Sarawak polls will decide on early general election, says PM
(The Star) – KUALA LUMPUR: Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said he will wait for the outcome of the Sarawak state election before deciding whether to call for an early general election.
“We’re looking at (the) Sarawak (state election) and after Sarawak we will decide when is the best time (to hold the 13th general election). We follow the British system and we can decide, so long is it doesn’t go beyond five years,” he said.
In an interview with Bloomberg on his achievement after two years in office, the Prime Minister was asked whether he would call for an early general election if Barisan Nasional (BN) were to do well in the April 16 Sarawak poll.
On clues on the general election timing, Najib said, “This is a favourite pastime and I’d like to keep it that way.”
The Barisan chairman also pointed out that the ruling government had done very well in the by-elections since the 2008 general election.
Barisan has won eight of the 16 by-elections held after the 2008 poll, including five won since November 2010 with bigger majorities.
The Prime Minister was also asked whether he felt he need a mandate for his reform programmes given that he was appointed mid-term.
Najib stressed that as far as reforms were concerned, the people supported them.
“We do a lot of polls and we’ve had a series of by-elections and they show that the people like what the government is doing, otherwise we won’t get those kind of results”.
“The mandate we received in 2008 was a mandate for five years. So I don’t feel compelled to have a kind of personal mandate for myself as prime minister. When the time is right, I will go to the people and seek a fresh mandate for the party,” he said.
On how confident Barisan is about winning the Sarawak state election, Najib said the people there wanted a government that could deliver and in this context, they would see BN as the only government that could deliver for them.
Najib also said that he did not think there was any real risk of Barisan losing power (federal), because in the last couple of years there was a sense that people were coming around to support the BN.
“The people who deserted us in the last election are showing support for Barisan Nasional. This doesn’t mean we should take it lightly. Every time there is a general election there are challenges,” he said.
To a question on how confident Barisan was in winning a two-third majority required to pass legislations unassisted, Najib said the most important thing was to have a comfortable majority to make the government work and deliver for the people.
To a question on how confident Barisan was in winning a two-third majority required to pass legislations unassisted, Najib said the most important thing was to have a comfortable majority to make the government work and deliver for the people.
“In a mature democracy, it is difficult to get huge majorities. Look at the case in Australia and many other democracies. So the question is whether the two-third is a realistic objective given the fact that Malaysia as a democracy is also maturing. We will do our best and certainly we would like to have two-thirds,” he said.
On what he would consider to be a good election result, the Prime Minister said that traditionally in Malaysia, two-thirds had always been a benchmark.
Najib said Barisan was confident of regaining some of the states it lost to the Pakatan Rakyat and also has a target on that.
Barisan lost Selangor, Penang, Kelantan and Perak in the 2008 election but Perak is now back under its fold.
