Najib calls Pakatan “evil” and “anti-national” at BN meet
By Clara Chooi, The Malaysia Insider
Datuk Seri Najib Razak appeared to kick off Barisan Nasional’s (BN) next election campaign today by delivering his hardest-hitting punches yet on his Pakatan Rakyat (PR) foes by calling them “anti-national” and “evil”, intensifying speculation that snap polls are around the corner.
While blaring the call to arms to Barisan Nasional (BN) component parties, the ruling coalition chairman thundered in a lengthy speech steeped in sarcasm that the opposition were merely “traders of dreams” while the ruling coalition were “merchants of realities”.
“Be wary all, beware all, they are very dangerous. They are willing to sell just about anything, including discrediting Malaysia’s name abroad.
“I would like to explain here that they are anti-national. We must fight them to the end and make sure that this country will not be destroyed by their evil activities,” he said in his opening speech at the BN convention in Wisma MCA here this morning.
For a good 20 minutes, the premier fired stinging attacks against the opposition pact, particularly against PKR, fully capitalising on the party’s fractious polls that were just concluded last month.
He also claimed that the party was attempting to imitate Umno, charging that this proved that they recognised the honesty of the ruling party’s struggles.
“We understand that perhaps they are following the saying in English that ‘imitation is the best form of flattery’,” he added.
The BN convention, themed “1 People, 1 Nation, 1 Vision”, the first for the ruling coalition since it suffered its worst-ever electoral defeat in Election 2008, runs from 9am to 5pm today and will feature debates on a variety of topics from 10 party component leaders.
Najib claimed that PKR’s integrity and credibility was doubted by its own members, pointing out that this was reflected in how members had rampaged to show their dissatisfaction and disappointment, rebelled, and caused commotions like throwing chairs during the party polls. He added that disgruntled members had even brought their complaints to court.
This was why, said Najib, it would be “strange” and “miraculous” if the results of the party’s direct elections had brought any “drastic changes” to the party, other than to pollute the people’s beliefs in the process.
“Additionally, as we know and as reported in the papers, many of their top party leaders themselves have abandoned PKR including their former deputy president, vice-president, secretary-general, youth chief, deputy youth chief, information chief, state chairman, division chairman, including from the Permatang Pauh division, former deputy chief minister, five assemblymen and five MPs,” he said.
He added with a smile that PKR should be more aptly described as “Parti Keluar Ramai-Ramai” (mass defection party) instead of Parti Keadilan Rakyat (People’s Justice Party).
Najib also took a direct swipe at PKR president Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail for describing her husband, the party’s de facto leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, as “God-sent” and questioned the Muslim leader on which “hadith” had she based her declaration on.
“In recent days, PKR is looking too desperate in attempting to plead for the people’s sympathy to a point that its own president claimed that the de facto leader is ‘God-sent’.
“Oh yes, we understand the loyalty and awe felt by a wife towards her husband, oh, the ‘ke… he… ba… tan’ (greatness) of her husband,” he said, dragging out the word “greatness” with a smile and inviting thunderous applause from his audience in Dewan San Choon here.
“Is this some kind of new teaching or, more accurately, is this some kind of deviant teaching? Enough of these twisted dramas. I hope the people will not be so easily swayed with this nonsense.
“It is important to remember that it is not the people’s duty to bear the burdens of its leaders but vice-versa and that is the stark difference between BN and PR,” he said.
Najib also claimed that the opposition pact was not adequately represented by all racial communities in Malaysia but was dominated by one or two races.
Party members in the other minority races, he added, were merely “tokens” or for “cosmetic” purposes.
“More accurately, they are a pact of two families, with the third one merely a follower,” he said, describing the pact as one formed by parties sleeping on the same bed but sharing different dreams.
In yet another attack against PKR, Najib slammed the multi-racial party for accusing Umno of nepotism when the leaders in its top ranks comprised of the father, mother and daughter.
He was referring to how Anwar was PKR de facto leader; his wife Dr Wan Azizah, the party’s president; and daughter Nurul Izzah, the newly-elected vice-president.
“It is hilarious when they are brave enough to accuse us of practising nepotism. I would like to ask here, who are the real [practitioners] of nepotism? In the words of legal maxim — justice must not only be done, it must be seen to be done. Moreover, it must not only be proper, it must also be seen to be proper,” he said.
The other PR parties of DAP and PAS also did not escape Najib’s lengthy tirade this morning and the premier poked fun at the former party for being a “two-dynasty hegemony”.
