“Fake News” is the latest fashion of the day. The present preoccupation with fake news was started by Donald Trump, the President of United States, and it has been taken up with gusto by the Prime Minister of Malaysia, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, not so much to combat fake news, but to provide the circumstances and wherewithal to concoct and peddle fake news with immunity and impunity while suppressing truth and embarrassing news emanating from the Opposition and civil society.

What Najib, just like Trump, is doing is to launch a “fake anti-fake news” campaign!

I have myself been a victim of UMNO/BN “fake news” for the last four decades – UMNO leaders accused me of being anti-Malay and anti-Islam while MCA leaders accuse me of being anti-Chinese and sold out the rights of the Chinese to the Malays!

How a person can be both anti-Malay and anti-Chinese I do not know.

DAP and I have also been accused of wanting to do away with Islam as the official religion and bring about a Christian Malaysia.

How is this possible when I am not even a Christian beggars belief.

DAP’s position on Islam as the official religion is clear and unequivocal, as we have many a time expressed full support for the basic constitutional provisions in the country.

It has always been my life-long political creed that no responsible political movement in Malaysia can be against any race or religion, that we must not be anti-Malay, anti-Chinese or anti-Indian, anti-Kadazan or anti-Iban, but must be pro-Malaysian and support the basic rights and interests of all Malaysians, regardless of race, religion, region or even politics.

UMNO leaders are trying to create fear among the Malays, warning the Malays of the “Chinese peril” and that the Malays would lose all their rights if UMNO is defeated in the forthcoming general election.

Is this true? Will the Malay lose all their rights if UMNO is defeated in the 14GE to be held within 60 days?

National Laureate, Pak Samad, can never understand how Malays will perish if UMNO loses in elections.

No UMNO leader had been able to answer the two questions posed by the National Laureate Pak Samad to expose such fake news and political lies, viz:

*How are Malays under threat? How can religion (Islam) and Malays be threatened when those in power have been Malay for six decades?

*What have they (Malay leaders) been doing in six decades (if Malays can be under threat)?”

The fears that UMNO leaders have been generating to keep themselves in power – that if UMNO is defeated in a general election, Malays will lose political power and become strangers in their own land – is a great double lie, for the Malays will not lose political power if UMNO is evicted from Putrajaya.

Three demographic factors, and even more important, a critical electoral factor, will prove that UMNO leaders were spouting lies and falsehoods when they try to panic Malays into thinking that without UMNO, Malays will perish.

The incontrovertible fact is that Malays will not lose political power whatever happens to Najib or to UMNO in the next general election.

In 1957, Malaya’s population comprised 49.8% Malays, 37.2% Chinese, 11.1% Indians and 2% Other.s

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.

The Malaysian Chief Statistician has predicted that the Chinese percentage of the population would shrink to 19.6% in 2030 and 18.9% in 2035.

Why then are the UMNO leaders continue to beat the drum of the “Chinese peril” in Malaysia?

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 demographic factors, which will be a continuing trend in the coming years, establish the overwhelming Malay predominance in the Malaysian political scene and why there is no way the Malays can lose political power if UMNO is defeated in a general election!

But apart from these three demographic factors, there is the critical democratic factor which will ensure that the Malays will not lose their rights and become strangers in their own land as warned by UMNO leaders.

We in Pakatan Harapan wants to win not just the 14th General Election, but also future general elections – the 15th, 16th and others thereafter.

A Pakatan Harapan Federal Government which wants its government mandate to be renewed in subsequent General Elections must be able prove in the next five years before the 15GE that a Pakatran Harapan Government in Putrajaya is better than UMNO/BN government for all Malaysians, whether Malays, Chinese, Indians, Kadazans, Ibans or Orang Asli or be voted out of Putrajaya in the 15th General Election in five years’ time.

The three demographic factors together with this critical electoral factor are the surest guarantee that the UMNO threat that Malays will perish if UMNO is defeated is an empty one, with no basis or truth whatsoever.

(Speech at the DAP warong dialogue at Kampong Dato Sulaiman Menteri, Johor Baru on Saturday, 17th March 2018 at 10 pm)