The Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s denial syndrome in his luncheon talk to Malaysian students in Indonesia at the Malaysian Embassy in Jakarta yesterday that the Barisan Nasional had won the GE13 but it lost in the “war of perception” will condemn his “national reconciliation” plan to failure and a recipe for the resounding defeat of UMNO/BN in the 14GE.
Najib said Barisan had carried out many transformations in terms of delivery over the last four years and had validly won the GE 13, but it lost in the war of perception because of the slander and lies churned out by the Opposition through the alternative media, which many people believed in more than the truth provided by the mainstream media.
Najib said: “For the next general election, Barisan must equip itself well to fight the war of perception”.
Is Najib promising more Umno/BN lies and falsehoods on the cyberspace in the next five years, despite the abject failure of the 10,000 UMNO/BN cybertroopers trained in a series of nation-wide 1Malaysia Social Media Conventions involving hundreds of millions of ringgit of public funds in the run up to the 13GE?
I am no apologist for the alternative media, but is Najib prepared to establish an independent commission of inquiry to ascertain why the mainstream media have lost all credibility and authority ceding the ground to the alternative media? Let such an independent commission of inquiry delve into the lies and falsehoods of UMNO/BN mainstream media, whether Utusan Malaysia, New Straits Times, Berita Harian or Star alleging that DAP funded the alleged “Red Bean Army” of 300 to 3,000 cybertroopers, spending from RM108 million to RM1 billion in the past six years to demonise and character-assassinate UMNO/BN leaders.
Even now, the UMNO mouthpiece, Utusan Malaysia, is continuing to publish such lies and falsehoods about the DAP funding the “Red Bean Army”!
In the 13GE, UMNO/BN lost the majority popular vote but won the majority parliamentary seats because the UMNO/BN coalition failed the test among Malaysian voters on delivering the great national issues of a safe, clean, transparent and moderate Malaysia although Najib managed to scrape through to victory because of the absence of a clean, free and fair election system.
Najib’s claim of “transformation” is a totally empty one, as highlighted by the fact that Malaysians today have never felt so unsafe in public places and even in the privacy of their homes, with the crime situation seemingly gone out of control – with Malaysians for the first time feeling unsafe eating out with the spate of mass gang armed robberies of owners and customers in open restaurants and eateries.
Can Najib, the new Home Minister Datuk Seri Zahid Hamidi and the new Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar empathise with the following comment on my latest blog on crime?
“I was seething with anger today when I read a news item about the police providing hourly checks on ATM machines!!! “Why? ATM machine security is the responsibility of the banks. “Where are the PDRM’s priorities? The people are being robbed, slashed, rape and all manner of harm done to their properties and personal well being and the police are more worried about the banks’ ATM machines? “Banks pays more taxes? Banks’ ATM machines more important than human lives? “We have reached the stage where our streets have been hijacked by criminals and we are too afraid even to step out of our houses. “I would be more than happy to settle for two hourly patrol by the police on the streets on crime hotspots. “And where is that large number of motorcycles recently presented to the police with much publicity to help them in their patrols? “I have NEVER seen any policemen anywhere near the street where my house is either on motorcycles or cars over the last six months. And I live less than 2km from a police station that was opened with much fanfare less than 3 years ago.” Can Zahid or Khalid answer these questions?
Is it any wonder that for the first time in Malaysia’s 56-history after 13 general elections, Najib’s legitimacy as Prime Minister is such a widespread question among Malaysians in the country?