By going all out to scare the Malays that the next Prime Minister will not be Anwar Ibrahim but a Chinese from the DAP, the notorious Umno-owned Utusan newspaper is finally admitting their party is afraid Najib Razak could well lose the next general election.
A Chinese PM has long been used as a bogey man to ensure the Malays keep voting for the Umno-led BN coalition. But never before has Utusan's controversial 'spinning' been as hysterical as its latest claim that the DAP was targeting 90 seats in Malaysia's 222-seat Parliament.
Such a big number would shove aside Anwar's PKR, which it claimed would have to be content with contesting a mere 66 compared with 97 seats in the previous election, while the Islamist PAS would have to do with 66 when its leader Hadi Awang wanted 80.
No one else but Anwar
The provocative report was immediately trashed by DAP leaders.
"We are still the least in every state except Penang and Kuala Lumpur," DAP Youth chief Anthony Loke told the press on Monday, slamming Utusan for trying to scare the Malays.
His comments were bolstered by DAP boss Lim Guan Eng, who is also the Penang Chief Minister.
“Our government debt has increased by five times from RM89 billion in 1997 to RM470 billion as at March 2012 compared to the increase in GDP (Gross Domestic Product) by only threefold.... which is why we want Anwar as the new prime minister to turn around the deficit budget into a surplus budget,” Guan Eng said in a statement.
Infighting for seats the worst of all at Umno
This is not the first time that DAP has reiterated its support for Anwar, but sad to say, that has never stopped Umno from seizing on every opportunity to throw cold water on the Pakatan's advance.
Indeed, the time line for the Umno-BN to claw back some of its lost credibility is becoming urgent. Najib has less than 10 months left to call for the country's 13th general election but former premier Mahathir Mohamad is pushing for a November ballot.
Seat negotiations are being fine-tuned at both sides of the political divide but the longer the delay, the more fractious the horse-trading is likely to become.
Within Umno, infighting has erupted into the open with even Mahathir forced to publicly promote his son Mukhriz for the Kedah Mentri Besar or Chief Minister's post - an embarrassment he has no choice but to suffer as party warlords refused to give way.
Usual Utusan modus operandi
In its article on Monday, Utusan had based its claims once again on an unsubstantiated blog posting from suarapakatanrakyat.com - an anonymous blog that is not the official portal of the opposition coalition.
Citing the blog, Utusan suggested that thanks to the weak positions of both PAS and PKR, the DAP would be able to bully its way into demanding and securing the lion's share of seats, which worked out to an additional 43 seats.
“Moreover, with the split of Malay votes into three parts, DAP can easily win in parliamentary constituencies which have an equal number of Malays and non-Malays,” said Utusan, quoting the blog.
But Umno paper gave itself away when it revealed that the information on the suarapakatanrakyat website was supported by two other blogs - www.mykmu.net and www.pisau.net - both of which are known to be pro-Umno.
Utusan also highlighted a claim by www.mykmu.net that even if Pakatan failed to win the federal government, DAP would still be at “three of four steps ahead of PAS and PKR”.
The two parties would then be mere stooges of the DAP, which would be the Pakatan's "big brother", Utusan warned.
“With the support of non-Malay PKR representatives, the potential prime minister is no longer Anwar Ibrahim but a DAP leader. Even if Anwar is appointed to take care of Malay sentiment, he will only be a puppet, just as had happened in Perak previously,” it quoted one of the blogs as saying.
Malaysia Chronicle
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