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KUALA LUMPUR – Perikatan Nasional’s (PN) failure to achieve a “sweeping win” in the six state polls, achieving 5-1 if not 6-0, is the starkest result yesterday, said former DAP chairman Tan Sri Lim Kit Siang.
He flayed Perikatan Nasional (PN) for its failure to achieve a “sweeping win” in the six state elections, as the coalition had trumpeted, towards toppling the current federal government.
He said PN’s inability to form at least five state governments was the starkest result of the polls that were held yesterday.
Although PN made headway in the three states of Penang, Selangor and Negri Sembilan by gaining more seats than before, it was helpless to stop the Pakatan Harapan-Barisan Nasional (PH-BN) alliance from winning two-third majorities in Penang and Negri Sembilan.
In the elections yesterday, PN retained power over Kelantan, Terengganu and Kedah, while PH did the same over Penang, Selangor and Negri Sembilan.
“PN leaders of PAS and Bersatu were confident of a 5-1, if not 6-0, result and the forming of at least five state governments but it proved to be sheer bombast,” Lim said in a statement today.
“Even more importantly, the PN boast that a big win of PN in the six state polls will lead to the toppling of the Anwar unity government at the national level has turned out to be mere empty talk.”
Lim also took PN chief Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin to task for calling on Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim to resign as prime minister because of the results of the state polls.
He said Muhyiddin himself is not resigning over his boast during the election campaign that PN can win at least five states.
“Furthermore, did Muhyiddin resign as deputy prime minister when Umno lost two-thirds majority in Parliament for the first time in the 2013 general election?” he said.
Lim, who served as MP for ten terms between 1969 and 2018, said the results reminded him of the general election in 2004 when PAS lost its big gains from the previous polls where it had won an unprecedented 27 parliamentary seats and the Terengganu government.
However, in 2004, this was reduced to seven parliamentary seats and the party lost Terengganu.
“Is this the electoral result awaiting PN, especially PAS, in the 16th general election in 2027?” he wondered.
Lim also stressed that it is important for Anwar’s government to address concerns about economic deprivation and anxiety behind PN’s electoral gains in the six state polls.
He said this is why the special parliamentary session next month is important – to give parliamentary sanction to the Madani economy, signalling policy changes and institutional reforms beneficial to all sections of the Malaysian community.
He said that the four years to the next election deadline in 2027 should not be wasted, and the administration of Penang, Selangor and Negri Sembilan should be exemplary.
Suggestion for Muda to merge with DAP
Speaking about Muda, whose 19 candidates all lost their deposits yesterday, Lim described the youth-based party’s foray as “disastrous”, adding that he had advised against it.
“When the country is faced with a choice between Big Rights and Big Wrongs, between the opportunity to rise up again to become a great world-class nation or to continue in the trajectory which will end up in Malaysia becoming a divided, failed and corrupt state, there is no other alternative.
“I have said that I admired the idealism of the Muda candidates although they have all lost their deposits.
“I advise them not to be disheartened, and would even suggest that they explore the possibility of merging with DAP,” he said, stressing that this is his personal opinion, and not an official DAP offer as he has retired from the party’s frontline leadership.
“It is for the leaderships of DAP and Muda to decide on this political development.” – The Vibes, August 13, 2023