Let me tell the UMNO Acting UMNO President, Datuk Seri Zahid Hamidi – You are wrong. You are not starting off as a good Opposition Leader and must learn to be constructive and honest!

Zahid said on Tuesday that he believed that Barisan Nasional would be able to make a comeback against a government that is built on “hatred”, saying:

“A government that is built on hatred, on issues that (BN) could not respond to due to poor communication, or not being grounded in reality – eventually that government will be punished by the people.”

Speaking after chairing the Umno supreme council meeting on Tuesday, Zahid said BN can look to other countries where long-time parties were defeated but managed to make a comeback.

Firstly, Zahid should not follow the example of Datuk Seri Najib Razak who has not woken up from the bubble of his own making despite his disaster of a fortnight ago in the political earthquake of May 9, 2018.

Zahid was in fact describing what the UMNO/National Front had degenerated into when entering the 14th General Election, as it was a government “built on hatred” and not “grounded in reality”, and why it was punished by the people in the May 9 political earthquake!

In fact, the UMNO/BN government did worse, it was not only built on hatred, it was swimming in lies, fake news and false information – and the worst example was undoubtedly the great lie about the 1MDB international scandal!

The first thing Zahid must do is to get out of the denial syndrome which has swamped the UMNO/BN leadership.

Deny that 1MDB and Malaysia’s infamy and ignominy of a “global kleptocracy”, the GST and rampant abuses of power, and the UMNO/BN leadership degenerating into a kakistocracy as the main causes of UMNO/BN worst defeat in their history?

Please do, for UMNO/BN will then never be able to follow the footsteps of other long-time parties in other countries which had managed to make a comeback after being defeated – like LDP of Japan, KMT of Taiwan or National Congress of India.

The first step for UMNO/BN to become a good opposition is to admit the enormity of the criminality and moral turpitude in the 1MDB scandal as well as other corruption scandals in the country. So long as there is a mental block to acknowledge such corruption scandals, so long will UMNO/BN be unable to be a good and constructive opposition.

Both Pakatan Harapan and Barisan Nasional must learn their new roles, the former as the government of Malaysia and the latter as a good and constructive Opposition.

There has been some controversy over the press conferences by the DAP Secretary-General and new Finance Minister, Lim Guan Eng on the 1MDB scandal.

Bloomberg’s Andy Mukherjee wrote an article entitled “Malaysia needs tactful handling of 1MDB mess” yesterday.

I also received various messages, such as:

“It is wiser for Guan Eng to make statements that don’t sound like one coming from the Opposition before the change of Government. He is in the Government and the country would be better off with more economically positive pointers or narratives.”

I can agree that there should be “tactful handling of the 1MDB mess” but not if by being tactful one continues with the sea of lies, fake news and false information about 1MBD.

Tactful by all means, but it can be no excuse not to adhere strictly to the principles of truth, transparency and accountability in dealing with the 1MDB mess.

(Media Statement in Penang on Friday, 25th May 2018)