DAP running scared of Najib
Umno President and Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak’s declaration that the next General Election will be between a Malay Umno-led BN and a Chinese DAP-led Pakatan Harapan have left DAP leaders scrambling to do damage control
By Dr Kamarul Zaman Yusoff, Tanjak
The keynote address by Umno president and prime minister Najib Abdul Razak at the Malay party’s annual general meeting last Thursday clearly struck fear into the hearts of DAP leaders. Not surprising, since what he said was fact. For the clueless, I am referring to his declaration that the next election, i.e. the 14th General Election will be essentially a choice between a Malay government with UMNO at its helm, or a Chinese-led DAP one.
Najib also mentioned the promotion by DAP of an extreme form of liberalism and dangerous secularism. Also exposed was the fact the DAP’s own party constitution does not acknowledge Islam as the religion of the federation, does not respect the position of the Malay rulers and does not explicitly protect the special rights of the Malays and Bumiputra, all of which make up the basic structure of the Federal Constitution, the supreme law of our land.
Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak speaking at the recently concluded 2016 Umno AGM
The Umno AGM was immediately followed by the DAP national conference in celebration of 50 years of the party’s existence in Shah Alam the day after. In his keynote speech, the DAP secretary-general, Lim Guan Eng claimed that Najib could not count as DAP would only be contesting 51 Parliamentary seats at the next election and thus it would be impossible for the party to wrest a majority of seats in order for it to form a goverment.
Guan Eng also mentioned that DAP has never requested that a Chinese be installed as Prime Minister, and as such DAP could not be at the helm of a new government were the loose Pakatan Harapan pact, which the party leads, to wrest Putrajaya from the BN. Further, he claimed, in the 2012 national conference of the DAP, the party committed to the matters mentioned by Najib in his speech at the recent Umno AGM.
DAP deputy chairman Tan Kok Wai accused Najib of having malicious intentions and playing mind games by fomenting hatred. While cautioning Najib against rocking the boat, he stated that the DAP party constitution commits DAP to “affirm and restore the Constitution of Malaysia back to its natural secular state”
Before this, DAP publicity secretary Tony Pua was even more strident in his criticism of the prime minister. He wondered aloud whether Najib was unable to comprehend what DAP had heretofore said and published. He also claimed that MCA, MIC and Gerakan never incorporated the whole of the Federal Constiution into their own party constitutions.
Saddening is the fact that former Umno president Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamed was invited to grace the national conference to shield DAP from allegations of Chinese racism against Malays. Mahathir kow towed to the DAP by saying that his previous views of the party were misinformed and inaccurate. DAP is not a Chinese party, he claimed with a straight face. In fact, DAP’s Malaysianness was even more pronounced than MCA’s, Tun claimed.
Fearful of its own shadow
According to Tun, DAP’s assurance that it will abide by our Federal Constitution and will not demand the Prime Minister’s post for itself is good enough reason to trust the Chinese-based party. Najib’s claim that the next general election is essentially between Umno and DAP is false one, Tun pleads. According to Guan Eng, Tun joined him in chastising Najib for not knowing how to do arithmetic.
It seems like Najib’s recent speech has ruffled some feathers within DAP. DAP was scared silly when its motive was exposed that they resorted to name calling the prime minister due to their inability to respond to damning indictments of their party. DAP also took Malaysians for a ride by putting into Najib’s mouth words he had not uttered at all so as to deliberately cause Najib to be taken with a pinch of salt.
