Najib explains danger of DAP’s play on racial sentiments

Najib also pointed out that the DAP is not a multiracial party which it make out to be. - Picture by CHoo Choy May

KUALA LUMPUR, May 3 — Datuk Seri Najib Razak today reminded the people on the dangers of racial polarisation as a result of racial sentiments played up by DAP ahead of Sunday’s general election as it could threaten peace and harmony in the country. 

Najib, who is also Barisan Nasional (BN) chairman, said the action of the opposition was dangerous and against BN’s approach towards creating peace and harmony in Malaysia. 

“We see from our evaluation, Chinese voter support, is different according to the place and region. There are some regions, I am satisfied with their support.

“There are some areas, we have to work harder as they have been influenced by instigation of opposition parties, especially DAP, which raised the question on sentiment as though under BN, we did not give the due rights to the Chinese and so on,” he said.

He was speaking in an interview by Media Prima news and editorial operations executive director, Datuk Ahmad A. Talib in a programme titled ‘2013 Mandate’ produced by TV3 tonight. 

“Politics such as this is dangerous as it can make Malaysian politics more polarised. Polarisation of Malaysian politics is very serious as we have tried to create a peaceful and harmonious environment in the country, this is the stand of BN.  

“But if we play up sentiments, we will create an unhealthy situation, where political disputes such as this will damage our country’s harmony,” he said.  

Najib also pointed out that the DAP is not a multiracial party which it make out to be and that the people themselves had seen the election of its Central Executive Committee members, which has been disputed by their own members.  

“It is very serious to deny more than 700 of their own members from attending the assembly and they did not even elect one Malay leader. So they are not a multiracial party and even if they put one or two Malay candidates, it does not make them a multiracial party,” he said. 

He said the fact was, the party which was really multiracial was BN with its alliance of various components and practice of tolerance to achieve a common decision and policies which took into consideration the views of all races.

“As such, we can appeal to all races and DAP can only appeal to the Chinese only. That is their trademark, DAP cannot appeal to non-Chinese, even Indians are finding it unappealing,” he said. 

Najib admitted that the Chinese community was hardworking, had business acumen to generate wealth. 

However, he said they succeed based on the policies of BN government which created a conducive business environment. 

Najib said in the context of education, Malaysia was among the most liberal country as it gave opportunity to the people to choose the type of education desired for their children. 

“As such, outside of China, Hong Kong and Taiwan including Southeast Asia, no countries have a Chinese education system which is so comprehensive it has become a part of the national education system, except Malaysia,” he said.

Najib said the Indian community now was getting more confident with the BN

after the government implemented various programmes to assist the community including creating a Cabinet Committee on Indian Community Affairs nearly five years ago.

“As a government, we must feel the pulse of the people. So when Malaysians of Indian origin support for us in the 2008 general election fell significantly, I made an analysis and concluded that we must carry out special programmes to help the Indians.

“This is because they felt marginalised and they have specific problems especially the second generation of the estate community, how they wanted to make the transition from estates into urban areas and so on,” he said.

He said the setting up of the cabinet committee chaired by himself was a proposal he made to Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi who was then the Prime Minister after being aware of the myriad of problems afflicting the community.

“It has been nearly five years, we implemented the programmes, I used the word ‘nambikei’ which means trust, I believe today the Indian community have ‘nambikei’ with BN,” he said. - Bernama