Does Najib have a death wish?
Umno’s survival lies with the rural Malays. Modern or urban Malays hate Umno. And most of these modern or urban Malays are youth who live in the towns and cities on the West Coast. And the citizens in the towns and cities do not care about the good things which Umno did in 1946, 1957 or 1970. Most Malaysians were born after 1990 or 2000 and only know the bad things Umno did since Tun Mahathir Mohamad, Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and Najib Tun Razak became Prime Ministers. So the Undi18 group may actually be the death of Umno.
NO HOLDS BARRED
Raja Petra Kamarudin
Undi18 delay: Youths will remember this betrayal, warns Najib
(Focus Malaysia) – Upset with the Government pussyfooting on Undi18, former Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak warned that young voters will remember the Government’s broken promises and punish them later.
“It defies logic for the Government to say that it will take about three years to implement measures under Undi18. Our youths will not forget this.
“But I have always known that the Government is reluctant to enforce Undi18 as I have written about it before this,” he said in a Facebook post.
The Undi18 legislation, or Constitution (Amendment) Act 2019, was passed with unanimous support by all Dewan Rakyat members, at the behest of then Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
Under the legislation, which was already gazetted by the Parliament, will allow automatic voter registration and reduce voting age from 21 to 18.
However, since the collapse of the Pakatan Harapan Government, the current Perikatan Nasional (Perikatan) administration has been dragging its feet on Undi18, citing various technical excuses on why it cannot be implemented sooner than expected.
Yesterday, Elections Commission (EC) chairman Datuk Abdul Ghani Salleh told Malaysiakini that Undi18 can only be implemented after September 2022, given the movement restrictions imposed due to COVID-19.
On that note, Najib opined that the Government is reluctant to enforce Undi18 as they feared that the youths are upset with them right now.
“It was supposed to be enforced by July this year. Now, the Government is in a dilemma because if they don’t do it by then, it is nothing short of insulting our Parliament and the nation’s democratic system.
“In my view, since it’s been passed by the Parliament by unanimous support, Undi18 should be enforced as previously scheduled.
“If we can amend the Federal Constitution using a two thirds majority, Undi18 was passed with unanimous support, mind you,” the Pekan MP remarked.
