By Queville To
Free Malaysia Today
21 November 2010
KOTA KINABALU: A senior Pakatan Rakyat leader is distressed that the opposition front is making the assumption that they are on an unstoppable march to Putrajaya.
DAP advisor Lim Kit Siang, on a visit to Sabah over the weekend, urged the Pakatan leadership to acknowledge they are facing a crisis of public confidence as a result of the series of defeats in the recent by elections, besides some problems in coalition parties.
“The Pakatan leaderships will have to meet seriously to take stock on this situation and take into account the public concerns and loss of confidence of the direction of the PR,” he told reporters at a news conference here Saturday.
“All coalition partners will have to buck up and pull up their socks. This includes the DAP in the seats that Barisan Nasional (BN) feels they can win back like Kedah and Selangor and states like Kelantan and Penang where they (BN) think is difficult but Pakatan should not think we are invincible and cannot be conquered,” he said.
Lim said the BN confidence can bee seen from comments made by BN leaders such as Umno information chief Ahmad Maslan who announced that the ruling coalition is on a roll following its victories in Bagan Pinang, Batu Sapi and Galas.
Ahmad, who is also the deputy minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, was disputing a statement by former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad who told a news network recently that the BN would not be able to recapture the two thirds majority they once enjoyed in Parliament.
“They (BN leaders) have openly talked about winning two states … Kedah and Selangor and that they can even try to capture Penang,” said Lim.
The veteran politician urged the opposition parties and their supporters to keep working for a ‘inclusive’ Malaysia and reminded them that nothing would be decided until the day of the elections.
“I think that would be a fatal assumption for anyone to cite specific factors to predict an election victory. This was demonstrated in 2008. Before that there was the Ijok by-election where Khalid was badly defeated but in the 2008 general elections he not only won handsomely in Ijok but Pakatan went on to win Selangor and four other states,” Lim pointed out.