'Only Umno can rule Malaysia' mentality of the Malays will DESTROY them & the country - MP

Raub MP Mohamad Ariff Sabri bin Abdul Aziz has called on the Malays and UMNO members to cease the thinking that only UMNO leaders capable of leading the country.

“We must stop to blindly support UMNO leadership just because they are the same race as us. UMNO members should stop being obsessed that only (Prime Minister) Najib Razak can lead the party, or Muhyiddin (Yassin, deputy Prime Minister), or Hishamuddin (Hussein, UMNO vice president) or leaders who act as yes-men can lead the country,” Ariff said in his latest blog posting.

“If these leaders are replaced, those who are replacing them will also be Malays. So the Malays should stop thinking only Malays from this pool can lead and govern the country,” he added.

The call came following the revelation by Pandan MP Rafizi Ramli that Malaysia government had sold off assets to achieve the country’s 2013 budget deficit target of 4 percent.

Citing World Bank’s latest report “Malaysia Economic Monitor: December 2013″, Rafizi said the government had obtained revenues of RM1.4 billion from selling of assets and RM4.2 billion from the securitization of government mortgages to offset the higher expenditures on subsidies to meet the targeted deficit number.

The PKR strategic director said he suspected that the selling of assets had taken place because the government would fail to achieve a 4 percent deficit by 2014.

“This means the country’s assets have been sold off and mortgaged so that the proceeds gained from it in 2013 can reduce the gap between the country’s revenue and expenditure,” he was quoted saying by a news portal.

New low

Ariff said the selling of assets proved how the quality of country’s leadership has plunged to new low.

“The selling of national assets cannot be done by Najib’s government without violating the laws and consent must be obtained from parliament. The selling of assets has never been tabled in parliament. If so, then the government had hidden away the issue,” said the DAP MP.

Ariff added that what had happened has nothing to do with race.

“How do we want to put the country’s future in the hands of such mediocre leaderships? This is not about the Chinese wants to take over the power of Malays or Malays losing power, or Malays rulers being sidelined or Islam is under threat. This is a leadership issue. Full stop,” he stressed. - Harakahdaily