The Sungai Kandis by-election next Saturday will be a crucial test whether former Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak has succeeded in equating Islam with kleptocracy in Malaysia.
It will also be a crucial test as to whether Najib’s irresponsible, vicious and toxic politics of race, religion, fear, hate and lies, which failed to make the impact he had hoped in the 14GE to ensure the victory of UMNO/BN in the 14th GE, have still traction in Malaysian politics.
In the 14GE campaign, a major plank of the Najib strategy was to demonise DAP and Pakatan Harapan to incite fear and hatred based on fake news, lies and false information to sell the line that if UMNO was defeated, the Malays in Malaysia will perish as DAP, allegedly anti-Malay and anti-Islam, will dominate the Pakatan Harapan government with me as Prime Minister.
UMNO lost its unchallenged position as the political party with majority support of Malay voters in the 14GE because there were sufficient Malay voters who were intelligent and sophisticated enough to see through the humbug of such propaganda, and rejected Najib’s vicious and toxic politics of race, religion, fear, hate and lies.
They do not want, in particular, to equate Malays and Islam with kleptocracy.
This vicious and toxic politics of race, religion, hate, fear and lies have returned in the Sungai Kandis by-election campaign of UMNO.
With the support of PAS led by its President, Datuk Seri Hadi Awang, the UMNO by-election campaign theme is the lie that Malays and Islam are perilously under threat under the new Pakatan Harapan government after the 14GE.
Will the voters in Sungai Kandis by-election succumb to the UMNO/PAS false propaganda that the Malays and Islam are perilously under threat under the Pakatan Harapan government, and misled into believing the vicious and toxic politics equating the future of Malays and Islam with Najib’s kleptocracy?
Najib had sang praises for the UMNO by-election candidate, but it is significant that in his maiden speech as an Opposition Member of Parliament last Thursday, Najib raised none of the issues about Malays and Islam periliously under threat – which should be Najib’s guiding theme of his speech in Parliament if he really believed that the Malays and Islam are perilously under threat under the Pakatan Harapan government.
This one incident more than any others highlight not only Najib’s political dishonesty and opportunism, but the dishonesty and opportunism of the UMNO/PAS campaign in the Sungai Kandis by-election that Malays and Islam are perilously under threat by the Pakatan Harapan Government.
Do MCA and MIC support the UMNO/PAS by-election campaign theme that Malays and Islam are perilously under threat under the Pakatan Harapan government? This is why I am asking for the third time for the MCA and MIC national leaderships to declare whether they want the UMNO candidate to win or lose in the Sungai Kandis by-election.
(Media Statement by DAP Member of Parliament for Iskandar Puteri Lim Kit Siang in Kuala Lumpur on Saturday, 28th July 2018)
#1 by Bigjoe on Saturday, 28 July 2018 - 5:12 pm
To be frank, Najib would not succeed making Islamic kleptocracy if not because PAS is all too willing and ready. PAS stated position is the downfall of PH. No matter any religion, it cannot be justified. The only argument is the idea “for Islam” . A goal that proposes not to build anything but rather the downfall of others only cannot be moral even.
PAS is just wrong, they have no right to “just Harapan losing”. They must propose better otherwise it’s simply immoral
#2 by Bigjoe on Sunday, 29 July 2018 - 12:55 am
You have to admit, it’s a huge advantage for Najib to be able to accuse his accuser of being guilty of what he himself is guilty of just because his accuser is not Muslim or Malay. The Malay Muslim scoundrel seem ridiculously to be able hide behind the label Islam and Malay,
#3 by isahbiazhar on Sunday, 29 July 2018 - 2:50 am
This election is more for BN/UMNO than for PH.The defeat of BN/UMNO means Zaid has to give his post to PAS.In the next election if PAS loses they have to give to the opposition from Sabah and Sarawak.It looks like we would be better off to have the leader of the opposition from East Malaysia finally.The people of Sg.Kandis will give a better majority as they know that both the state and at the Federal level the party is the same.At present they are not bothered about Islam and the hudud laws.They had been exposed to Najib’s ways of stealing money and giving to the poor.He forgot it is not the time of Robin Hood.Najib will be a liability because his standard answer will be the same till his trial starts.At the same time other UMNO leaders will find their coffers running dry.They are busy keeping whatever they have for the future as the future will be bleak for all UMNO/MCA/MIC members.So they cannot heap any money to the UMNO/MCA/MIC supporters.Thus according to simple logic it will be a bigger majority for the PH in the election.