Umno is scared of us, says Anwar

PETALING JAYA, Nov 28 — Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim claimed today that Umno was willing to do anything to ensure the failure of PKR as the ruling Malay political party feared his party’s growing popularity.

The PKR de facto leader said the success of today’s PKR national congress showed that Umno had failed in its relentless attacks against the party for the past 12 years.

“This is their biggest disappointment because our congress has been a big success and those attending are from more than 95 percent of the party branches.

“Umno is now not confident. During the parliamentary debates, they do not deny that they are corrupt but instead say that Pakatan Rakyat is corrupt as well. They do not have the high moral ground to defend good governance in Umno and Barisan Nasional. It is gone. That is why we must be patient,” he said during his winding-up speech at the party’s national congress here.

He said that party members must be confident and not let recent defections be a setback for PKR.

“We must be confident and consistent in all of our actions. We didn’t win 2008 because our candidate quality was not good. When we were confident that we will win Putrajaya, they supported us. But when we failed, they jumped. It shows that they only wanted contracts. That is why it is good that they jumped so we can cleanse our party,” he said.

“This is a tragedy for the Malays talking about championing the rights of Malays while the majority of the Malays live in abject poverty and continues to be marginalized but it is equally shameful for those non-Malays who choose to defend the injustice and racism of the Malay clique in Umno,” he said.

He pointed out that 96.7 per cent of the population living under the poverty line are Malays.

“What type of Malay supremacy is this? We should instead abolish the question of ethnicity and solve the problem of poverty. Those that will benefit are of course the poor; the Malays and Bumiputera in the villages, Indians in the estates and Chinese in towns. That is what we should focus on,” he said.

However, Anwar admitted that there are still weaknesses in the party.

“What is the point of becoming a reformist party if we are not looking to improve ourselves. This can be the agenda of the future and not only slogan or rhetoric. Are we perfect? No, but we are able to defend the party’s integrity,” he said.

He also acknowledged that there were no representative from Sarawak and only two from Sabah in the party leadership but he promised to rectify the situation. - Malaysian Insider