Najib’s Iran snub risks Malay vote in Hulu Selangor

ARCHIVES 2010

By admin-s On Apr 17, 2010

(The Malaysian Insider) HULU SELANGOR, April 17 — The Najib administration is bravely showing a willingness to risk losing the Hulu Selangor by-election and key Malay support by siding with the US against Iran in a nuclear dispute.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak unwittingly turned his foreign policy into an election campaign issue when he confirmed that national oil firm Petronas has stopped supplying gasoline to Iran ahead of further global sanctions.

Pakatan Rakyat (PR) campaigners have exploited Putrajaya’s decision, with opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim saying it pandered to Washington’s lopsided policy on Iran, seen by many Muslims as a defiant hero against Western imperialism.

“When US President Barack Obama calls failed to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, I had criticised him. When Obama called for sanctions against Iran, I said fine, but what of Israel?” Anwar asked last night when bringing up the issue on the campaign trail.

Malays form slightly more than half of the 64,500 registered voters eligible to cast ballots in the April 25 by-election, and are generally against US pressure for an embargo on Iran and view the sanction call as a product of lobbying by the Israelis.

“But what did Najib do? He supported the US call for sanctions against Iran,” pounded Anwar to a roar of applause from the crowd of 200 Felda settlers here.

The PR and PKR de facto leader has already linked Najib’s public relations consultant APCO Worldwide to Israel and news of Petronas stopping fuel supplies to Iran adds another issue in PR’s Hulu Selangor election campaign against the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN).

He called Najib a “hypocritical leader without principles”, saying the government criticised the US for its impotence to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict while at the same time bowing to Washington’s pressure with the Iranian sanctions in the name of “improved bilateral ties”, which Anwar alleged was done merely to boost the PM’s image.