NAJIB…LISTEN, LISTEN, LISTEN

You need to decide which 125 seats you want to keep and go all out to keep them. Let your enemies and the opposition say what they want. Let them scream, rant, rave and foam at the mouth. You just focus on which 125 seats you want to keep and focus on those. Then you will remain in power.

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

Dear Najib, I do not know what crap your people have been feeding you. But understand one thing, the ruling party has never won two-thirds or more of the popular votes since Merdeka.

In 1959 it won just 51.7% of the popular votes. And that was against the backdrop of the euphoria of Merdeka and Malaysia being led by a ‘happy’ Prime Minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman. In 1964 it improved to 58.5% of the popular votes but dropped to 49.3% in 1969, resulting in the Tunku’s ouster and the creation of Barisan Nasional soon after that.

In the first election that Barisan Nasional faced in 1974 and led by a new Prime Minister, the ruling party won just 60.7% of the popular votes. In 1978 it dropped to 57.2% and went back up to 60.5% in 1982, again led by a new Prime Minister, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

In 1986 it dropped to 55.8% and dropped further to 53.4% in 1990 when Umno split into two and Semangat 46 entered the fray. Then in 1995 it increased to 65.2%, the best ever since Merdeka, but dropped back to 56.5% in 1999 after the Anwar Ibrahim political crisis.

In 2004, again led by a new Prime Minister, the ruling party’s popular votes increased to 63.9%, still short of two-thirds but a new Malaysian record. In 2008 it dropped to 50.27%, almost as bad as the worst-ever record of 1969.

Then came you, dear Najib, in 2013, when the ruling party won only 46.53% of the popular votes and your critics say this is going to decrease even further to less than 45% in the next general election expected around 2018 or so.

In short, finally, after 60 years since the 1955 ‘pre-Merdeka’ election, Umno is going to be kicked out.

One thing that we need to understand is that Barisan Nasional needs to win just 45% of the popular votes to stay in power. It does not need 50% or even two-thirds of the popular votes. In fact, aiming for anything above 55% of the popular votes is an unrealistic dream meant only for fools.

What Barisan Nasional has to do is to just win above 45% of the popular votes but in the right places and spread out in the minority seats. In other words, let the opposition sweep all the votes in seats that have, say, 100,000 voters, while Barisan Nasional sweeps the votes in seats that have, say, just 50,000 voters.

What will happen in the end is Barisan Nasional will win, say, six million votes while the opposition will win, say, seven million votes. However, Barisan Nasional’s six million votes will be in 125 seats while the opposition’s seven million votes will be in 97 seats.

The opposition supporters are still screaming about winning votes. Most opposition supporters did not study the history of Malaysian elections since the time of Merdeka and are too stupid to realise that you win the elections by winning seats and not by winning votes.

So I do not know what your advisers have told you. But if you want to stay in power you need to focus on the 125 or so seats that Barisan Nasional can win. Forget about the 97 seats where the opposition is strong because you will be wasting your resources in these places.

I am sure you remember Gerhard Schröder, the Chancellor of Germany from 1998 to 2005. Germany was ruled by a coalition of parties — the Social Democratic Party, SPD, and the Greens. Well, I attended a course conducted by his key political strategist and one thing that he taught us back in 2000 I still remember till this very day.

“Voters are selfish,” he told us. “Never mind wherever in the world it may be, even in the West, voters will only want to know what’s in it for them. They do not vote to help you get into power. They vote so that they can benefit. So they will want to know what they will gain by voting for you.”

This key political strategist of Gerhard Schröder told us that the opposition strategy is wrong. We focus on politics of hate. We get people to hate the Prime Minister, hate the ruling party, hate the government, etc. And we hope that by making the voters hate they will support us, the opposition.

That was what we were told 15 years ago back in 2000.

“What do the people hate the most?” asked this political strategist of Gerhard Schröder. “Dr Mahathir. So you play on the hatred for Dr Mahathir and hope that because of this hate the people will vote for you.”

“What happens if just before the next general election in 2004 Dr Mahathir steps down and hands power to his successor. What is your new strategy going to be? Do you have a Plan B?”

Well, that did happen exactly as what this political strategist of Gerhard Schröder said would happen. Dr Mahathir stepped down, Pak Lah took over, and the opposition got wiped out in 2004 because it did not have a Plan B.

Did the opposition listen? No! They did not listen because they thought they were smarter than Gerhard Schröder’s key political strategist. From the Sungai Buloh Prison, Anwar Ibrahim sent us instructions to keep attacking Dr Mahathir even after he was no longer Prime Minister.

And in 2006, after Anwar was released from prison, when we started working with Dr Mahathir to oust Pak Lah, Azmin Ali shouted “Semua orang yang bersekongkong dengan Mahathir boleh blah!”

This was during PKR’s annual assembly in Penang and when Azmin shouted this Anwar looked at me with a smirk on his face. Clearly the message was meant for me.

In fact, back in 2005, soon after I launched Malaysia Today, Anwar told the late MGG Pillai and Datuk Azmi Hamid Bidin, that you own Malaysia Today. I do not know from where back in 2005 Anwar got the impression that you own Malaysia Today.

That’s right, ten years ago back in 2005 Anwar had already been telling people that you own Malaysia Today and that I work for you. That is why Anwar was pissed with me. You can check with Dato’ Azmi. He can confirm this story.

Anyway, that is not the issue. The issue is they are trying to bring you down through the politics of hate. But all you need is 125 seats to stay in power. Let the opposition take 97 seats or even 100 seats. You cannot avoid them taking at least 90 or 95 seats anyway so why waste time trying to stop that from happening?

You need to decide which 125 seats you want to keep and go all out to keep them. Let your enemies and the opposition say what they want. Let them scream, rant, rave and foam at the mouth. You just focus on which 125 seats you want to keep and focus on those. Then you will remain in power.