UMNO leaders have been trying to hold the Malays to ransom by warning that Malays will perish if UMNO is defeated in the 14th General Election.

The best rebuttal to UMNO leaders’ warnings that the Malays will perish if UMNO is defeated in the forthcoming general election is from the Negri Sembilan Mentri Besar, Datuk Seri Mohamad Hassan in his speech at the opening of the Sembrong Division UMNO delegates’ conference in Kluang yesterday.

Mohamad said Umno must woo the Malay voters to get the support of the majority of the people so that BN wins the 14th general election.

He said Umno could no longer think that the Malays needed it but instead it was Umno that needed the Malays in order to survive.

He said: “The Malays now have many choices such as PAS, Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) and Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu). We (Umno) cannot be complacent saying that the Malays need us.”

Mohamad failed to mention DAP, as the DAP is party which will defend the uphold the interests of all Malaysians, whether Malays, Chinese, Indians, Kadazans, Ibans or Orang Asli.

In Penang and Selangor, which have been ruled by Pakatan governments after the routing of the UMNO/BN in the 2008 and 2013 General Elections, the Malays have been better cared for than in previous UMNO/BN administrations.

But what is most significant is that the myth of the equation that UMNO is Malay and Malay is UMNO, and that UMNO has to remain in power as the party is the only one that Malays can count on to uphold and fight for their rights, has been debunked by none other than their own Mentri Besar of Negri Sembilan.

And Mohamad Hassan is very right.

UMNO leaders have been holding onto power by generating the fear that if UMNO is defeated in a general election, Malays will lose political power and become strangers in their own land as they will never recover from such loss of political power.

This is a great lie, for the Malays will not lose political power if UMNO is evicted from Putrajaya, so the question of the Malays recovering political power never arises.

This is why no UMNO leader had been able to answer the two questions which had been posed by the National Laureate Pak Samad to expose such a political lie, viz:

One: How are Malays under threat? How can religion (Islam) and Malays be threatened when those in power have been Malay for over five decades?
Two: What have they (Malay leaders) been doing for five decades (if Malays can be under threat)?

The demographic reality is the surest guarantee that the Malays will not lose political power whatever happens to Najib or to UMNO in the next general election, as the Malays in Malaysia will continue to exercise political power in Malaysia as there is no way they will lose political power.

In 1970 Malaysia’s population comprised 44.32% Malays, 34.34% Chinese, 8.99% Indians, 11.89% non-Malay Bumiputeras, 0.67% others.

In 2010, the percentage of Malays in the Malaysian population increased to 55.07%, Chinese reduced to 24.34%, Indians dropped to 7.35%, non-Malay Bumiputeras maintained at 11.94% and 1.3% others.

During the 13th general election, 52.63% of the voters were Malays, 29.68% Chinese, 7.31% Indians, 8.96% non-Malay Bumiputeras and 1.43% others.

Out of the 165 Parliamentary seats in Peninsular Malaysia, 114 are Malay majority seats representing some 70%, 22 Chinese majority seats (13%) and 29 mixed seats. There is not a single Indian majority seat.

These triple factors, which will be a continuing trend in the coming years, establish the overwhelming Malay predominance in the Malaysian political scene – the demographic make-up of the general population, the electorate and the parliamentary constituencies – and why there is no way the Malays can lose political power if UMNO is defeated in a general election!

It is interesting that at the same Sembrong Division UMNO delegates’ conference in Kluang, the Umno vice-president and Defence Minister, Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein accused the Opposition of spreading lies against UMNO, claiming that the Opposition is obsessed with using lies in order to win power and predicting that the situation would get worse as the election nears.

He said: “We in Umno are not taught like that. We will fight the culture of lies with honesty and sincerity, not follow their example.”

I am most flabbergasted by Hishammuddin’s most amazing claim, as I have for decades been the target of UMNO propaganda lies and demonisation campaign.

I can mention three lies which UMNO propagandists and cybertroopers have been hurling against me: firstly, that I had led illegal street demonstrations in Kuala Lumpur sparking the May 13 riots in Kuala Lumpur in 1969, when in truth, I was never in Kuala Lumpur during the May 13, 1969 period as I was in Kota Kinabalu in Sabah; second, that I am anti-Malay and anti-Islam when no UMNO leader could produce any iota of evidence in my political history of half a century to show that I am anti-Malay and anti-Islam; third, that I am campaigning for a Christian Malaysia when I am not a Christian.

Will Hishanmmuddin and UMNO leaders declare publicly and openly that these three baseless allegations were pure lies and falsehood?

But the biggest lie which UMNO leaders, propagandist and cybertroopers are perpetrating is to falsely claim that the Malays are doomed if UMNO is defeated in the next general elections.

Will Najib, Hishammuddin and all the other UMNO leaders endorse Mohamad’s clarification that it is not the Malays who need UMNO but UMNO that needs the Malays in order to survive?

(Media Conference Statement at the Kuala Terengganu Airport on Sunday, 27th August 2017 at 9.30 a.m)