By Shannon Teoh
July 05, 2010
Pakatan Rakyat leaders attend the launch of FoPR in London yesterday, July 4, 2010. — Picture by Danny Lim
LONDON, July 5 — Pakatan Rakyat (PR) leaders continued their bullish stance towards a possible snap election by insisting that they would win big, when launching an outreach programme here yesterday.
Despite losing five MPs this year, they further taunted Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak by stating that the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition was running scared.
“Umno is in a state of panic. They see enemies everywhere,” PR secretariat chief Datuk Zaid Ibrahim told a crowd of over 200 at the launch of Friends of Pakatan Rakyat (FoPR) in London.
Other leaders at the FoPR launch, such as PAS treasurer Dr Mohd Hatta Ramli, DAP’s Kepong MP Dr Tan Seng Giaw and Lembah Pantai MP Nurul Izzah Anwar, were also confident of expanding their historic wins in Election 2008 into the next general election, which must be held by 2013.
Their upbeat mood followed Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s statement last week that PR would be ready should BN opt to dissolve Parliament early.
The government’s reluctance to upset the majority Malays has led to policy reversals and reform pullbacks that are fuelling talk Najib may be readying to get his own mandate as prime minister. The last election was led by Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who stepped down in April 2009.
Najib raised constituency allocations for BN MPs from RM1 million to RM1.5 million last month, leading to further speculation.
Dr Hatta expressed his belief that there was a significant possibility of a snap election after Umno vice president Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein said yesterday that the time had come for BN to go to the polls to prove that they have overcome past mistakes.
“If it’s in September, we will win big. If it’s next year, we will win even bigger,” the Kuala Krai MP said.
Zaid added that “ministers are talking rubbish all the time, because they are panicking over early elections.
“When you start banning newspapers, charging people for sedition and play races against each other and manufacture enemies, that’s the sign of an emerging fascist government. We cannot afford to let that happen,” the former de facto law minister said.
He also claimed that the constant persecution of opposition figures while Umno figures got away with outrageous statements was evidence that the Malay party had “destroyed all sense of fairness in the system.”
“Najib can blatantly buy elections by promising millions because they know they will never be prosecuted,” he said, referring to his recent defeat in the Hulu Selangor by-elections where the prime minister handed out millions to sway voters including RM3 million he promised to a Chinese school if BN won the poll as well, as in the Sibu by-election where the prime minister made a similar appeal.
Nurul Izzah expounded on how PR was more than just “not BN”, but a viable alternative today.
Nurul, who is Anwar’s eldest daughter, stressed that PR had established a Common Policy Framework; while in Selangor, it has introduced a select committee to ensure the integrity of lawmakers and are set to table the Freedom of Information Act in the state assembly.
“The only innovation from BN is Perkasa,” she said, referring to the Malay rights group led by Pasir Mas MP Datuk Ibrahim Ali.
“Change will come and [the] next general election will not be something easily forgotten by BN,” she promised.
Dr Hatta added that in the last elections, DAP, PKR and PAS had only formed an electoral pact to avoid three-corner fights and campaigned individually, whereas this time they would campaign together and make sacrifices for each other.
“This administration should have been over in the last general election. Victory is within reach,” he said.
Dr Tan also insisted that PR would not wait to capture government state-by-state but would be taking over both federal and state governments “simultaneously.”
“While we cannot ensure that PR will be 100 per cent clean once we are in government, we promise that we will show no mercy to those who are corrupt. We must have integrity,” the DAP vice-chairman said.
