Pakatan leaders warn Najib to stop stoking fire
Pakatan leader are saying that Najib is blaming the Chinese in order to cover up BN’s weaknesses, and their attempts to hijack the election.
(FMT) – Pakatan Rakyat leaders came down hard on Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak for playing the race card to mask Barisan Nasional’s poor showing in the general election.
They said that Najib was totally wrong in blaming the Chinese community for BN’s losses on Sunday.
Immediately after winning a simple majority late Sunday night, Najib blamed the ‘Chinese tsunami’ for BN’s poor showing.
BN won 133 seats while Pakatan took home 89. Apart from winning more seats, Pakatan also made major inroads in all urban areas and in all states on Sunday.
In 2008, BN won 140 of the 222 seats
Following the tone set by Najib, Umno-owned Utusan Malaysia today published a provocative headline, ‘Apa lagi Cina mahu’ (What else do the Chinese want), blaming the Chinese for being trapped in DAP’s supposed racial politics.
Leading the charge against Najib and Utusan was Pakatan Rakyat leader Anwar Ibrahim who said Najib should not be treating Malaysians like fools and idiots.
“Don’t think we can continue with the semi-authoritarian manner in treating people like fools and idiots. Don’t think the media should be treated like the manner Utusan is treating our people.
“They think the Malays are gullible and fools to consider all these politics about the Chinese, therefore you play this game,” he said today at a press conference in the PKR headquarters.
He added that Najib was playing this game to cover up the electoral fraud.
“The daily just follows Umno president’s direction. I’m aware that the party president’s officers could dictate the newspaper’s stories as I was the party’s former deputy chief,” he said.
Stop fanning racial sentiments
Penang Chief Minister and DAP secretary general, Lim Guan Eng, also lashed out at both Najib and Utusan for blaming the Chinese over BN’s loss of the popular votes to Pakatan.
“Najib is disrespectful to democracy by using the Chinese as scapegoats. He is resorting to racial politics to distract attention from BN’s worst electoral performance in history,” he said.
He added that Najib, if he was serious about reconciling all Malaysians, should direct Umno-owned Utusan to stop fanning racist sentiments against the Chinese community.
Lim said that Utusan Malaysia’s frontpage report today was a “ferocious fascist and racist attempt to shape the results of the elections as a Chinese-vs-Malay vote”.
He said many analysts have disputed this as a gross distortion of data, as this was more a urban-rural divide between Pakatan and BN.
Lim also cited former editor of the NST A Kadir Jasin and UKM Professor Dr Shamsul Amri Baharuddin saying that BN’s weaker showing pointed to a strong wave of rejection from all Malaysians and not just from the minority Chinese.
Lim, who was sworn in as the Penang Chief Minister today, said that DAP condems Utusan for inciting racial hatred and urged everyone to stand against such irresponsible actions.
“Clearly Najib is repeating what Mahathir did in punishing the Chinese community when he had openly sought their endorsement and support in past general elections.
“If Najib follows what Mahathir has done in blaming the Chinese after elections, then Najib has shown that he just can not be trusted like Mahathir,” said Lim.
