I have certainly no intention of sparring with former Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak in the Cameron Highlands by-election campaign.

I am in Cameron Highlands, like the Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad who will come to the constituency later today, the Deputy Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, the PKR President, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, the DAP Secretary-General and Minister for Finance, Lim Guan Eng, and the AMANAH President and Defence Minister, Mat Sabu and other Pakatan Harapan leaders to compaign for the Pakatan Harapan candidate M. Manogaran to be elected as Member of Parliament for Cameron Highlands.

Najib has emerged as the campaigner-in-chief in the BN by-election campaign, overshadowing the Acting UMNO President, Hasan Mohamad, PAS President, Hadi Awang and even the Barisan Nasional candidate Ramli Mohd Nor himself, because to Najib, the real battle in the Cameron Highlands by-election is not between Manogaran vs Ramli, but about his legacy – or to be more correct his “mis-legacy” – and whether he could use the Cameron Highlands by-election as a launching-pad for a “Save Najib” campaign culminating in a Barisan Nasional victory in the 15th General Election and doing a Mahahir with Najib’s return as Prime Minister of Malaysia.

Dare Najib deny that he is in fact asking the voters of Cameron Highlands to spearhead a “Save Najib” campaign to culminate in a Barisan Nasional victory in 15th General Election and his return as Prime Minister?

Does Naib deny that if Barisan Nasional loses in Cameron Highlands, which was so impregnable that when the Najib government fell in the 14th General Election on May 9, 2018, Cameron Highlands still did not fall into Pakatan Harapan hands, then all hopes and possibilities of a Najib political comeback will be crushed into smithereens, and he can say a final goodbye to Malaysian politics?

And wouldn’t Najib agree that this is the best result for Malaysia, a Barisan Nasional loss in Cameron Highlands to declare to the nation and the world that Malaysians are now strongly set in the direction of a New Malaysia under the government leadership of Pakatan Harapan where is integrity, good governance and the rule of law with no room for global kleptocracy, abuses of power and corruption where even BN seats won by Barisan Nasional in the 14th General Election are being won over to support Pakatan Harapan, one after another?

Is it possible for Najib to convince Malaysians that his plans for the future does not include any political comeback or resumption of the powers of the Prime Minister?

Will Najib renounce any plan for a political comeback?

If so, why is Najib’s plan to launch a video clip depicting him with a group in a recording studio belting out their version of Singaporean group Black Dog Bone’s 1978 hit Hati Ku Luka Lagi.

Instead of following the romantic tone of the original, Najib turned the famous spoken words intro into a spiel about persecution by Pakatan Harapan.

When Najib first became Prime Minister in 2009, he said he will be Prime Minister of all Malaysians. Yesterday, Najib said Pakatan Harapan candidate M. Manogaran is not capable of defending the interests of Islam and the Muslim community, unlike BN and PAS.

Is Najib saying that a Muslim Prime Minister is not capable of defending the interests of non-Muslim Malaysians? Why can’t non-Muslim political leaders defend the interests of Muslim Malaysians?

When and why has Najib developed such a forked tongue and propensity for hypocrisy?

Weren’t the former MPs for Cameron Highlands Malays and Muslims?

Who, apart from DAP Secretary-General and Minister of Finance, Lim Guan Eng, had in the history of Malaysian politics paid the heavy price for defending the honour and dignity of an underaged Malay girl – sacrificed his political future, jailed for twelve months, disqualified as a Member of Parliament and disenfranchised of his citizen rights to vote and to stand for elections for five years?

Had Najib or any other UMNO leader paid such a great price for his or her political beliefs and principles?

(Media Statement by DAP MP for Iskandar Puteri Lim Kit Siang in Tanah Rata on Friday, 25th January 2019)