DR M PRACTISING POLITICS OF HATRED, UMNO INFO CHIEF SAYS

(MMO) – The political approach taken by former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad now is one of hatred because he often uses inappropriate language to attack the nation’s leader Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, said Umno Information Chief Tan Sri Annuar Musa.

He said among the words used by Dr Mahathir in referring to the Prime Minister were thief, robber and pirate.

Dr Mahathir, he said, was “shouting” that the government no longer had the ability to service its debts when this was not the case.

“He claimed that when he was in power, the national debt was 103 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product but the country was still administered smoothly.

“But the fact is, our capability to service debts has still been given an ‘A+’ rating by Standard and Poor (S&P) which is recognised throughout the world…this means the country is well managed,” he said.

Annuar told this to reporters after a briefing programme on the 2017 Budget here yesterday.

Also present was Umno Supreme Council member Datuk Aziz Kaprawi, who is also Deputy Transport Minister.

Annuar added that it was not only this (politics of hatred by Dr Mahathir) but the former prime minister did not seem to have consistent principles like on the matter of street demonstrations as he was now supporting the Bersih 5.0 rally planned to be held in the federal capital this Saturday.

He said when Dr Mahathir was prime minister he condemned street demonstrations saying it was not a Malaysian culture apart from being against Islamic teachings.

“But look at what is happening now, Dr Mahathir is putting all this behind because of his anger (in not being able to topple the Prime Minister,” he said.

“I think in our lives, we have all faced disappointments, there are times when we are up and times when we are down but we should not do anything that is against public interest, more so when it involves security, peace and the people’s wellbeing,” he said.

The Bersih 5.0 rally this Saturday is planned to be held at Dataran Merdeka in Kuala Lumpur. A counter-rally is also being planned by right wing movement the Red Shirts which claims that Bersih, a movement calling for electoral reform in the country, is actually serving a foreign agenda to topple the government.