Najib and UMNO propagandists are giving the Malays the supreme insult doubting their intelligence and capability when they spread the canard that the Malays will lose political power to the DAP and Chinese if Najib and UMNO lose in next general election

The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak and UMNO propagandists are giving the Malays the supreme insult doubting their intelligence and capability when they spread the canard that the Malays will lose political power to the DAP and Chinese if Najib and UMNO lose in the next general election.

There is no doubt that Najib and UMNO are facing the greatest crisis of survival in their lives, for a recent poll has shown that the popularity rating of the Najib UMNO-led government is at an all-time low – below the 50 per cent mark for the first time, down to some 30 per cent.

Even UMNO leaders accept the real prospect that Najib can lose not only the popular vote (which UMNO/Barisan lost in the 2013 general election securing only 47% of the total votes cast) but also the majority of the parliamentary seats (which through an undemocratic electoral system, enabled Najib to secure 60 per cent of the parliamentary seats in the 13GE although with 43% of the votes, and therefore entering Malaysian history as the first minority Prime Minister in the country).

If the 2013 General Election had been fair and democratic, where the principle of “one man, one vote, one value” is the abiding feature of the electoral system, the Prime Minister after the general election in May 2013 would have been Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and not Najib Razak, and Anwar would not be in Sungai Buloh prison today.

It is a national tragedy that instead of redeeming his position as the first minority Prime Minister of the country, by heading a government which really cares for the people and nation, which is clean, incorruptible, consultative, democratic, fully guided by the principles of accountability, transparency and good governance, Najib had done the reverse, which is why there are Najib’s RM2.6 billion and RM55 billion 1MDB twin mega scandals giving Malaysia a bad name not only locally but in the international arena as well.

Events after New Year’s Day has proven Najib very wrong when he claimed in his 2016 New Year Message that his twin mega scandals had been resolved and are no more issues in the country.

In actual fact, Najib’s twin mega scandals, which caused Malaysia to come third in the world’s “worst corruption scandals in 2015”, are even bigger issues than last year and continue to hound and haunt Malaysians every day in the New Year, with new questions and revelations.

Najib and his lieutenants are doing their utmost to distract national attention and to cover up the scale and iniquity of the RM2.6 billion and RM55 billion 1MDB twin mega scandals, and this is why the reckless and baseless campaign to demonise DAP as anti-Malay and anti-Islam and warnings that the 14GE will be a battle between UMNO and DAP to determine the survival of Malay political power will intensify, as there is a “master” game-plan to escalate the campaign in the next two-and-a-half years before the 14GE.

Najib and UMNO propagandists are treating Malays as people with very low IQs who do not have the intelligence and capability to differentiate fact from fiction, truth from lies, and who could be easily deceived to believe the canard that if Najib and UMNO lose in the 14GE, the Malays will lose political power to the DAP and Chinese.

In the first place, the 14GE is not be battle of UMNO and DAP, but a battle between the Barisan Nasional led by UMNO and the Pakatan Harapan coalition of DAP, PKR and Parti Amanah Negara.

Secondly, DAP is not a Chinese party as right from the beginning of our formation 50 years ago, we were committed to the principles and vision of a Malaysian party, led by Malaysians and serving the interests of all Malaysians, regardless of race, religion or region.

This was why in the very first general election contested by DAP in 1969, two Malay State Assemblymen were elected, and down the decades, there had been Malay Members of Parliament and State Assembly representatives under the DAP banner.

This was also why in the first general election contested by the DAP in 1969, and now after the 2013 General Elections, the DAP has more Indian Members of Parliament than MIC.

But this does not make DAP a political party only for the Indians as DAP remains unequivcably as a party for all Malaysians, regardless of race, religion or region.

Whatever happens in the 14GE, whether Najib is toppled as Prime Minister or UMNO loses the Federal Government, the Malays in Malaysia will continue to exercise political power in Malaysia as there is no way they will lose their political power.

The demographic reality is the surest guarantee that the Malays will not lose political power whatever happens to Najib or to UMNO in the next general elections.
In 1970 Malaysia’s population comprised 44.32% Malays, 34.34% Chinese, 8.99% Indians, 11.89% non-Malay Bumiputeras, 0.67% others.

In 2010, the percentage of Malays in the Malaysian population increased to 55.07%, Chinese reduced to 24.34%, Indians dropped to 7.35%, non-Malay Bumiputeras maintained at 11.94% and 1.3% others.

During the 13th general election, 52.63% of the voters were Malays, 29.68% Chinese, 7.31% Indians, 8.96% non-Malay Bumiputeras and 1.43% others.
Out of the 165 Parliamentary seats in Peninsular Malaysia, 114 are Malay majority seats representing some 70%, 22 Chinese majority seats (13%) and 29 mixed seats. There is not a single Indian majority seat.

With the triple factors establishing overwhelming Malay predominance in the Malaysian political scene – the demographic make-up of the general population, the electorate and the parliamentary constituencies – can Najib and UMNO propagandists explain how the Malays will lose political power, whatever the scenario in the 14GE?

How Malays who dominate in 70% of the parliamentary seats in Peninsular Malaysia will lose political power to the Chinese, who are in the majority in only 13% of the parliamentary seats?

Surely Najib and UMNO propagandists are not insinuating that the Malays in the country are simpletons, who have no intelligence or capability, that despite comprising some 60% of the population in Malaysia and being the majority voters in 70 per cent of the parliamentary seats in Peninsular Malaysia as compared to 13% of the seats where there are Chinese voter-majorities, the Malays can lose political power to the Chinese – especially with a decreasing Chinese population as compared to the Malays?

The stark facts are for all to see – political power in Malaysia is not going to fall out of Malay hands, whether to the Chinese or any other ethnic community, whether Najib or UMNO is toppled in the 14GE or not.

The 14GE is not a battle between UMNO and DAP; it is not a showdown between the Malays and Chinese, but between the Barisan Nasional coalition government of Malaysians versus the Pakatan Harapan coalition.

The central question in the 14GE is not about the survival of Malays, Chinese, Indians, Kadazans or Ibans but about the survival of Malaysia and the Malaysian people – whether Malaysians regardless of race or religion can save Malaysia from the present national trajectories towards a failed and rogue state, and liberate the country and Malaysians from the rampant corruption, abuses of power, widespread socio-economic policies and nation-building failures of the Najib and the Barisan Nasional government.

(Speech at the DAP Senawang Branch 1,500-people “Mana RM2.6 billion?” dinner in Senawang, Negri Sembilan on Sunday, 10th January 2016 at 9 pm)