Najib to come back - as the 10th PM?

 

Iskandar Puteri MP Lim Kit Siang fears that the BN's landslide victory in the Malacca state assembly election may signal the imminent return of former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak to his previous post.

“The most ominous implication of the Malacca state election is that Najib may become the 10th Prime Minister of Malaysia after the national 15th general election.

“Is this what Malaysians deserve? First to get rid of the man who made Malaysia infamous as a ‘kleptocracy at its worst’ and then to receive him back four years later as a saviour of the nation, free of all corruption charges and to install a model kleptocracy for the world?” said Lim.

Lim’s statement comes shortly after Barisan Nasional’s landslide victory at the Malacca state election, in which the BN officially won the state assembly with a two-thirds majority.

In total, BN won 21 seats - 18 Umno, two MCA, and one MIC - while Harapan won five seats, down from 15 in the previous 14th general election.

Federal opposition leader and Harapan president Anwar Ibrahim’s PKR was wiped out, while DAP and Amanah saw their seats reduced by half.

Perikatan Nasional (PN), on the other hand, managed to secure two seats, thanks to Bersatu, while its two other component member parties PAS and Gerakan failed to win any seat.

Lim went on to argue that despite the victory, BN failed to gain the mandate of most Malaccans to rule the state due to low vote shares and a lower voter turnout.

DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang

“BN won a two-thirds majority of the seats in the new Malacca state assembly, but it did not win two-thirds of the votes cast in the polls on Nov 20, 2021.

“In fact, BN secured only 38.39 percent of the votes cast, an infinitesimal increase of 0.55 percent of the votes cast, compared to the 2018 general election.

“Clearly, the BN does not have the mandate of the majority of Malaccans, let alone a two-thirds majority from the Malaccans to rule the state,” the DAP veteran added.

Additionally, he noted that there were 11 seats that BN had won with less than a 1,000-vote majority - eight against Harapan and three against PN.

“DAP lost Pengkalan Batu by 131 votes, lost Duyong by 200 votes and lost Gadek by 559 votes; PKR lost Paya Rumput by 629 votes, lost Kelebang by 876 votes, lost Machap Jaya by 938 votes, lost Rembia by 860 votes; Amanah lost Durian Tunggal by 559 votes; Bersatu lost Tanjung Bidara by 364 votes and lost Pantai Kundar by 827 votes while PAS lost Serkam by 789 votes.

“If these 11 seats had been won by Harapan and PN, the distribution of seats among the three coalitions in Malacca on polling day would have been Harapan 13, BN 10 and PN 5,” Lim argued. - Mkini