By P Ramakrishnan | Aliran President
Was Anwar’s bid to takeover Putrajaya on 16 September 2008 a “big fat lie” as Najib has claimed? P Ramakrishnan reminds us about a certain trip to Taiwan.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak was reported by The Sunday Star (20 March 2011) as having said that PKR had gone to the extent of telling the ‘biggest political lie of the century’ when it announced it would take over the government on 16 September 2008.
“We have to keep repeating this because human memory is short and they forget, but we must remind the people that it was the biggest political lie of the century,’ he said.
He said PKR leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim had made the Barisan Nasional worried when he claimed that more than 30 of the coalition’s elected representatives would cross over, “But in the end, it was all a big fat lie’ he added.
I must thank the PM for jogging my memory. The only truth in his statement was that “Datuk Anwar Ibrahim had made the Barisan Nasional worried when he claimed that more than 30 of the coalition’s elected representatives would cross over”. That was a fact. The rest of Najib’s claims about what transpired cannot be said to be the “biggest political lie of the century”. They are Najib’s claims of what happened and they are his lies.
Again, Najib is correct in stating, “We have to keep repeating this because human memory is short and they forget…”
Indeed we have to repeat the past incidents and recall what actually happened so that people can remember the truth.
If the cross over on 16 September 2008 was deemed to be a lie, why did the BN take this lie so seriously by sending some 50 MPs to Taiwan? They were sent, we were then told, on an agricultural tour of Taiwan. But the truth was that the BN was running scared of the possibility of its own MPs switching sides. It did not trust its MPs absolutely.
That was the only reason why the BN wanted to keep these 50-over MPs away from Malaysia. It desperately wanted them to be away from Anwar who was trying to entice some 30 over BN MPs to defect to his side in his campaign to unseat the BN government.
The BN knew that there was this real possibility that its MPs could have provided Anwar the majority that was required to topple the BN government.
There was no other convincing reason why these MPs had to be kept away from Malaysia on 16 September. They could have been sent to Taiwan or to Timbaktu on any other date for whatever course but the BN wasn’t prepared to take any chances by keeping them in Malaysia on 16 September!
So on 8 September – 8 days before 16 September – these MPs were packed off to Taiwan on a “blur blur” tour. One BN MP mentioned that this trip was planned months ago while another contradicted him by claiming it was all so sudden!
Lim Kit Siang alluded to this as “a national shame that BN MPs should be treated like delinquent children who have to be packed off overseas and secluded from mischief – treating BN MPs as no better than chattel. Poor BN MPs!”
John Roberts in an article entitled, “Political power struggle in Malaysia continues unabated” had this to say:
In the lead up to September 16, the government took the extraordinary step of sending nearly 50 BN parliamentarians on a paid trip to Taiwan to study farming techniques. Few believe that farming issues were the reason behind the trip. Among those sent were parliamentarians regarded as most susceptible to being courted by the opposition. PKR secretary general Salehuddin Hashim described the expedition as “kidnapping,” saying it was “a very clear sign of the anxieties and insecurities inside Barisan”.
If the BN had not taken this extraordinary precaution by sending its own MPs away to Taiwan, and on 16 September if Anwar’s bid for power had failed, only then Najib could boast that “it was all a big fat lie”.
Since the BN did not dare take that chance to test the integrity of its own MPs, Najib’s story is nothing but a “big fat lie”.
Anwar made his greatest mistake by having his “biggest mouth” on this affair. Read Sun Tze : “Take the enemy by surprise.”
If Anwar is not a threat…..why give him so much attention.
Leave him alone!
The big lies is the sucker who often wiping his salivary a*s whenever he delivered a sentence during the Sibu election campaign, “You help me; I help you…”>
yb .. if this switching sides could have taken place , why can’t DAP accept what happen in perak.please do not say perak is different.
Whether there was any merit in Anwar’s claim he got the elites in the racist evil regime pissing in their pants! Fat Mama almost dropped her sarong!!
‘In the lead up to September 16, the government took the extraordinary step of sending nearly 50 BN parliamentarians on a paid trip to Taiwan to study farming techniques.’ John Roberts
So we have now 50 MPs who are now expert farmers. Why are they still in Parliament now?
Will these 50 be dropped at the next GE so that they can start a new career as ‘farmers’?
So who finally paid for their trips?
Anwar is paying the price by bragging and revealing all his intentions and purposes to his enemies.
He is an excellent politician…but an obvious weak Commander in Chief.
Wah….18 video…
MU..”Mestilah…jika satu tidak cukup….17 video siap sedia…selau…satu tida cukup…mesti melihat 2 atau 3..hanya kemudian boleh mendapatkan basah…kalau tidak…susah untuk masuk”.
Guess who financed the MPs’ agricultural tour of Taiwan ? None other than the guy behind KDSB, who is now accused of ripping off hundreds of millions from PKA. Is this guy going to answer for his misdeeds ? Nah, he already contributed immeasurably to the “study tour”.
But all the dirty tactics applied by UMNO B will backfired in favour of Anwar and PR.
Thruthful Muslims are more concern of the welfare of people…and Sarawak is clear a State with tons of corruptions revealed where Najib is afraId to loose the State election that will surely decides the outcome of the 13th GE.
Anwar is the only man that can pull Muslims votes away from UMNO B…and he must be insulted…exposed as a sex maniac… to the fullest is what UMNO B hope to win Muslims votes.
These hypocrites of the highest order are showing how great Muslims Malaysians they are…when all know…they are the biggest rouges and thieves keep twisting the turning to fool Malaysians.
Will their latest stunt works?
I think it will backfired as PAS and DAP are solidly supporting Anwar.
Is a “liar politician” qualified to call another politician a liar?
Shouldn’t the “liar politician” take the log out of his own eye first?
Look at the dissatisfaction now brewing in sabah and sarawak towards umno and jib. The 30 cross-overs anwar spoke of were from these two states. So are we surprised? Doesnt the odd seems to favour anwar’s statement? And remember this. Dissatisfaction does not grow overnight. It takes years of abuse and oppression before voters finally turn away. So what anwar said three yrs ago does seem real and believable. Of course umno thwarted anwar’s plan. That only succeeded in delaying the eventual result. Come GE13 sabahans and sarawakians will come out in force to tell umno in unambiguous terms: GET OUT!
Certainly this has not happened because our Pakatan is a poor and clean parties coalition.
Who want to listen to poor leaders? Well, now only ordinary people listen to poor and clean leaders.
Probably Barisan Nasional had sent money to Sarawak and Sabah to persuade them not to cross over to Pakatan on 16/9/2008.
Only the people are the power now for coming election. Vote for less corrupted leaders and parties.
Taib and his people have been taking the land (timber) of the bumiputra in the jungle. It is time to wake up Sarawkians…
In the first place Anwar should not have embark on such adventure of luring constitutionally elected MPs to jump ship. This is a despicable thing against the will of the people who had elected them as their representatives. But Anwar with such a big cachet and respect after he pull out a big upset on the BN decided to squander this precious advantage by adopting dirty UMNO tactics which he successfully demonstrated against the PBS in Sabah. Thinking that he can still walk on water, he did not listen to many pleas not to go ahead with this crazy plan. In the end he got rotten eggs on his face, and henceforth, his moral credibility went into the drain. Soon one disaster after another befell on him that got him totally distracted from leading the Pakatan on the right path.
This BN regime is coming to an end….their own MPs know it….problem is …they dont know how to get out…
In fact, the so-called shortness of memory of the Malaysian electorate served one erstwhile PM very well indeed!
So well that he even mentioned it!
This shortness of memory coupled with a docile demeanour, undoubtedly kept him in place for 22 years!!
What a guileless bunch indeed!!