Anwar says no plan for another 'Sept 16' bid

PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim will not try another ‘September 16' style defection to dethrone the BN, but wants BN chairperson Najib Abdul Razak to concede that BN's legitimacy to rule is in question.

In his first interview with Malaysiakini after the 13th general election, Anwar said BN won the election by cheating as there were many instances of fraud, vote buying and other irregularities involving the Election Commission (EC).

"Yes, we will submit to the wishes of the people. But we, in the interim, want them (BN) to accept that their legitimacy is in question. They have stolen the election from us and the people," he said.

He said this when asked if there would be another 'September 16' - a code word for his move to entice 30 BN MPs to defect to Pakatan Rakyat on Sept 16, 2008, after the 12th general election in March that year.

After a bruising 15-day election campaign, BN bagged 133 parliamentary seats, seven less than in 2008. With 89 seats, Pakatan will need 23 defections to claim power.

On May 5, BN obtained less than 50 percent of the popular vote and it lost 230 state seats out of 505, making it its worst electoral showing in history.

According to the final tally, Pakatan obtained 53.29 percent of the total votes, while BN bagged 45.74 percent in Peninsular Malaysia. The nationwide figures, which include Sabah and Sarawak, are  50.87 percent for Pakatan and 47.38 percent for BN.

Anwar wants Pakatan to pursue election petitions to challenge the validity of some of the results, which he said reslted from fraud and other voting irregularities.

He said that the Election Commission had acted unfairly during the campaign and would not even ensure that Pakatan had equal media access.

'Malays revolted as well'

Anwar maintained his charge that foreigners, after receiving dubious citizenship papers, had voted in the May 5 election.

"I met an Umno guy who knew about this, and I have asked him to speak up on the matter," said Anwar. "Are you not confident of Malays or other Malaysians determining the future of the country and you have to depend on foreigners?

"The Umno member replied that he disagreed and said that he had no part in it," he said.

Anwar also dismissed suggestions that the election results had shown racial polarisation, pointing out that many Malays - particularly in Kelantan, Selangor and Terengganu - had voted against BN.

Other examples cited by Anwar included the Bukit Katil parliamentary seat and Bukit Baru state seat in Malacca - two Malay-majority seats which were won by PKR and PAS respectively.

"More Malays attended 80 percent of the ceramah programmes in Johor Bahru. The same can be said up north, in Kulim and in Padang Serai.

"I won't deny that Chinese support for the opposition has been positive, but I do not support the racial polarisation claim.

"Without this rigging (of the election process), we would have achieved our target," he said.

On election night, Prime Minister Najib Razak blamed a 'Chinese tsunami' for BN's worst outing in election history.

PAS had it tough
Anwar expressed regretted over the losses suffered by moderate PAS leaders, such as the party's deputy president Mohamad Sabu, vice-presidents Salahuddin Ayub and Husam Musa, as well as central committee member Dzulkefly Ahmad.

He said that these leaders had to deal with issues that were being played to the Malay gallery, such as the contentious question of whether non-Muslims can use the term ‘Allah'.

"The ‘Allah' issue has been played up (by the mainstream media), with PAS given no opportunity to explain. They went on and it is grossly unfair to PAS, which has shown courage in stating the Islamic position on the ‘Allah' issue... but they (BN) went ahead.

"But given the small window to rebut and to explain in any fair and free elections in any country, we would have won as things were looking so good.

"You see the level of excitement and these kinds of things sadden me, for I can still visualise the people's frustrations, and affection, shown to us," Anwar said.

He said the EC had not acted on complaints of vote buying and Pakatan would continue with its agenda to reform the commission in order to have free and fair elections.

Anwar dismissed Najib's pledge to seek "national reconciliation", saying the PM's words rang hollow since he had, in the same breath, blamed the Chinese for abandoning BN.

"He may show signs of magnanimity but he does contradict (himself) by blaming (BN's losses on) a 'Chinese tsunami'.

"Just because he was unsuccessful in buying the Chinese leaders, as he had done with the Malays and Indians, it does not matter.

"There must be positive (steps) to his reconciliation (effort), and in the spirit of dialogue," Anwar added.