Najib: Street protests not the way for change

PM sounds a warning about Arab Spring revolutions and changing the government outside the constitution.

LIMBANG: The Prime Minister Najib Razak has urged the people not to resort to street demonstrations and signature campaigns as initiated by some politicians to remove the present government.

“That is not in the constitution,” he said at a public rally here.

Najib dismissed notions that the Barisan Nasional was “power crazy”, pointing out that the people had the right to choose the government through the ballot every five years in accordance with the constitution.

Citing the street demonstrations in the Middle East known as the Arab Spring, he said the outcome was not as hoped by the people there.

The Arab Spring revolution did not achieve its objective because the change was abrupt and was not in accordance with the constitution and rule of law, he said.

The prime minister urged the people to avoid being swallowed into the culture of muckraking and “pitting one person against another”, as practised by the opposition on social media.

“I want the people to think for a moment and ponder which party can guarantee that today would be better than yesterday and tomorrow, better than today,” he said.

Najib, who is Barisan Nasional chairman, urged voters in Sarawak to choose BN during the 11th state elections and allow the Federal Government to proceed with developments that had already been planned for the state such as the Pan Borneo Highway, Native Customary Land rights and various infrastructure projects.

He believed the people would give a bigger mandate to the state government led by Chief Minister Adenan Satem.

– BERNAMA