“BN parties say will regain two-thirds majority in Election 2013” is the lead story of The Malaysian Insider yesterday, reporting that BN leaders are confident BN will win with a two-thirds parliamentary majority in 13GE.
However, only one UMNO leader, its propaganda chief, Datuk Ahmad Maslan, has gone on public record to declare that “BN will win two-thirds majority, better than 2008”.
No other UMNO/BN leader is quoted as having such confidence, including MCA vice-president Datuk Seri Chor Chee Heung, the MCA leader cited in the report.
Reason for Ahmad’s confidence?
Strangely enough, it is Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s record to battle corruption and reduce crime, among other things.
It is no surprise that as the UMNO propaganda chief, Ahmad tried to decry the latest opinion poll survey by the University of Malaya Centre of Democracy and Election (Umcedel) which showed that 78 per cent of those polled said that integrity and abuse of power by BN leaders would affect voters’ support in the 13GE.
But what beggars imagination is that the UMNO/BN leadership could feel proud and cocky about the Najib administration’s four-year record on combating corruption and reducing crime, when these two agendas are among the biggest failures of Najib’s Government Transformation Programme (GTP) and the National Key Result Areas (NKRA) in the past four years, raising the question whether the Najib administration is rooted in reality or living in a make-believe world of its own.
We just need to refer to one indicator on the anti-corruption front – the annual Transparency International (TI) Corruption Perception Index from 1995-2012 which showed that the four-year Najib premiership has the dubious record of being the most corrupt when compared to previous Prime Ministers in Malaysia.
Malaysia was ranked 23rd out of 41 countries by TI CPI in 1995, plunging to No. 37th placing in 2003 when Dr. Mahahatir Mohamad stepped down as Prime Minister, and which plunged further to 47th ranking when Abdullah Badawi resigned as Prime Minister in 2008.
In the four years of Najib’s premiership, Malaysia’s TI CPI plunged to even lower depths – No. 56 in 2009 and 2010, No. 60 in 2011 and No. 54 in 2012.
On the crime front, the tragic death of six-year-old missing boy William Yau Zhen Zhong has highlighted one brutal fact about Malaysia, that apart from Umno/BN Ministers and leaders who are protected by security details, the country is just not safe, whether for citizens, tourists, investors or even children like William!
Before the political tsunami 2008, Hishammuddin stood out as one of the UMNO/BN leaders who suffered from the serious denial syndrome in refusing to admit that his various keris-wielding episodes as UMNO Youth leader had alienated middle-ground Malaysians, resulting in his becoming a major cause of the UMNO/BN debacle in 2008.
Is Hishammuddin again to stand out as one of the UMNO/BN leaders in the current administration who suffered from the serious denial syndrome in refusing to admit that the ever-worsening crime rate and fear of crime in Malaysia in the past four years have raised doubts about the credibility and legitimacy for the continued rule of the Umno/BN government and again become a major cause of severe reverses for UMNO/BN in the 13GE?
It is really unbelievable there are UMNO/BN leaders who dare to claim that with these dubious records in combating corruption and reducing crime, Umno/BN is poised to win an even greater victory than the 2008 general elections – even to regain two-thirds parliamentary majority.
Will UMNO/BN leaders who really believe that BN will regain two-thirds majority in 13GE stand up?