Only Umno will lose supremacy, says Kit Siang

DAP has blasted former premier Mahathir Mohamad's claim that Malays will lose their rights if Pakatan Rakyat comes to Putrajaya.

The fact is that only Umno will lose its political supremacy, whereas all Malaysians will be empowered to enjoy equal footing as citizens of the country, said DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang (right) in a media statement.

Lim said the March 8, 2008 general election tsunami had awakened voters to the political reality and they are now not cowed by the shadow boxing of Umno which harps on the May 13 incident and they do not subscribe to its divide and rule tactics.

He hit out at Mahathir, who had been premier for 22 years and propounded the concept of Bangsa Malaysia along with Vision 2020, for continuing to harp on race and religion.

Unethical campaign

Lim is unhappy that Mahathir is conducting a most unethical and dishonest campaign to demonise former Perak mentri besar Mohamad Nizar Jamaluddin as a tool of DAP, and he had even claimed that Nizar's state PR government was regarded as a Chinese government by the Malaysian Chinese.

"This is completely baseless and groundless as nobody regards the Perak Pakatan state government of Nizar as a Chinese government - it was a Malaysian government and regarded as such by all races in the state," said Lim.

"The way Mahathir is demonising Nizar was the same way he had demonised the first prime minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman more than 40 years ago, for which Mahathir had to subsequently apologise to Tunku," pointed out Lim.

He reasoned that as a former prime minister, Mahathir (left) should stop his irresponsible politicking on race and religion.

The Ipoh Timor MP said " Nizar was a popular Perak mentri besar of the year-old Perak Pakatan state government before it was illegally, unconstitutionally and undemocratically toppled by Najib (Abdul Razak)."

The veteran DAP leader said "If Pakatan Rakyat comes to power, it is not the Malays who will lose power but the Umnoputras while the ordinary Malaysians - Malays, Chinese, Indians, Kadazans and Ibans - will be empowered."

Lim also joined in the hot speculation that a snap general election may be held in six months and told the component parties of Pakatan to be gear up for this event.

In his argument for this prediction, Lim said that the Mentri Besar of the usurper BN state government, Zambry Abdul Kadir, has called on BN component parties to be prepared for snap polls and BN component parties are openly calling on their members to be ready for an early general election next year.

‘Najib's initiatives failed to take off'

On another note, Lim said that Premier Najib during his 18 months rule had launched three major initiatives - the 1Malaysia policy; the New Economic Model and on Tuesday, the RM1.4 trillion Economic Transformation Programme (ETP) to achieve a high-income economy by 2020.

"These three landmark measures by Najib (left) have failed to take off successfully as illustrated by the lukewarm response of the RM1.4 trillion ETP on the Kuala Lumpur stock market," he pointed out.

The Kuala Lumpur Composite Index (KLCI), which closed at 1,469 points on Monday, lifted by 6.30 points to 1,475.99 points on Tuesday when the RM1.4 trillion ETP was unveiled, but by the end of the trading week on Friday, the KLCI had fallen by 24.80 points to 1,451.19 points.

There is just too little public confidence in the ETP after the two Najib initiatives were undermined and attacked, he said.

Najib's 1Malaysia policy, for instance, has still to be proven to be a national policy which attracts the full commitment and loyalty of Najib's own cabinet and government - with his deputy Muhyiddin Yassin publicly declaring that he is "Malay first, Malaysian second".

Lim pointed out that there is only one cabinet minister, Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Mohd Nazri Abdul Aziz, who in the past 18 months had declared that he is Malaysian first, Malay second, i.e. Malaysian first, race second.

Najib's New Economic Model unveiled on March 30 was savagely attacked to the extent that Najib had to distance himself by claiming that the NEM is not the government's "final stand" but merely the "trial balloons" of a group of experts from the global market's perspective!

And in both cases, the troop of nay-sayers was led by none other than Mahathir - who said he did not understand Najib's 1Malaysia and warned of awful consequences if the NEM was implemented.