I gave an assurance to MCA and Gerakan at the media conference in Labis earlier this evening to announce the DAP/Pakatan Harapan parliamentary candidate for Labis, Pang Hock Liong, that DAP has no intention whatsoever to eliminate MCA and Gerakan, stressing that no other political party can eliminate MCA and Gerakan, as political parties cannot be eliminated by other political parties but can only commit suicide or self-destruct because of their own betrayal of their founding principles.
The intention and objective of the DAP in the 14th General Election is to defeat the UMNO/BN so that for the first in the nation’s 61-year history, a new Government from Pakatan Harapan could be formed in Putrajaya, to Save Malaysia from becoming a bankrupt, rogue and kleptocratic state by resetting Malaysia’s nation building directions and policies for Malaysia to become a world top-class nation.
MCA and Gerakan leaders baby-crying that the DAP wants to “eliminate” them is an index of how inconsequential, irrelevant and marginalized both political parties have been reduced to from their great days in the past.
Will MCA and Gerakan be eliminated if the UMNO/BN is defeated in the 14th General Election and Pakatan Harapan forms the new Malaysian Government in Putrajaya?
In other countries, incumbent political parties which had governed in the first few decades of nationhood had sprung back to government and power after a period in the opposition wilderness, as happened in Japan, Taiwan and India.
Will MCA and Gerakan be “eliminated” from the Malaysian political scene if UMNO/BN is defeated in the 14th General Election?
If so, a political party which is so inconsequential, irrelevant, marginalized and lack the resilience and conviction to reform to be relevant and meaningful to the people’s lives and the cause of the nation do not deserve to exist!
Will UMNO be “eliminated” and become history, only to come alive in the museums, if it is defeated in the 14th General Election on May 9, 2018?
I do not believe so. It will indeed do UMNO, MCA and Gerakan a lot of good for them to spend some time in the Opposition – for their leaders to come down to the ground from their high horses and speak the people’s language rather than those of the high-and-mighty!
The placement of DAP candidates in Ayer Hitam, Teluk Intan and Labis, as well as other constituencies contested by the DAP is prompted by one imperative – to help Pakatan Harapan to win at least 120 parliamentary seats in the 14th General Election on May 9, 2018 and end the uninterrupted UMNO/BN rule in Putrajaya as the Malaysian Government.
The Filipinos changed their president on May 9, 2016 and the South Koreans changed their President on May 9, 2017. On May 9, 2018, Malaysians will decide whether they can change the Prime Minister and usher in a new Malaysia with Tun Mahathir as seventh Prime Minister and Datuk Seri Dr. Wan Azizah Wan Ismail as the Deputy Prime Minister, paving the way for Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim to be Malaysia’s eighth Prime Minister.
Bersih had said that in a worst-case scenario, Najib could continue as Prime Minister and UMNO/BN continue as Malaysian Government in Putrajaya with 16.5 per cent of the popular vote under the nation’s worst gerrymandering in the redelineation of electoral constituencies just before the dissolution of Parliament.
Policy analyst Lim Teck Ghee was even more pessimistic, estimating that Pakatan Harapan has only 10 per cent chance of toppling UMNOB/BN to form the next Malaysian Government in Putrajaya.
This is why Pakatan Harapan needs “game-changers” to overcome these undemocratic rules and conditions in the 14GE in the Malaysian electoral process.
The placement of DAP leaders in high-risk constituencies, like Ayer Hitam, Teluk Intan, Labis and other constituencies, is one such “game-changer”.
Other “game-changers” in the 14GE are:
1. Tun Mahathir leading Pakatan Harapan and the charge to Save Malaysia from the trajectory towards a bankrupt, rogue and kleptoratic state; and to regain international esteem, respect and admiration for Malaysia as a model top world-class nation; and
2. DAP leadership’s decision not to use the Rocket symbol but to use the Pakatan Harapan common logo of PKR’s blue eyes to send out a clear and unmistakable message to all voters, including the 3.6 million UMNO members, the one million PASmembers and the one million MCA members that in the 14GE, saving Malaysia from a rogue and kleptocratic state is a higher patriotic duty than membership of any political party.
(Speech at the launching of the DAP Johor Jaya election centre in Plentong, Johor Baru on Wednesday, 18th April 2018 at 10 pm)