Umno inciting power struggle with dominant DAP role, says Pakatan
(The Malaysian Insider) – Pakatan Rakyat (PR) leaders scorned Umno’s latest strategy to portray DAP as the dominant party in the opposition pact as an attempt to incite a power struggle among the three political allies.
“They say that PAS is being used by DAP, this is the strategy they use among the Malays, Muslim. With the Chinese, they say that PAS is using the Chinese. “They have used that for some time now but people know that even in terms of figures and numbers, DAP is stronger but we work collectively,” PAS secretary-general Datuk Mustafa Ali told The Malaysian Insider over the phone yesterday.
DAP Parliamentary leader Lim Kit Siang pointed out that Malays will continue to be the majority population in the country but Umno is creating the fear that DAP is anti-Malay, anti-Islam, and anti-ruler.
He reiterated his support of the constitutional monarchy.
“Nobody has undermined the Malay rulers. It is Umno and Umno leaders themselves,” he said, adding that BN leaders are contradicting themselves in their attacks against PR.
“In Barisan Nasional, it is very obvious that Umno is the hegemon and now they say that DAP is the dominant party. What has Chua Soi Lek been saying? MCA has been saying? That DAP is the puppet to PKR, to PAS, that the rights of the Chinese would be completely lost (in our hands).
“Now you have Umno saying the rights of the Malays will be completely lost. Who is lying?” he said.
Attacks against the opposition party have served as a focal point for this year’s Umno assembly, with delegates accusing DAP leaders of marginalising Malays in PR states, and challenging the sanctity of Islam as the country’s “official religion”.
While some have dismissed renewed attacks against DAP as mere “Pakatan bashing,” some Umno leaders have insisted that DAP poses a “real threat” to Malays, and that a future with DAP in power would spell disaster for the community.
Umno minister, Datuk Seri Khaled Nordin admitted yesterday his party viewed DAP as its biggest threat in the next general election, but he confidently predicted that PKR and PAS could be beaten.
He reasoned that this was why delegates had focused their attacks on DAP when speaking about PR throughout the Umno annual general assembly so far.
