Kit Siang: Low voter turnout will see repeat of Malacca polls

 

JOHOR POLLS | DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang has warned Johor voters that another low turnout during the upcoming legislative assembly elections and opposition vote split will ensure BN victory, just like during the Malacca election last November.

Speaking during a DAP-organised dinner in Johor Bahru last night, the Iskandar Puteri MP said Umno and BN won the Malacca election by a landslide despite securing less than half the votes cast.

"Did Umno win back the support of the people of Malacca during the state election last year? No, they did not," he said.

BN won the Malacca election and has the coveted two-thirds majority in the legislative assembly by securing only 38.4 percent of the votes cast.

Lim warned that another landslide victory in Johor will likely pave the way for an early parliamentary election, regardless of whether the current Covid-19 wave ebbs.

‘No to kleptocracy’

He also predicted that should BN win such an election, Najib Abdul Razak would return as the 10th or 11th prime minister.

"The voters of Johor must lead Malaysians in making it very clear that the country does not want someone, who is well-known for making Malaysia into a kleptocracy, to return to lead the nation," said Lim, who is a native of Batu Pahat, Johor.

He urged Johoreans to observe the ongoing criminal trial of former banker Roger Ng in the US, for his part in the 1MDB affair.

Lim noted that US attorney-general Jeff Sessions had described the 1MDB scandal as "kleptocracy at its worse" due to the billions of 1MDB monies being abused.

"It is the Malaysian taxpayers and future generations who will have to pay the billions of 1MDB debts for such corruption," said Lim.

1MDB, formed in 2009, was Najib's brainchild. The state-owned firm eventually racked up RM42 billion in debt with little to show. Najib is currently on trial for misappropriating RM2.6 billion of the fund into his own bank accounts.

"The Johor election is, therefore, not only about Johor but about Malaysia and the future of our children and children's children in the coming decades - whether Malaysia can become a better country as to become a world-class great nation before Malaysia's centennial in 2063," said Lim. - Mkini