The Malaysian Insight

RUNNING out of ideas, “desperate” and “does not understand the meaning of democracy” were some of the rebuttals from opposition leaders to Prime Minister Najib Razak’s tirade against the Pakatan Harapan leadership earlier today.

In his speech at the Invest Malaysia Conference in Kuala Lumpur today, Najib described the new Pakatan leadership line-up as “farcical sounding, a bit like a return-to-work programme for old age political pensioners”.

In an immediate response, Kluang DAP MP Liew Chin Tong said this only showed Najib as desperate to the extent of running down the opposition at an investment event.

“Najib is acting as if Pakatan Harapan is the establishment he has to oppose, that he has to use an investment event to run down the opposition,” he told The Malaysian Insight.

Amanah communications director and Shah Alam MP Khalid Abdul Samad said the prime minister was threatened by what the opposition coalition could do to Barisan Nasional.

“He belittled us because he does not have a strong argument anymore. He is scraping the barrel. That’s what a desperate man would do.

“Dr Mahathir (Mohamad) and Muhyiddin Yassin were for BN winning in 2013. Now their contributions will help Pakatan in the next general election,” said Khalid.

The Amanah lawmaker also took a swipe at Najib for believing that he had the support of Islamist party PAS.

“Working with PAS will only shrink their majority,” he said.

DAP, PKR, Amanah and Bersatu make up the opposition coalition. Islamist party PAS was formerly with the opposition pact under the Pakatan Rakyat banner, but went its own way after severing ties with DAP and PKR shortly after the last general election in 2013.

At the Invest Malaysia conference, Najib also said that the opposition coalition was trying to make people believe it would be a nonagenarian, who wasn’t even a Member of Parliament and whose party has only one seat, who would be prime minister if Pakatan won GE14.

Najib’s remarks referred to former prime minister and Bersatu chairman Dr Mahathir, who also chairs the opposition pact.

“He simply does not understand the real meaning of democracy and that Pakatan works on a different philosophy. Everybody can offer their services, no age or time limit,” Pakatan chief secretary Saifuddin Abdullah said.

“Najib has also failed to understand that in Pakatan Harapan all parties are equal, unlike Barisan Nasional where Umno is the dominant party.

“He thinks DAP is dominant in our coalition, but again he does not understand numbers. Otherwise how can he still be prime minister when under his watch, we lost billions through the 1MDB scandal?

“Does he understand or perhaps should I rephrase – does he really care?” Saifuddin said. – July 25, 2017.