At a time when there is widespread disappointment and disillusionment that the electoral process could bring about the long-waited far-reaching political changes in Malaysia, with predictions that voters’ turnout at the forthcoming 14th General Election would be much lower than the 13GE, there is no doubt that the Prime Minister , Datuk Seri Najib Razak and the top UMNO leadership do not share these concerns as they are grappling with the fear that they may be elected out of office and lose Federal power in the 14GE.

This is the reason why I had suddenly become such a “famous” character in the UMNO-owned and controlled mainstream media in the past three months, with articles (which are mostly lies and falsehoods or in Najib’s own words “fake news”) appearing together with my pictures almost daily either in Utusan Malaysia, New Straits Times, Berita Harian or TV3, when for the past fifty years, I was blacked out in these UMNO mainstream media and my pictures not allowed to be published, as if I had become a “non-person” as happened in Stalin’s Soviet Union.

What has happened? Why have I become a daily staple diet in the UMNO media, although the subject of “fake news”?

This is because Najib and UMNO leaders know that the 14GE is a “do or die” battle for them – but it is a “Do and Die” battle not only for Najib and UMNO, but also for the people of Malaysia, as to whether Malaysians could Save Malaysia from a global kleptocracy and hurtling towards a failed and rogue state.

The outcome of the 14GE is not all that certain and foregone, and this is why Najib and the UMNO leadership are so desperate to want to influence a positive outcome for UMNO in the 14 GE, from gerrymandering with the redelineation of parliamentary and state assembly constituencies to resort to the politics of lies, hatred and fear to frighten the Malay voters with the falsehood that if UMNO loses power, the Chinese will assume political power leading to the damnation of the Malays.

In the process, DAP and I are demonized as if I a devil, an hantu, puaka or even jembalang, as if I breathe fire or eat babies for breakfast, that I am anti-Malay, anti-Islam, that I was the cause of the May 13 racial riots in 1969 although I was never in Kuala Lumpur after the May 10, 1969 general elections and was in Kota Kinabalu on that tragic day of May 13, 1969.

The intensification and escalation of the demonisation of DAP and myself is because the UMNO leadership is increasingly afraid that they are losing Malay political support, and they have to resort to lies, falsehoods and “fake news” against DAP leaders and myself to frighten the Malay voters to preserve and save their political power.

I do not believe that the Malay masses are so gullible as to believe UMNO lies and falsehoods that DAP is anti-Malay and anti-Islam, as for the past 51 years DAP has proved that it is a Malaysian party with Malays and Muslims, as well as non-Malays and non-Muslims among our ranks and our objective is to serve the interests of all Malaysians, and not just one racial, religious or cultural group.

Furthermore, the Malays and Muslims can see for themselves whether, despite all the lies and falsehoods of UMNO propaganda, the Malays and Islam in Penang under a DAP-led State Government are being oppressed or are getting better treatment as compared to the previous five-decades of UMNO/BN rule!

There are four conditions to oust Najib as Prime Minister and end the UMNO coalition’s 60-year rule in Malaysia in the 14GE, viz:

Firstly, to preserve and sustain the electoral support for reform from the Malay, Chinese, Indian, Kadazan and Dayak voters for DAP and PKR in the 13th General Election.

Secondly, to reach out and win over the 3.5 million UMNO members and UMNO voters to support the Save Malaysia Campaign in the battle between “Democracy versus Kleptocracy”.

Thirdly, to reach out and win over the million PAS members and voters to support the Save Malaysia Campaign to ensure the victory of democracy and the defeat of kleptocracy in the 14th General Election.

Fourthly, to win majority support in Sabah and Sarawak in the 14 GE.

If we can achieve these four objectives in the 14GE, then Malaysia can be saved and we can look forward to a new dawn in Malaysia with institutional and systemic reforms to ensure that Malaysia will never return to the trajectory of a kleptocracy and a failed and rogue state.

(Speech at the DAP Senawang Solidarity Dinner in Senawang, Negri Sembilan on Saturday, 11th March 2017 at 9 pm)