Ten day ago, I said that Pakatan Harapan should set a target of winning 120 of the total of 222 parliamentary seats to earn the clear and unmistakable right to form the new Malaysian Government in Putrajaya which would show that a decisive majority of Malaysians no longer a kleptocratic and corrupt Barisan Nasional.
I said that this target is achievable especially if a Malaysian tsunami sweeps across the nation bringing together Malays, Chinese, Indians, Ibans, Kadazans and others to vote against the BN and to strongly support Pakatan Harapan to form the next federal government.
To achieve this target of winning 120 parliamentary seats, Pakatan Harapan must defend all 89 parliament seats won by the opposition in the 13th General Election in 2013 and win another 31 out of the 56 marginal BN parliament seats in Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah and Sarawak.
But Pakatan Harapan has started badly on Nomination Day, losing one parliamentary seat of Batu parliamentary seat when the PKR vice-president Tian Chua was disqualified from contesting on the ground that Tian Chua had been fined RM2,000 recently by the Shah Alam High Court, which was at odd with the decision in the 13th General Election, when Tian Chua was allowed to contest in Batu despite a similar conviction where Tian Chua was also fined RM2,000.
This is latest example of the bias and dirty tactics of the entire Election Commission machinery to help Datuk Seri Najib Razak and UMNO/BN to steal the 14th General Election from the people of Malaysia
Although Pakatan Harapan has lost one seat on Nomination Day, efforts must now be trebled nation-wide to reach the target of winning 119 parliamentary seats on Polling Day on May 9.
All Malaysians who subscribe to the Malaysian Dream of wanting Malaysia to be a global top-class nation which is a show-case and a model to the world of how a nation of diverse races, religions, languages and cultures could unite and build a successful, harmonious, tolerant, democratic, progressive and prosperous nation must now redouble and even treble their efforts to win the last chance for democratic change in Malaysia for many generations.
The May 9, 2018 general election is not just one of 14 general elections since Merdeka in 1957 once-in-at-least-every-five-years to elect the State Assembly representative and Member of Parliament for the area, but the first time in 61 years for ordinary Malaysians to elect the Prime Minister of Malaysia for the next five years.
For there is no doubt that the vote every Malaysian voter will cast on May 9 will decide not only who is the State Assembly representative and MP for the area, but who will be the Prime Minister of Malaysia – whether Datuk Seri Najib Razak will continue as Prime Minister despite making Malaysia a global kleptocracy and rogue democracy, or whether Tun Dr. Mahahir Mohamad will return to Putrajaya as the seventh Prime Minister of Malaysia with Datuk Seri Dr. Wan Azizah Wan Ismail as the Deputy Prime Minister, and Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim as the eighth Prime Minister of Malaysia.
Under the Malaysian electoral system, voters do not elect Prime Ministers, but a concatenation of forces and developments have made the 14th General Election a most unique and unusual one where the voters will in effect be deciding on who will be the Prime Minister of Malaysia.
But Malaysians not only want a new Prime Minister, they want a new Malaysia. They do not want Datuk Seri Najib Razak to be Prime Minister of Malaysia, but even more important, they do not want a second Najib as Prime Minister.
This is what I told Tun Mahathir in February 2016 when he approached me for support for the Citizens’ Declaration campaign.
At that time, Mahathir’s main preoccupation was to force Najib’s resignation as Prime Minister, which was main thrust of the draft Citizens’ Declaration.
I was of the view that while it is important to force Najib’s resignation as Prime Minister to end Malaysia’s ignominy, infamy and iniquity as a global kleptocracy as a result of the international 1MDB money-laundering scandal, it is even more important to ensue that there must be systemic reforms to ensure that there cannot be a second Najib in Putrajaya!
I suggested additions to the draft Citizens’ Declaration to affirm a commitment to institutional and systemic reforms to ensure that there cannot be a second Najib in Malaysia, and to his credit, Mahathir accepted my proposals which was incorporated into the final Citizens’ Declaration.
In the ensuing months, Mahathir’s political development saw his full embrace of the programme for institutional and democratic reforms – that it is not only necessary to oust Najib from Putrajaya but to bring in a wholesale change and reforms to ensure that there cannot be a second Najib in Putrajaya in the future.
When Mahathir was Prime Minister and UMNO President for 22 years from 1981-2003, he was operating in a political milieu and environment on UMNO hegemony, which was best indicated by the UMNO veteran and Johor Bahru Member of Parliament, Shahrir Samad to mean: “What UMNO wants, UMNO gets; what UMNO wants, UMNO takes”.
This is still the Barisan Nasional political environment, milieu and culture – where the other 12 component parties in Barisan Nasional’s only role is to kow-tow to the wishes of UMNO “Big Brother”, even though UMNO is today an illegal political party.
Pakatan Harapan, which Mahathir leads, introduces a new political environment, milieu and culture – for none of the four PH component parties exercises hegemony in the coalition. All the four PH component parties of PKR, DAP, Amanah and Bersatu are equal and the PH coalition operates by consensus of the four, and not the hegemony of one, as in the case UMNO in Barisan Nasional.
This if the new political environment, milieu and culture which Pakatan Harapan is introducing replacing the UMNO hegemony in Barisan Nasional – and a commitment to institutional reforms in Malaysia when Pakatan Harapan forms the Malaysian Government on May 9, 2018.
(Speech at the Pakatan Harapan election ceramah at Skudai on Nomination Night on 28th April 2018 at 11 pm)