Anwar says Najib feels desperate and under siege

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 6 — Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim laughed off Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s barrage of stinging attacks against the opposition yesterday, claiming it showed the prime minister was feeling “desperate” and “under siege”.

The opposition leader noted that Najib’s insults, made during his opening speech at the Barisan Nasional (BN) convention yesterday, were not in character for the premier, saying that this was a clear sign that snap polls were around the corner.

“Clearly, he is sounding more desperate and clearly, he feels under siege although the entire instruments of power in government have been directed against me and other Pakatan Rakyat (PR) leaders.

“But here is a prime minister who uses the police, the judiciary and the entire media at his disposal to launch severe personal attacks against me and PR leaders.

“But at the same time, he is feeling under siege,” Anwar (picture) told a press conference in Parliament this morning.

The PR de facto leader was responding to Najib’s speech yesterday when the premier uncharacteristically delivered his hardest-hitting punches yet on his foes in PR.

The prime minister had dedicated a good 20 minutes to attack the opposition, telling the over 2,300 BN delegates gathered at Wisma MCA here that PR leaders were “anti-national” and engaged in “evil activities” and “dangerous”.

“Be wary all, beware all, they are very dangerous. They are willing to sell just about anything, including discrediting Malaysia’s name abroad.

“I would like to explain here that they are anti-national. We must fight them to the end and make sure that this country will not be destroyed by their evil activities,” he had said in his speech.

Najib also levelled sarcastic remarks against PR’s allegations of nepotism in Umno, pointing out that the opposition pact’s PKR and DAP were the ones guilty of such a crime.

The premier made a direct reference to Anwar, pointing out that PKR’s top leadership was crowded out by the former deputy prime minister’s family members.

Anwar is the PKR de facto leader while his wife Datin Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail is PKR president and the couple’s daughter, Lembah Pantai MP Nurul Izzah Anwar, was recently elected a vice-president.

In the DAP, Najib poked fun at the father-and-son teams of DAP adviser Lim Kit Siang and party secretary-general Lim Guan Eng and DAP chairman Karpal Singh and MP Gobind Singh by calling them a “two-family dynasty and hegemony”.

But Anwar scoffed at Najib’s words today, pointing out that the prime minister himself had risen to power because of his father’s power as the former prime minister.

Najib is the eldest son of the country’s second Prime Minister Tun Abdul Razak Hussein.

Unlike the DAP’s Lim family, Anwar said, Najib had an easy transition in his scramble for political power as he had ridden on his father’s post.

“Guan Eng, now the Penang Chief Minister, had moved from a grassroots leader and he suffered in the process, even imprisoned for his principles and then elected by popular mandate.

“He was not just put there simply because he was the son of the prime minister to be a candidate in parliamentary elections.

“So for Najib to speak like that is, to my mind, shocking,” he said.

Anwar also slammed Najib for accusing the opposition of being “anti-national” and questioned if the struggle to combat corruption and racism was considered “anti-national”.

“We even submit ourselves to the Constitution. All three parties in PR signed a declaration, committing ourselves to constitutional guarantees.

“We disagree with Umno’s cronyism and corruption, and although I am a Malay myself, I detest the idea of using the race card to appeal to the popular Malays while making the poor workers, the rubber tappers, feel that they are ‘tuan’. And yet, the few very rich Malays squander away and amass wealth by the billions,” he said, referring to the ongoing row over the concept of “Malay supremacy”.

He added that by rejecting the concept, it did not mean he was “anti-Malay”.

PAS vice-president Datuk Mahfuz Omar agreed with Anwar that Najib’s latest attacks on the opposition was a clear sign that the prime minister was feeling anxious of the people’s support for PR.

“I thank him because indirectly, his attack on PKR and PR shows that he is sending a clear message to the people that PR is a coalition for the future of Malaysia,” he said.