I have just read the news that the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak claimed in Kuching that the Citizen’s Declaration to Save Malaysia signed by 45 political and civil society leaders last Friday does not represent the majority view of Malaysians.

He said that the Declaration was mooted only to promote the agenda of a select few.

Najib cannot be more wrong which shows how serious is his problem of being consistently cut off from the ground.

Although there are some voices of qualification and reservation among Malaysians as to whether the Declaration could lead to Najib’s removal as Prime Minister as well as the fate of democratic and institutional reforms to ensure that a second Najib with world infamous mega financial scandals cannot appear again in Malaysia, there is no doubt that the Declaration has the support and endorsement of the majority of Malaysians, regardless of race, religion, region even politics.

Najib seems to have forgotten that he is the first minority Prime Minister who does not have majority support of the popular vote in Malaysia.

In the 13th General Election on May 5, 2013, Najib lost the popular vote securing only 47% of the support of the voters.

Pakatan Rakyat at the time won 53% of the popular vote, and if the election system is democratic, fair and just, the Prime Minister after the 13th General Election in May 2013 would have been Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and not Najib.

There is no doubt that since the last 13GE, Najib’s popularity rating has further nose-dived, which is why a recent opinion poll had found that Najib’s support among Malay voters had fallen to as low as 31%.

Najib’s boast that he has majority support of Malaysians is therefore baseless and flies against the face of political realities in the country.

If Najib claims that the Citizen’s Declaration does not represent the majority view of Malaysians, I want to issue a Semiling Challenge to Najib – to immediately hold 14th General Election to ascertain whether the Citizen’s Declaration to Save Malaysia represent the majority view of Malaysians.

The Merbok parliamentary constituncy is the 87th parliamentary constituency that I am visiting after my six-month suspension from Parliament, after visit to five parliamentary constituencies in Kelantan – Kok Lanas, Machang, Tanah Merah, Tumpat and Kota Bahru – and to Sungai Patani parliamentary constituency in Kedah just now.

I should have no problem in visiting more than half of the 222 Parliamentary constituencies in Malaysia to feel the pulse of the people not only on Najib’s twin mega scandals, to highlight the question “Mana RM2.6 billion?”, but also the public mood on how to Save Malaysia in the face an advanced serious national illness.

(Speech at the “Mana RM2.6 bllion?” dialogue in Semiling, Merbok on Saturday, 12th March 2016 at 2.30 pm)