This is the sixth day of the 11-day campaign for the 14th General Election. We have passed the mid-way point to the Polling Day on Wednesday, 9th May 2016.

The political landscape already looked quite different from the political configuration before Nominaton Day on April 28, 2018.

The 14GE is the first of its kind in Malaysia, for a combination of political events and forces had made it as virtually a Prime Ministerial direct election, with voters deciding not only on who is to be the Member of Parliament and State Assembly representative in their respective constituencies, but also who is going to be the Prime Minister of Malaysia – whether Najib is to continue in Putrajaya or whether the seventh Prime Minister will be Tun Mahathir to be followed by Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim as the eighth Malaysian Prime Minister.

This is why May 9, 2018 can be a very important historic one, to bring about three political changes in Malaysia – change the Prime Minister, the Malaysian Government in Putrajaya and the national policies which have impeded and undermined the fulfilment of the Malaysian Dream for Malaysia to be a top world-class nation; and for other states apart from Penang and Selangor, three further political changes: change the Mentri Besar or Chief Minister and change the state government policies which are detrimental to the rights, interests and welfare of the people.

A political phenomena which take months to develop can be achieved in a matter of days in the feverish pace of an general election campaign, and this is a phenomena which is taking place in the 14GE, viz:

1. A Malay tsunami in the making in the rural and Felda areas. The 14GE started with the Najib and UMNO declaring from the rooftops that there was no Malay tsunami, which is now replaced with attempts to run down the Malay tsunami, with some UMNO leaders claiming that the Malay tsunami was intended to destroy the Malay institutions and agencies.

Najib and the UMNO leader cannot be more wrong. The Malay tsunami has not come to destroy Malay institutions and agencies, but to ensure that the Malay institutions and agencies fulfil their mission of making Malays successful Malaysians and the Malay race a progressive and modernizing one. The Malay tsunami is not racist as it is not anti-Chinese, anti-Indian, anti-Kadazan or anti-Iban, but an important part of the Malaysian tsunami for Malaysians to set Malaysia free from the corruption, abuses of power, injustices and exploitation of the UMNO/B government and cronies.

2. (i)The advent of another “game-changer” for the 14GE, with the defection of former Finance Minister, Tun Daim Zainuddin and former long-standing Minister of International Trade Tan Sri Rafidah Aziz from the ranks of UMNO and in support of Pakatan Harapan to replace UMNO/BN in Putrajaya. Daim is popularising “RABU” – the UMNO/BN choice of a Wednesday for Polling Day to discourage high voter-turnout – as representing “Rakyat Akan Buang Umno”!
(ii) Another “game changer” is the candidature of Nik Omar Nik Abdul Aziz, the second son of the late PAS spiritual leader Tok guru Datuk Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat as AMANAH candidate, whose maiden political speech is undoubtedly one of the most impressive in the nation’s history.

3. The Big Lie that the Malays will perish if UMNO is defeated suffered its greatest blow when the longest 22-year serving Prime Minister, two Deputy Prime Ministers (Anwar Ibrahim and Muhyiddin Yassin), the nation’s longest serving International Trade Minister, collectively called for the defeat of UMNO in the 14GE. Would any Malay believe that Mahathir, Anwar, Muhyiddin, Daim and Rafidah are combined in a joint conspiracy to betray the Malays in calling of a “change of contractor” in Malaysia!

4. Najib’s fear for Mahathir, as evidenced by the following the three incidents;

(1) 30-day provisional dissolution order to PPBM on the eve of dissolution of Parliament when it was UMNO which was illegal;

(2) The wanton tearing out of the photograph of Mahathir (as well as Anwar) on Pakatan Harapan election billboards, while MCA erected in MCA constituiecies the picture of China President Xi Jingpin;

(3) Police using Mahathir as “guinea-pig” for investigation and prosecution under the Anti-Fake News Act, when the first person to be arrested and charged in court is none other than Najib himself, for the falsehoods he had spread that there is no octopian 1MDB scandal and that not a sen had been lost, when the 1MDB money-laundering scandal is the subject of criminal and financial regulatory investigations and actions in some 10 different countries;

(4) The latest polls report by pollster Merdeka Centre that “Pakatan nearing
threshold to take Johor”, with the Merdeka Centre direrctor Ibrahim Suffian reporting that preliminary surveys showed that Pakatan Harapan was getting closer to the threshold needed to capture the state of Johor in the coming 14th general election.

He said for now, BN would still emerge victorious but the contest was expected to be “very close” going into the final days of campaigning prior to polling day on May 9.

(5) Najib’s clear failure to give a full accounting of the 1MDB scandal, which has given Malaysia the infamy and ignominy of a kleptocratic state.

Many things can happen in the last five days of the 14GE election campaign, in particular whether the first political change to the Malaysian government is going to take place for the first time in 61 years in the nation’s history.

(Media Statement in Penang on Thursday, 3rd May 2018)