The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, is arming himself with two new weapons for the 14th General Elections – fake news and corruption.
Najib and the UMNO/Barisan Nasional coalition are the worst culprits in concocting and peddling fake news and false information, but the UMNO/BN strategists and propagandists want to weaponise the fake news issues with new legislation and mechanism purportedly to combat fake news, but whose real purpose is to harass and persecute Pakatan Harapan leaders and supporters over fake news allegations while giving the UMNO/BN leaders and supporters immunity and impunity for the fake news they concoct and disseminate against Pakatan Harapan.
The same applies to the corruption issue. The script is to use the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) and other outfits to tarnish the image of Pakatan Harapan leaders as equally corrupt as Barisan Nasional leaders, and that on the score of integrity and corruption, the voters do not have much to choose between Pakatan Harapan and Barisan Nasional.
This is why for the past month, the MCA Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Wee Ka Siong carried out the special assignment to undermine and destroy public confidence in DAP and Pakatan Harapan by ceaseless attacks on the Penang State Government’s undersea tunnel project, even to the extent of sabotage of the Penang undersea tunnel project.
This is most ironical, immoral and unethical for the greatest legacy of the Najib administration is undoubtedly the appellation of a global kleptocracy as a result of the world-infamous multi-billion dollar 1MDB kleptocratic money-laundering scandal.
Unfortunately for Malaysia, none of the MCA Ministers, including Wee, had dared to breathe a single word about the 1MDB scandal in Cabinet or Parliament, for they will be stepping on the toes of UMNO “Big Brother” – which is a “No, No” as the three top MCA leaders all depend on UMNO’s Malay votes to win a seat in Parliament and Cabinet, as Bentong, Ayer Hitam and Tanjong Malim all have more Malay voters than Chinese voters.
(Media Statement in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday, 21st February 2018)