I thank the Minister for Communications and Multimedia, Datuk Seri Salleh Said Keruak for his candour in admitting that Malaysians are now on the cusp of major political changes with the possible defeat of UMNO/BN and the formation of a Pakatan Harapan Federal Government in the forthcoming 14th general election because of three factors:

• UMNO has lost the support of the majority of Malays in the country.

• UMNO losing support of the majority of the 1.6 million civil servants in the country.

• the highest percentage of UMNO members (at present, 3.5 million UMNO members) in UMNO history likely to vote against UMNO President, Datuk Seri Najib Razak and UMNO in the 14GE.

What are the reasons and causes for UMNO losing the support of the Malays and facing the prospect of losing the majority support of 1.6 million civil servants and the highest percentage of UMNO rank-and-file voting against the UMNO President and UMNO in UMNO history?

As I have been saying, all that it needs for the UMNO/BN Federal Government in Putrajaya to fall and give way to a Pakatan Harapan Malaysian Government in the forthcoming 14th General Election is for at least 10 per cent of the Malay voters and five per cent of the non-Malay votes to swing in support Pakatan Harapan as compared to the 13th General Election, with the premise that PAS can only win some 10 per cent of the popular vote as it will be engaged in a three-cornered contest where a vote for PAS will virtually be a vote for Umno as PAS candidates will not have the chance of winning on its own steam except in a handful of parliamentary seats?

Why is this the case?

Is it because of the lies and falsehoods churned out by the DAP, which UMNO/BN propagandists and cybertroopers, and increasingly their counterparts in PAS as well, have been accusing of being anti-Malay and anti-Islam?

The record must be put straight right away – DAP had never been anti-Malay or anti-Islam as former PAS Mursyidul Am Datuk Seri Nik Aziz Nik Mat and former PAS Presidents Datuk Fadzil Noor and Yusuf Rawa would have testified. All the accusations were downright lies and slander.

Furthermore, DAP leaders do not indulge in lies, fake news and false information, and we have evidence aplenty against UMNO/BN leaders. But UMNO/BN leaders cannot produce any example of such fake news and false information spread by DAP leaders against UMNO/BN leaders.

The sorry straits that UMNO has found itself in, facing the ignominous prospect of triple rejection by the Malays, the civil service and by its UMNO rank-and-file is entirely its own doing – best illustrated by Najib’s “achievement” as the sixth Prime Minister of Malaysia in transforming the country into a “global kleptocracy”, something which the first five Prime Ministers, Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Razak, Tun Hussein Onn, Tun Mahathir and Tun Abdullah would have felt thoroughly ashamed.

But instead of coming to grips with this ignominy and carrying out a national and international campaign to patriotically clear or cleanse Malaysia of such shameful and dishonorable appellation, Najib conducted a two-year charade to pretend that the international multi-billion dollar 1MDB scandal does not exist – a modern-day and Malaysian version of Emperor Without Clothes.

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 had come 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 last month.

Mohamad 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 Malays now have many political choices and UMNO cannot be complacent saying that the Malays need UMNO.

This is why Salleh’s candour that UMNO can be ousted from Putrajaya in the 14GE is welcome and refreshing, and he seems to be the first UMNO Minister to have got Mohamad Hassan’s message.

But it is regrettable that Salleh had not been able to wean himself completely from the divisive UMNO politics of race, as he has crafted a new bogey with a new narrative about the UMNO politics of race to hold the Malays to ransom – that DAP and the Chinese will capture political power from the Malays if UMNO loses political power.

Salleh asked”: “If Malay voters back DAP in the next general election, can DAP control the country by contesting (about) 60 parliamentary seats alone? Yes, if Malays are not united.

“There are many mixed-ethnicity seats, especially in Perak, Johor, Selangor, Negeri Sembilan and Malacca.

“As what was said by DAP leaders, a 10 to 15 percent swing of Malay votes will allow them (Harapan) to control Putrajaya.”

It is a great lie that the DAP and the Chinese will capture political power from the Malays if UMNO loses political power.

Firstly, DAP is not a Chinese political party but a political party for all Malaysians regardless of race, religion or region
In the second place, three factors will combine to ensure that there is no way the Malays will lose political power in Malaysia even if UMNO is defeated in the 14GE:

• Firstly, the demographic make-up of the Malaysian population with the trend where Malays will increase in the percentage of the population while Chinese and Indian numbers will continue to decline. 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.

• Secondly, the ethnic composition of the electorate: 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.

• Thirdly, the ethnic composition of the parliamentary constituencies: 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.

Malaysia is now in a position where ordinary citizens are smarter than Ministers. When is Salleh going to learn the wisdom of ordinary citizens on the social media to his latest fear-mongering, as for instance, the following comment:

“This guy is hallucinating in the day. Even if DAP wins all 60 seats out of 222 seats, how on earth can it form the govt. This is the type of lies used by UMNO to frighten the Malays. Hopeful they will be able to see beyond and into 1MDB.”

I was quite amused when my speech at Rengit, Batu Pahat on Saturday that DAP supported Islamisation based on the Malaysian Constitution to promote a nation-building process based on tolerance and mutual respect in a plural society and not one which engenders bigotry, hatred and extremism elicited attacks from both UMNO and MCA, but from opposite ends of the spectrum.

I thought to myself that I must be saying something right when both UMNO and MCA could attack me on it, but using very opposite and directly contradictory arguments.

I was referring to the commentary by the former ASEAN secretary-general Surin Pitsuwan, a Thai Muslim who is former Thai foreign minister, who was in Kuala Lumpur over the weekend for a regional conference entitled “State of Democracy in Southeast Asia: Achievements, Challenges, Prospects”.

Surin said right up to the 80s, Islamisation used to be a good word where people integrated Islamic values and norms into every aspect of their life including in education, work and economic development.

However, now he said the meaning has taken a turn to becoming more restricted, less tolerant and complicating the efforts in governing a diverse country like Malaysia and other countries in the Islamic world.

When even a Muslim like Surin could regard Islamisation had undergone a transformation from a good word to a bad word, Malaysians in a plural society comprising diverse races, religions and cultures make take special note.

As the Malaysian Constitution provides the framework for a secular state with Islam as the official religion, Islamisation should be confined to Muslims to ensure that the Islamic values of compassion, justice and tolerance should be the living and guiding principles of Muslims, just as Malaysians who are Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, Sikhs and Toaists should similarly be guided by these common values which are also the essence of their religions.

But Malaysians should ponder deep and hard as to what has gone wrong down the decades when Islamisation and the promotion of the religious and moral values of compassion, justice and tolerance for the other religions for decades can produce an outcome where Malaysians can tolerate being regarded world-wide as a global kleptocracy!