Yow Hong Chieh
The Malaysian Insider
Jan 14, 2012
ALOR STAR, Jan 14 — Lim Kit Siang today challenged prime minister to promise that Barisan Nasional (BN) will respect the outcome of the next national polls and guarantee free and fair elections.
The DAP parliamentary leader also dared Datuk Seri Najib Razak to make good on his call for moderation by retracting the vow he made at the Umno general assembly two years ago to “defend Putrajaya with our bodies and broken bones”.
“This is not the voice of moderation, this is not the voice of moderation,” he told the PR convention here.
“We want the prime minister and all Umno leaders to declare that they will accept the decision in the 13th general election, even if Pakatan Rakyat forms government and Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim becomes prime minister.”
The opposition and electoral reform group Bersih has criticised elections in Malaysia as unfair, citing alleged fraud, vote-buying and uneven media access.
Ten of thousands of Malaysians rallied on the streets of Kuala Lumpur on July 9 last year to demand free and fair elections, prompting the Najib administration to promise a raft of concessions aimed at speeding up electoral reform.
Lim also challenged Najib to transform Umno-owned paper Utusan Malaysia into a beacon of reason to show the latter truly believed in transforming Malaysia into a better nation.
“The word ‘transformation’ is one of Datuk Seri Najib’s favourite words. Transform Utusan Malaysia into a voice of moderation,” he said.
“Can he transform Utusan Malaysia into a voice of moderation and not a voice of extremism, slander, lies and all that is not true?”
#1 by boh-liao on Sunday, 15 January 2012 - 12:39 am
NR can promise 2 respect d outcome of d next GE, BUT if he were 2 kick d bucket n join his dad b4 d next GE, Moo takes over n he does NOT hv 2 keep d promise
#2 by Jeffrey on Sunday, 15 January 2012 - 2:02 am
In view of PM Najib’s earlier clarion call to “defend Putrajaya with our bodies and broken bones”, YB Kit’s demand – “we want the prime minister and all Umno leaders to declare that they will accept the decision in the 13th general election, even if Pakatan Rakyat forms government and Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim becomes prime minister” – seems reasonable and important. But there are 3 problematic questions here (1) will the PM and UMNO leaders make such a declaration? (2) even if against all odds such a declaration were made, can it be trusted that it will be honoured? (3) What if any of them ask back whether PR will be prepared, quid pro quo, to declare that if it forms the government it will be prepared to grant legal amnesty to politicians and officials proven having committed corrupt acts when BN was in power before PR takes over? This complex and thorney issue of amnesty is precisely what was raised by Bersih’s chairperson Ambiga at the PR Convention in Alor Setar in which she asked : what’s PR Policy on this issue of amnesty for corruption?
#3 by PoliticoKat on Sunday, 15 January 2012 - 9:01 am
I am sure Najib will accept.
There is no way BN will lose the elections, a few postal votes here, some flying voter there, and BN will insure there will be no major weakness in keeping the country.
Najib after all did say Putrajaya will be defended with bodies and broken bones.
And if BN does lose initially, BN will just go to the nearest Pakatan politician and say, I’ll give you RM100 million, (chicken feed by current standards) and you will quit Pakatan and join BN as an independent.
Something like Perak.
With the kind of money UMNO-BN has, it is really next to impossible for it to lose. There are ways to win, and the polls don’t really mean much.
So if I were Najib, I’ll take your bet Kit Siang, and I will win easily no matter what happens at the polls. You can’t easily defeat the money and power generated by 50yr of corruption.
PS:: if you look at the number of votes in last years elections, most Malaysians actually still supported BN. Any in place BN won, it won by a wide margin. Any place BN lose, it lost only by a small margin.
#4 by sotong on Sunday, 15 January 2012 - 9:27 am
Until the oil reserve is significantly depleted, BN could win with smaller margin.
#5 by dagen on Sunday, 15 January 2012 - 12:07 pm
This is a wicked move. See how would jib response. Being someone who never speaks what he meant and always wanting to say things the immediate audience want to hear, one would expect him to reply in the affirmative by saying that he would respect pakatan’s victory. But that would mean acknowledging the real possibility of pakatan’s victory. That would not do.
#6 by Bigjoe on Sunday, 15 January 2012 - 12:25 pm
Honestly, I don’t know if its wise of Sdr. LKS to have brought this up at this time. We all know that UMNO/BN will be cheating widely in the next GE, what if the opposition find evidence of widespread cheating and was close? Then they will turn around and acuse the opposition of not respecting the result? Like it or not, it may be necessary to not respect the GE result for the opposition.
Truth be told, the last 10% to win the GE for the opposition will take 90% of the work and the opposition just got started. PR is taking things to much for granted if it thing it does not have to get down in the mud with UMNO/BN when it comes down to the wire.
#7 by Not spoon fed on Sunday, 15 January 2012 - 3:35 pm
You could expect Najib would not promise. He dares not promise to use their ISA to detain his UMNOputras if anyone from his UMNO cause choat and bombing or raise kris again.
If Pakatan won, please change and fire the Election Commission president and allow oversea voting. Those boxes could be sent back by courier. This is cheaper than asking oversea Malaysians to return back (each adult in Australia, NZ, US, UK might cost RM3000 for the airticket).
They, the UMNO and Najib, since Mathir’s time, dare not allowing overseas voting. They scare of overseas educated Malaysians.
#8 by Not spoon fed on Sunday, 15 January 2012 - 3:37 pm
Taiwan does not allow absentee voting: http://edition.cnn.com/2012/01/14/world/asia/taiwan-elections/index.html?hpt=ias_c1
#9 by Not spoon fed on Sunday, 15 January 2012 - 4:36 pm
They, UMNO, could not even control the small group of Penang UMNO, how could he alone control those extremists (sent snakes, demo and caused jam, etc.)?
How could Najib does big job to promise when he could not even take action to show moderation of his members?
He would be like Mathir, saying “I don’t know” when choast happened.
Don;t rely on them. IF Pakatan won the federal government, uses back the ISA to detain them if they UMNO causing choas! Then abolish this later in parliament.
#10 by Loh on Sunday, 15 January 2012 - 11:53 pm
///The DAP parliamentary leader also dared Datuk Seri Najib Razak to make good on his call for moderation by retracting the vow he made at the Umno general assembly two years ago to “defend Putrajaya with our bodies and broken bones”.///–Kit
Had the statement been made by the opposition party using the word ‘take’ rather than ‘defend Putrajaya’, the police would have taken action to charge the person for sedition. But the Prime Minister gets away with that statement, and worse he seemed to get his party members prepared to negate fair election results until it shows that BN has won else they would use their body to the extent of having their bones broken to stuff ballot boxes with counterfeit ballot papers, to declare that they had won the election. Failing that Najib would want the government agencies to resist taking order from the new government.
Najib’s statement about defending Putrajaya was not about defending the country. It was about defending BN when asked to leave Putrajaya, the seat of government.
If Najib accepts that the winner of the general election forms the government, then he should also accept that the ballot papers are the criterion for deciding winner. Clearly the ballot boxes accept no body parts including bones. How else are broken bones useful in winning an election? Assuming Najib was not delirious while stating it, then he declared that his followers should take up extra-parliamentary actions to defend themselves from vacating the seat when the results demanded it.
Would Najib retract his statement? He would not. Najib should be impeached!