The 66th UMNO General Assembly is in full-swing but it is only a re-enactment of last year’s 65th UMNO General Assembly “drama”.

At the end of the 65th UMNO General Assembly last December, I posed the question: “Who lied – Najib/Muhyiddin or Chua Soi Lek? Or all three?”

Although the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak will only be delivering his UMNO Presidential address tomorrow and his winding-up speech on Friday, one does not have to be prescient to know it will be equally valid and pertinent to pose this same question at the end of the 66th UMNO General Assembly.

The Deputy Prime Minister and UMNO Deputy President, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, has already started the ball rolling for the re-enactment of this “drama” last year of whether “Who lied – Najib/Muhyiddin or Chua Soi Lek? Or all three?”

Last night at the opening of the UMNO Youth, Wanita and Puteri Assemblies, Muhyiddin dismissed PAS’ Islamic State goal as “a daydream”.

But this is the very exact opposite of what the MCA President Datuk Seri Dr. Chua Soi Lek is warning the Malaysian Chinese and non-Muslims up and down the country of “a point of no return” for the PAS agenda of an Islamic state if Pakatan Rakyat wins Putrajaya in the 13th general election!

This is a vindication of my thesis that one important difference between the Pakatan Rakyat and the Barisan Nasional is that the Pakatan Rakyat coalition practises the politics of “Unite and Rule” as distinct from the traditional but divisive and destructive politics of “Divide and Rule” of UMNO/BN, polarising instead of uniting Malaysians along racial and religious lines.

Through the politics of lies, falsehoods and fear, UMNO/Barisan Nasional parties spread different and conflicting messages among different racial and religious groups, sowing the seeds of suspicion, distrust and even hatred, which is totally against the task of Malaysian nation-building.

Muhyiddin has proved himself to be a quite a political chameleon in the past 48 hours – invoking the image of a moderate on Tuesday night when closing the International Forum 2012 on war and conflict in conjunction with Umno’s 66th General Assembly, exhorting the virtues of “moderation and fairness to all”, but donning the garb of a racialist 24 hours later when opening the UMNO Youth, Wanita and Puteri Assemblies.

Malaysians find Muhyiddin “a bit rich” when he launched an attack on the Pakatan Rakyat parties, labelling DAP for instance as “racists” and “chauvinists” when DAP leaders publicly declared their full support of the 1Malaysia concept of Malaysians regarding themselves as Malaysian first and their race, religion, geography and socio-economic status second while the country will not forget Muhyiddin’s defiant declaration of being “Malay first, Malaysian second”!

However, I must admit that up to now, Muhyiddin has yet to outdo his mischief and venom at last year’s UMNO General Assembly where he made history as the only Deputy Prime Minister in the world caught telling a bare-faced lie while playing the race card when he falsely accused the DAP of being anti-Malay, anti-Islam and anti-Malay Rulers, even telling the lie that the DAP’s agenda is to establish a Republic in Malaysia.

There was completely silence from Muhyiddin when I challenged him to substantiate his allegation that the DAP wanted to abolish the constitutional monarchy and establish a Republic.

But the day is still young for the 66th UMNO General Assemblies and we have still to see who are the UMNO leaders who will stand out this time in making the DAP a “whipping boy” with all sorts of groundless and even seditious allegations and lies against the DAP – that the DAP is anti-Malay, anti-Islam, anti-Malay Rulers and “agents of Christianisation” to bring about a “Christian Malaysia”.

Najib has often said that UMNO must change or UMNO will be changed.

Will the speeches of UMNO leaders and delegates at the 66th UMNO General Assembly show that UMNO is incapable of change on its own and that it must be changed by the voters by giving UMNO an opportunity to play the role of a loyal and responsible Opposition in the Federal Parliament after the 13GE?