Najib wants fresh elections, confident of victory - DAP man

Johor DAP chief Liew Chin Tong has claimed that former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak is pushing for a fresh general election as he is confident that the Umno-PAS coalition can win in the election.

He said this was in contrast with Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin who wants to avoid a general election and is trying to entice more parliamentarians to strengthen his razor-thin majority in the Dewan Rakyat.

“While Muhyiddin is trying hard to entice MPs from Pakatan Harapan to his side, Najib wants a fresh general election.

“He doesn’t want Muhyiddin as prime minister, and the talk in town now is that Umno is pushing for dissolution by the second half of this year,” he said in a statement today.

However, the former deputy defence minister did not provide any evidence to back up his conjectures.

Liew further claimed that while Muhyiddin is the public face of PN, Najib has a “not-so-hidden” hand in the larger scheme of things.

Najib, he said, is waiting for his chance to throw Muhyiddin under the bus.

As such, Liew said there are currently two slightly different games being played against Harapan and its allies, Warisan and former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s camp in Bersatu, which he collectively referred to as Pakatan Plus.

Both Najib and Muhyiddin want to break up Pakatan Plus, he said, as they would have a comfortable majority in Parliament if they succeed.

To achieve this, he said they are churning out propaganda pitting parties within Pakatan Plus against each other and provoking mistrust among the leaders and supporters.

However, while Muhyiddin is trying hard to entice MPs from Harapan to his side, Liew said Najib wants a fresh general election.

He went on to allege that Najib cannot wait too long for the general elections as he is facing massive corruption charges.

Muhyiddin is also racing against time to persuade parties to his side as he only has about a month to do this before the July Parliament sitting.

Liew also noted that DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang had suspected the government would once again attempt to postpone the July sitting by using the Covid-19 pandemic as an excuse if Muhyiddin still does not have a comfortable majority by then.

“However, the prime minister cannot escape the Parliament sitting for Budget 2021, without which the government would have no money to spend next year,” Liew said.

He then explained that if Muhyiddin were to get a sizable majority in Parliament as a buffer against Najib’s faction of Umno MPs, the former would want to see Najib in jail.

“Never mind that Muhyiddin has no political legitimacy (as prime minister), if Najib goes to prison under his watch for corruption charges, Muhyiddin’s political stock would rise very high.

“Muhyiddin would also be able to take the moral high ground to say that he has not compromised on his principles when it comes to the 1MDB case at least,” Liew said.

Muhyiddin is also trying very hard to avoid a general election as he knows Bersatu under him would be wiped out, he claimed.

“The tainted 1MDB scandal-ridden Najib is confident he can win a general election with the Umno-PAS coalition, (that is) Muafakat Nasional as opposed to Muhyiddin’s Perikatan Nasional (PN),” he said.

Najib’s group, Liew said, is banking on the breakup of Pakatan Plus because he believes Mahathir and PKR president Anwar Ibrahim cannot see eye-to-eye.

Najib’s faction is also assuming that there will be a general apathy towards politics, coupled with difficulties in travelling due to the Covid-19 pandemic, which would result in many Malaysians not turning up to vote in the case of a general election.

“Turnout in the 14th General Election was 82 percent and if the next one is below 65 percent, Najib’s plan may work,” Liew said.

Pakatan Plus parties have to stick together tightly in order to foil Najib’s plan, he said, and give hope and purpose to the Malaysian middle ground to prevent the return of the “kleptocrats”.

“I have faith in the Malaysian middle ground. I believe that when they are energised, Najib’s scheme of things would be defeated.

“The combined forces of Umno and PAS are not as strong as they think. One plus one doesn’t equal to two.

“It’s still murky waters ahead but if Pakatan Plus holds together, there will be renewed hope,” Liew said. - Mkini