LACKLUSTRE ASSEMBLY: Najib hammers in last nail into Umno's COFFIN

In his UMNO Presidential Address on Thursday, the Prime Minister and UMNO President Datuk Seri Najib Razak returned to the oft-repeated UMNO theme asking how Pakatan Rakyat comprising PKR, PAS and DAP are going to form a coalition government because of the differences on the core issues separating them.

Surely Najib knows that although PKR, PAS and DAP have our ideological differences, we have agreed to form Pakatan Rakyat and committed ourselves to a Common Policy Framework and the Buku Jingga programme of action for the 13th General Election and PR will be guided by what unites us and not by what divides us – but that is for another statement.

What I want to point out now is that Najib had hit the nail on the head although this was not his intention – as he has exposed the fact that Barisan Nasional has lost the morality and legitimacy to govern multi-racial, multi-lingual, multi-cultural and multi-religious Malaysia when UMNO and MCA cannot agree on the core issue whether Malays or non-Malays would be the losers if Pakatan Rakyat wins the 13th general election.

Destitute in their own land?

In the first day of the 66th UMNO General Assembly, UMNO delegates and the Malay community were warned that if UMNO loses the 13GE, Malays will lose political power and will be rendered “destitute” in their own land – a line rejected by the MCA leadership which had been going up and down the country invoking the spectre of an Islamic state and warning the Chinese and non-Malays that they will lose even more of their political, economic, educational, socio-economic, religious and citizenship rights if Pakatan Rakyat replaces UMNO/BN in Putrajaya.

UMNO leaders claim that if PR wins the 13GE, Malay rights would be sold down the drain - which is fully contradicted by MCA leaders who claim that the real losers in such a situation will be the Chinese and non-Malay rights.

Yesterday, this irresponsible, dishonest and anti-national politics of “divide and rule” continued in the UMNO General Assembly, with UMNO delegates warned of the danger of losing their Malay rights and the sovereignty of the Malay Rulers if DAP and Pakatan Rakyat are allowed to rule.

This is pure sedition, using lies and falsehoods to incite hatred and worsen racial and religious polarisation in the country just for Umno leaders to win votes and parliamentary seats in the 13GE, heedless of the damage, division and disunity this would cause to Malaysia.

Pure sedition

This is the basic difference between the Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Rakyat.

Unlike BN, PR wants all Malaysians to be the winners in the 13GE - the ordinary Malays, Chinese, Indians, Orang Asli, Kadazans and Ibans. Of course there will be the losers – the UMNO putras and their cronies in the Barisan Nasional component parties.

If Najib is sincere about his signature 1Malaysia policy, he should denounce the irresponsible, divisive and dastardly politics of “divide and rule” based on lies and falsehoods perpetrated by UMNO, MCA and BN leaders.

But is Najib, who cloaks himself in the garb of "Father of Transformation”, capable of such transformation himself to be a “Malaysian First” to end the politics of “divide and rule” in UMNO and BN and compete with Pakatan Rakyat on the positive and constructive politics of “unite and rule”?

Lim Kit Siang is the DAP adviser & MP for Ipoh Timur