KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 11 — Lim Kit Siang demanded today that Datuk Seri Najib Razak and propagandists from Umno explain how the Malays would lose political power entirely to the DAP if the ruling party were to lose the next general election.
The DAP veteran claimed this would be impossible due to Malaysia’s demographic makeup and accused Najib, who is prime minister and Umno president, and leaders in the ruling party of treating the Malays like simpletons with low IQs.
“Whatever happens in the 14GE, whether Najib is toppled as prime minister or Umno loses the federal government, the Malays in Malaysia will continue to exercise political power in Malaysia as there is no way they will lose their political power.
“The demographic reality is the surest guarantee that the Malays will not lose political power whatever happens to Najib or to Umno in the next general elections,” he said according to a copy of his speech last night in Senawang, Negri Sembilan.
Lim pointed out that during Election 2013, 52.63 per cent of voters were Malays, while 29.68 per cent were Chinese, 7.31 per cent were Indians, 8.93 per cent were non-Malay Bumiputeras and the remaining 1.43 per cent were from other races.
He said of the 165 Parliamentary seats in Peninsular Malaysia, 114 are Malay-majority seats representing some 70 per cent, 22 were Chinese majority seats (13 per cent) while there were 29 mixed seats.
There was not one Indian-majority seat, he added.
Citing this example, Lim said the overwhelming Malay domination of the country’s demographic makeup would make it impossible for the Malays to lose political power in the next federal polls, which is expected by 2018.
“Surely Najib and Umno propagandists are not insinuating that the Malays in the country are simpletons, who have no intelligence or capability, that despite comprising some 60 per cent of the population in Malaysia and being the majority voters in 70 per cent of the parliamentary seats in Peninsular Malaysia... the Malays can lose political power to the Chinese — especially with a decreasing Chinese population as compared to the Malays?” Lim asked.
“Najib and Umno propagandists are treating Malays as people with very low IQs who do not have the intelligence and capability to differentiate fact from fiction, truth from lies,” he added.
Lim said the battle for power in the next general election would not be an Umno vs DAP fight or a showdown between the Malays and the Chinese, but one between the ruling party and the newly-formed Pakatan Harapan federal opposition pact.
He said the central question in the polls was not about the survival of the Malays, Chinese, Indians or the country’s other indigenous races but about whether Malaysia can be saved from becoming a rogue nation.
A recent study by Institut Darul Ehsan (IDE) indicated that the campaign to vilify the DAP as an anti-Islam and anti-Malay party has gained traction, particularly among members of the Malay community in rural areas where the party is traditionally weakest and rivals Umno and PAS, strongest.
According to the survey, over two thirds of respondents considered DAP to be a racist party that was concerned only about the interests of the Chinese community.
The institute said in the study that efforts to demonise the DAP accelerated following the breakup of the Pakatan Rakyat pact, with former ally PAS adding its efforts to Umno’s in attacking the secular party using religious issues.
