Malay political power secure even if Najib, Umno replaced, says Kit Siang

Malays will not lose political power if Datuk Seri Najib Razak is ousted as prime minister, said veteran DAP leader Lim Kit Siang, adding that he would be replaced by another Malay. Lim also said that any new political coalition that would replace Umno and the Barisan Nasional (BN) would be dominated by Malays, reflecting Malaysia’s demography, where the community is the largest ethnic group. Lim was commenting on Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s latest remarks yesterday where the former premier urged Umno members to “put their community’s interests first” to rise up against Najib. Dr Mahathir told his audience at an Umno function to emulate “the Chinese community” by transcending party lines to put their “community’s interests” first. Dr Mahathir, who is Najib’s staunchest critic within Umno, is waging a campaign to oust Najib as Prime Minister and has even advocated working with Umno’s opponents to force Najib to resign. On August 30, Dr Mahathir had appeared at the Bersih 4 rally, which was organised by groups critical of Umno and the BN, to show his support for their demand that Najib resign. “Mahathir is mistaken in his interpretation of the motives and meaning of the results of the 13th General Election in 2013 when he implied that the Chinese voters “forget their party interests” if the interests of their race are threatened. “For Mahathir’s information, national interests transcending communal interests were the primary consideration for the Malaysian Chinese who voted in the 13th General Election – not just for DAP, but for Pakatan Rakyat candidates including candidates from PKR and PAS. “This was why the Chinese voters elected Malay MPs from Pakatan Rakyat parties, rejecting Chinese candidates from MCA,” Lim said in a statement today. Umno has attempted to vilify the Chinese community ever since the 13th general election in May 2013 for voting in droves for the then PR coalition, which won 52% of the popular vote. Although Umno leaders such as Najib have called the phenomenon a “Chinese tsunami”, critics have said the Malay supremacist party ignored the fact that the PR includes Malay majority parties PKR and PAS. Lim added that Najib may be falsely assured that he would not face a no-confidence vote at the next session of Parliament in the middle of this month. This is since former MCA president Tun Dr Ling Liong Sik, a contemporary of Dr Mahathir, has also called for Najib to step down. “Najib may be falsely confident that he would not have to face a “no-confidence” vote in Parliament, believing that he had taken adequate safeguards by ensuring that the Speaker would not allow such a motion. “And that he had the unquestioned loyalty of Umno/BN MPs with promises of more financial allocations for them. But Najib may be counting his chickens before they are hatched. “Be that as it may, there should not be any attempt to communalise any no-confidence (vote against Najib),” Lim said. – October 4, 2015.