Pakatan must prove its worth to win GE13, says Guan Eng
Liza J. Ariffin, The Malaysian Insider
Pakatan Rakyat (PR) needs to convince voters of its ability to form a formidable federal government and to cooperate as a unified pact to win its place in Putrajaya in the coming polls, Lim Guan Eng said today.
The DAP secretary-general accused the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) of perpetuating three “myths” about the opposition to spread doubt over its readiness to govern — that PR leaders cannot work together much less co-operate when in power; PR is not capable of administrating a nation; and PR does not have the people’s interests at heart and are only power crazy.
Lim said the Najib administration has been using “extremist, racial and religious rhetoric” to mask failures of the BN government and to win votes in the upcoming general election.
The Penang chief minister also moved to dispel three “lies” he claimed were spun by the government to distract attention from BN’s failure to fight corruption and its lack of “competency, accountability and transparency in governance”.
“The first lie is that Malaysia would go bankrupt if PR wins because we can not afford to deliver all our promises,” Lim said today during the Perak DAP state annual convention in Ipoh.
“Our competent performance in the four PR states clearly disproves this lie as no PR states went bankrupt, instead recorded large surpluses,” he added.
Lim said the second lie was MCA’s claims that a PR victory would lead to an Islamic state under PAS, while Umno claims a Christian state would be formed under DAP.
“This lie by MCA and Umno is self-contradictory. The clearest rebuttal is that there is no mention of an Islamic or a Christian state in the PR’s common policy,” he said.
Lim then claimed BN’s third lie was a reoccurrence of the May 13 racial riots if there is a change of government.
“Such threats are intended to frighten non-Malays even though BN and Umno know that a change of government can only happen if the Malay voters desire change as Malays form the majority of voters,” he said.
“The 2008 general elections show that Malaysian voters are mature and there were no racial incidents even though there was a change of state governments in five states.
“As the last three Bersih rallies have shown, the desire for clean elections has strong support from Malays who made up the majority of the peaceful demonstrators,” he added.
Lim, however, believed Putrajaya’s “reliance on playing extremist racial and religious sentiments will be rejected by Malaysians”.
“I believe that Malaysians would choose a new government that delivers on economic performance, prosperity for all and reversing the brain drain and reject an unchanged government that exploits race and religious extremist sentiments to hide its corruption and cronyism,” he said.
Lim then urged PR leaders to emphasise integrity, clean leadership and good governance to reflect good performance in PR states.
“We must institutionalise open tenders and publicly declare our assets to show we have nothing to hide just as PR leaders have done in Penang.”
