The opposition are fearful of the Najib factor which defeated them in Melaka and Johor elections, so now they accuse him and Zahid of planning for an early election to get away with their court cases.
The recent Barisan Nasional (BN) convention in conjunction with its 48th anniversary held in the World Trade Centre in the capital city of Malaysia on Wednesday (01 June) saw delegates pressing for an early election, sending fears to the Opposition camp.
Leaders from the component parties of BN too urged for an election citing various reasons and have asked the coalition’s election machinery to be prepared.
This motion has sent shivers not only to Pakatan Harapan (PH) as the opposition, but also to Perikatan Nasional (PN) who is also part of sitting Prime Minister Ismail Sabri’s government.
Leaders from both PH and PN have begun their propaganda pointing fingers at former Prime Minister Najib Razak and BN Chairman Ahmad Zahid Hamidi alleging that the duo is calling for an early election to escape from their court cases.
In fact, PH and PN are aiming their guns at Najib as he has gained immense popularity through his “Malu Apa Bossku” campaign.
The Johor and Melaka elections are an evidence of how BN won because of the Najib factor. PH and PN fear this.
Rumbles From The Opposition Camp
Penang’s Deputy Chief Minister II, P. Ramasamy claims it is obvious that Najib wants to expedite the next 15th General Election (GE15) so that the Federal Court’s decision on his appeal might be heard after the election.
The DAP man claimed that if BN wins federal political power before the Federal Court decides, there is a high chance that BN might be better positioned to save certain Umno leaders from being prosecuted or even jailed.
There is even a possibility that Najib might be the next prime minister, said the Prai assemblyman.
“Ismail Sabri might give inflation or the state of the economy as reasons why the polls have to be delayed but Najib’s talk about inflation being cyclical appearing once in two or three years is merely to refute the reason given by Ismail Sabri.
“Najib’s calling for research on inflation is merely to indicate that Ismail Sabri is not a learned person or he did not know what he was talking about.
“There is no reason for asking the two Umno leaders to advise Ismail Sabri on the need to hold the general election early,” Ramasamy said referring to Zahid as the other Umno leader.
The newly-minted deputy president of PKR, Rafizi Ramli is reported to say the same thing about Najib and Zahid.
Ramasamy’s and Rafizi’s claims above show they are either naïve or ignorant about the public grouses about the country’s economy and the rising food prices and cost of living which is going around.
As usual, DAP/PH leaders are only good at criticising rather than coming out with solutions.
The duo are just an example of opposition leaders who divert the core issue to avoid early GE15 due to fear of losing badly just like in Melaka and Johor.
Why The Need For Early GE In Malaysia
Public unrest over steadily rising prices and the cost of living that has skyrocketed is the main reason election is a must.
Rising food prices have increasingly dominated public discourse as unresolved supply disruptions since the Covid-19 pandemic has led to repeated and painful increases in recent months.
The price hikes along with unreliable sourcing forced Prime Minister Ismail Sabri’s government to unexpectedly announce the abolition of approved permits (APs) as a requirement for food imports except for rice.
Malaysia’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) increased moderately by 2.2 per cent to 125.2 in February 2022 from 122.5 in the same month of the preceding year, driven mainly by the increase in food inflation, the Department of Statistics Malaysia revealed in March.
Chief statistician Mohd Uzir Mahidin said the increase surpassed the average inflation in Malaysia for the period 2011 to February 2022 of 1.9 per cent.
He said the 3.7 per cent increase in the food and non-alcoholic beverages group was largely due to an increase in the component for food at home which increased 4.1 per cent compared to the same month of the preceding year adding that the increase was mainly for raw cooking materials such as chicken (14.2 per cent) and eggs (13.5 per cent).
Already in turmoil since the pandemic, global commodities suffered another major shock this year as a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The conflict has severely affected the international wheat market, among others, as both countries are breadbasket nations.
The wheat shortage was exacerbated by India’s decision recently to ban wheat product exports as a result of its lack of supply and inflation.
The average Malaysian is already feeling the heat and our present government seems to be clueless about what they are doing and that is why we need a strong mandate to address these issues.
Ismail Sabri’s Cabinet
The current Prime Minister Ismail Sabri from Umno is doing his best but he still has to depend on Bersatu and PAS to maintain his government.
But what are the MPs from Bersatu who helms important portfolios are doing to help Ismail Sabri?
For example, Azmin Ali, Mustapa Mohamad and Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz whose portfolios deal in significant ways with the economy, what have they done to improve the economic suffering of the common man on the street?
Azmin is the minister of international trade and industry while Mustapa oversees economic affairs as a minister in the Prime Minister’s Department; both are from Bersatu. Zafrul, a former banker, is a technocrat minister appointed by Muhyiddin Yassin when the latter was the PM.
Muhyiddin who chairs the National Recovery Council and suppose to focus on the recovery plan is busy politicking rather than helping the people to counter the rising food prices and the cost of living.
Muhyiddin is busy looking for support to make him the PM again. This was confirmed by Warisan’s Chief Mohd Shafie Apdal and opposition leader and PH Chairperson Anwar Ibrahim.
Anwar and Shafie claimed that Muhyiddin met them to discuss a merger as he has 119 MPs supporting him. This idea according to Anwar and Shafie was shot down as the betrayal scar is still fresh.
Muhyiddin has yet to deny what Anwar and Shafie had claimed.
Do these MPs care about the people, unlike Najib who has been feeding ideas and solutions on current issues?
It’s All Najib’s Fault
But Najib is still blamed for with their stereotype tune “semua salah Najib”.
After being voted out in the 2018 general election, Umno and Barisan Nasional have been rising and seen success in three recent by-elections including Melaka and Johor that the former ruling coalition won effectively on its own.
This success has reassured BN to demand a snap general election, based on the belief that it could convince voters to give it a solid mandate to bring back policies they previously enjoyed under decades of the coalition’s rule.
Whatever the reason is, for BN it is good for them to go into elections in the coming months, not next year as things are changing fast by next year. – New Malaysia Herald
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