KUALA LUMPUR, May 12 — Former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak sought to play down the ramifications of DAP’s larger win in the Sandakan by-election yesterday, insisting that the Opposition was down but not out.
Responding to DAP leader Lim Kit Siang’s portrayal of the result as a “knockout blow” for Najib’s “Bossku” brand, the latter insisted that his participation in the Sandakan campaign had been minimal.
“I was only in Sandakan for half a day and managed to give just one campaign speech at PBS’s request for me to help.
“That the MenHEN immediately declared this a ‘knockout blow’ again shows his cringy obsession with me,” Najib wrote on Facebook using the mock title of Minister of Najib Affairs that he coined for Lim.
He contrasted his time in Sandakan with the tens of speeches that the said Lim used to criticise him in the three previous by-election campaigns that ended in Pakatan Harapan defeats, and pointed out that Barisan Nasional never described these as “knockouts” for Lim.
Najib then sought to draw Lim’s son into the dispute, asking if the performance of the country’s stock markets could be considered a “knockout blow” to Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng.
While acknowledging the Sandakan defeat, he also said this would provide fresh input for PBS and BN’s plans to chart their revival.
“But what is certain is that our determination to fight on is not extinguished.”
After DAP’s Vivian Wong polled 16,012 votes to defeat PBS’s Datuk Linda Tsen yesterday, Lim touted the result as “knockout blow to former prime minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s shameless ‘Malu Apa Bossku’ campaign.”
Since he was charged various offences linked to the 1MDB scandal, Najib has restyled himself on social media with a campaign that unabashedly embraces the allegations against him.
Academics previously told Malay Mail that the campaign has tapped the anti-establishment sentiment common among youths but said it will fizzle out.
