Malaysiakini
May 13, 2013

Umno supreme council member Saifuddin Abdullah has warned that his party would be committing political suicide if it chooses to shift further to the right after losing the support of Chinese Malaysians in the May 5 general election.

Saifuddin said Umno should continue its moderate ideology and stay away from extremism and racism.

The former deputy minister said in an exclusive interview with Sin Chew Daily that there was no sign of Umno moving further towards racial politics after the 13th general election.

However, the final outcome would largely depend on the party leadership election slated for the end of this year.

“The future direction of Umno will rely on the composition of the supreme council after the party election this year,” he is quoted as saying.

Saifuddin, who is seen as a liberal young Umno leader, failed to defend his Temerloh parliamentary constituency against PAS Youth chief Nasrudin Hassan, who is known for his hardline Islamic stance.

Give up on Chinese, lose GE14

On the call to Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak from certain quarters to stop appeasing to the Chinese voters since they did not support BN in GE13, Saifuddin said this was the view of “extreme Malays”.

Should BN give up on MCA and the Chinese party gives up on Chinese voters, he said, BN would not be able to win the next general election.

“If there is no Chinese representative in the cabinet, we can kiss goodbye to the 14th general election.”

Citing MIC’s success in pushing up its Indian support in this general election, Saifuddin argued that MCA could do the same in the next general election.

He urged Najib to recognise the United Examination Certificate (UEC) of the independent Chinese secondary schools, saying there is no reason for the government to accept foreign qualifications such as the A-level, International Baccalaureate and South Australian Certificate of Education but not the UEC.

“Xiamen University (from China) will open a branch in Sepang next year. UEC holders can enter this university but cannot enter local universities nearby. How are you going to explain this to your children?” he asked.

Saifuddin dismissed the claim that Najib should resign to take responsibility for BN’s electoral setback saying that a two-thirds majority was no longer possible in a democratic country.

‘Umno’s result better than in 2008’

“If they want the prime minister to step down because of this (failure to capture two-thirds majority), it would be a wrong KPI (key performance index).

“Furthermore, Umno obtained a better result than that in the March 8, 2008 election. Umno members should admit that Najib’s performance was much more better than that of former prime minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.”

Saifuddin reminded Umno members that Najib is the “best product” of BN in the general election and the ruling coalition would not have scored such a result without Najib.

Scrapping this “best product”, he said, would be committing suicide.

In another interview with Malay daily Sinar Harian, Saifuddin dismissed Najib’s view that the 13th general election saw a “Chinese tsunami”.

Noting that BN won in almost all Malay-majority polling districts and lost in Chinese-majority polling districts, Saifuddin argued that the voting behaviour was not drawn along ethnic lines but based on the voters’ demand for more development or democracy.

However, Saifuddin still defended Najib, saying the prime minister’s statement was “balanced” as he also stressed on national reconciliation, which the people have forgotten.

“I think what was reported by the newspaper (Utusan Malaysia) is another issue. I think the statement of prime minister is very balanced.”