan states,” he said, adding that the proposal actually came about because the National Day theme had been “politicised” by the Federal Government.
“Ahmad Fadhli made the suggestion because we saw that the Federal Government has politicised the (National Day) theme by using terms such as ‘madani’ and ‘unity’.
It was a counter move by Ahmad Fadhli but he cannot do anything because he is not a chief minister or mentri besar,” he said.In a TikTok video, Ahmad Fadhli urged the Federal Government to choose a theme that was more “middle ground”.
