Strangely enough, many UMNO leaders are celebrating Singapore PAP’s general election results last Friday on 11th September 2015 as if the UMNO/Barisan Nasional would be able to replicate Singapore PAP’s rebound and resounding general election victory in the 14th General Election in 26 – 32 months’ time.
In Singapore PAP’s resounding victory, the Singapore ruling party scored 69.9% of the popular vote, up from the record low of 60.1% in the previous general election, and won 83 of 89 parliamentary seats.
It came within a hair’s breadth of taking five more seats in one hotly contested district where a recount was held.
Last Friday’s mandate is Lee Hsien Loong’s strongest since 2001.
What of Malaysia?
In an instant response, the Communications and Multimedia Minister Salleh Said Keruak said the landslide victory by the ruling party in Singapore signified that the “noisy minority” does not necessarily reflect public sentiment.
He said this is also true for Malaysia, which last month saw hundreds of thousands of Malaysians, regardless of race, religion, region, age or gender, converging in Kuala Lumpur, Kuching and Kota Kinabalu to express their united and common demand for good governance and clean, free, fair elections.
Salleh blogged:
“There may be thousands marching and screaming and demonstrating its displeasure. “But there may be an even larger group that has no issues and do not share the views of this minority group of noisy protesters. “Undeniably, in Malaysia as well, the noisy minority dominates and monopolises the internet and the social media. “However, just like what happened in Singapore, the silent majority got turned off with what the noisy minority was saying on the internet and in the social media.”
He added the “overkill” by the “noisy minority” had worked in favour of the government, and that politicians do not fear the “noisy minority” as it is the “silent majority” that they are worried about when they make their decision at the polls.
Salleh suffers from a serious blind spot, as he does not realize that the “silent majority” in Malaysia are in full agreement with what he ridicules as the “noisy minority” on the social media in wanting political change in Malaysia so that a new Malaysia can be created where there is an end to rampant corruption, mega-scandals, government incompetence and inefficiency; restoration of confidence in the integrity, independence and professionalism of Malaysia’s key national institutions; economic competitiveness and educational excellence; inter-racial and inter-religious understanding and harmony, and increasingly united Malaysian nation where Sabah and Sarawak do not feel neglected and underdeveloped after more than half a century of the formation of Malaysian federation.
UMNO/BN Ministers and leaders should not count chicken before they are hatched, expecting UMNO/BN to rebound like Singapore’s PAP as to secure a resounding victory in the 14th General Election in 26 to 32 months’ time.
In fact, all the prognonis are pointing to the contrary as far as Malaysia’s 14GE is concerned.
UMNO/BN Ministers seem to continue to live in a dreamworld of their own, even failing to grasp that the Najib government is a minority government, winning only 47% of the popular vote in the 2013 general election.
In fact, the UMNO/BN percentage of popular vote had been on the downward decline from the 2008 to 2013 general elections.
In 2008 general election, the UMNO/BN coalition won 51.4% or some 4.08 million votes but in the 2013 general election, the UMNO/BN popular vote had dropped to 47.4% or some 5.2 million votes – making Najib the first minority Prime Minister in the nation’s history.
Last Friday, Singapore PAP increased its popular vote by some 10% in the last two general elections from 60.1% to 69.9%.
What of UMNO/BN, which had dropped 4% of the popular vote in the last two general elections from 51.4% to 47.4%?
What are the chances of UMNO/BN coalition rebounding like Singapore’s PAP to scale back 10% of the popular vote or just to become a majority party winning at least 50% of the popular vote?
I do not think the UMNO/BN coalition under the premiership of Datuk Seri Najib Razak stands much chance of stopping the downward decline of the UMNO/BN popular vote, as it stands a likelihood of even losing the Federal government until and unless Najib is prepared to address three issues by coming completely clean and honest: the RM50 billion 1MDB scandal, the RM2.6 billion “donation” in Najib’s personal banking accounts and a full investigation into the Altantuya Shaariibuu murder case to establish the motive of the gruesome killing and whether and who was the mastermind.
There does not seem to be inkling that Najib is prepared to be open, transparent and accountable on these three fatal issues for UMNO/BN coalition.
In which case, UMNO/BN Ministers and leaders should stop building castles in the air.
[Speech (2) at the launching of the new Chinese edition of “Time Bombs in Malaysia” in Muar on Sunday, 13th September 2015 at 3 pm]