KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 30 — DAP’s Lim Kit Siang sought to convince voters today that allowing Pakatan Harapan to win federal power was not a permanent decision, saying they could re-elect Barisan Nasional if the opposition pact fails to deliver.
The DAP parliamentary leader said the country has not achieved what he called the Merdeka Dream and Malaysian Dream of becoming a “shining example to the world”, and claimed that the federal opposition pact would be able to address this.
“A Pakatan Harapan Government in Putrajaya will prove in five years that it is better than Umno/BN government for all Malaysians, whether Malays, Chinese, Indians, Kadazans, Ibans or Orang Asli or the voters can re-elect an Umno/BN government in 15th General Election whether in 2022 or 2023,” he said in a statement.
Lim’s Pakatan Harapan pact has been under fire since it unveiled its alternative budget that proposed a slew of pledges such as free education as well as the abolition of tolls and the goods and services tax (GST), among others, without clear explanations of how it would pay for these.
This allowed rivals to deride the Pakatan Harapan as unrealistic and unsustainable, among others, creating doubts about the pact’s ability to chart Malaysia’s economic direction.
The public is also increasingly demanding that PH communicate its plans and ambitions for the country as the next general election approaches, as general fatigue tempers attention to the usual attack politics.
The 14th general election must be held no later than August 2018.
In Election 2013, BN retained power but lost the popular vote to the opposition pact. The ruling coalition is again hoping to regain the parliamentary supermajority it only lost one other time, in Election 1969.
The ruling BN has never lost a federal election in the country’s history.
