MUAR, Nov 17 — The Perikatan Nasional (PN) coalition has proven its capabilities during one of Malaysia’s most trying times in its history and should be voted back to power to show what it can really do to steer the country forward, its chairman Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said last night.
Addressing a crowd of roughly 1,000 at the coalition’s “Ceramah Mega PN Best” at Padang Bukit Mor in the usually sleepy town of Parit Jawa here last night, the former prime minister held up the creation of 530,000 jobs at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic which also coincided with his tenure from early 2020 to August 2021.
He also highlighted the PN government’s ability to procure and roll out Covid-19 vaccines for Malaysia within seven months, while other countries lagged.
"When the Covid pandemic hit the whole world, Malaysia was no exception. We were concerned about what actions, steps we should take to manage our affairs, our lives and our livelihoods. It was proven that we were capable.
“I am not praising myself but this has been acknowledged by many international experts, including the World Health Organisation that said that the Covid management in Malaysia is among the best worldwide,” he said.
Muhyiddin also spoke about the loan moratorium he gave while he was in power.
“The bank doesn't lose. It's just that the payment to the bank is delayed so that borrowers don't bear the burden of debt because their businesses have fallen and deteriorated.
“During the Covid period, I created 530,000 job opportunities. I said if you choose Perikatan Nasional, we will prepare a million new job opportunities which are high paying, not hard labour. That we need too, but what we need to create are high paying jobs, so that our children who graduate from universities, who are engineering graduates or become architects or become doctors working in the private and government sectors, their earnings are higher than what it is now. That is important to us,” he added.
The ceramah was to canvass support for the PN candidate for Muar, Abdullah Husin.
The Johor PAS commissioner and former Puteri Wangsa assemblyman is challenging incumbent Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman, a former Bersatu Youth chief who quit the party to become an independent MP before founding the Malaysian United Democratic Alliance (Muda) as its president.
But Muhyiddin did not disparage Syed Saddiq. Instead, he praised his former Bersatu colleague as a “clever” man whom he had headhunted and whose political career he helped launch.
“This was my student. Clever. In the early days, he didn't even enter politics,” he said, before telling the audience about his tie with the now 29-year-old first-term Muar MP.
“When I founded Bersatu, I saw that this kid was good. I said, ‘Eh boy, come here. Don't go to London first to study there. Stay here and I want to appoint you as the Youth chief of Bersatu’,” Muhyiddin related, adding that this was what paved Syed Saddiq's journey into politics.
“I don't know what happened after that. Many things happened and he came out of Bersatu and he said he wanted to form Muda. The name's Muda.
“He asked me, ‘Can I form it?’ Because he sees me as his father. Even until today. The other day he sent me a WhatsApp message, praying that I win in Pagoh. I too similarly, want to pray that he wins in Muar to put it simply, but the desire in the heart said: make Haji Abdullah win, because, Perikatan Nasional,” Muhyiddin said in his speech.
The incumbent Pagoh MP who is defending his seat to make another run at the prime ministership said PN needs to win 130 out of the 222 parliamentary seats to form a stable government and hoped Malaysians will help him achieve his target this Saturday.
In his speech too, Muhyiddin implored voters not to cast their ballots for the Barisan Nasional or Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalitions.
He warned voters especially against PH, because it includes DAP which he claimed “completely does not want to respect the rights of the Malays and Islam”.
He also singled out DAP chairman Lim Guan Eng, who was the former finance minister, when PH controlled Putrajaya for his diatribe.
“He is not smart in managing the country's money. The money the government allocated for Ekuinas, which is the agency that the government formed to help develop economic activities that generate large income, so that the Malays can dominate the economy more effectively. He wanted to take that money. He wanted to take the money out. He wanted to use it for other purposes,” Muhyiddin said, referring to Lim and Ekuiti Nasional Berhad.
He said Bersatu was a PH component then and therefore familiar with the DAP’s methods in government.
He said Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali, who was the economic affairs minister then, sought the PH prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s intervention to protect Malay rights.“Thank God there was intervention by Datuk Seri Azmin Ali, the Bersatu minister in the Cabinet at that time. I was also with him,” Muhyiddin said.
However, at that time, Azmin was PKR deputy president. He was among several PKR lawmakers at both federal and state levels that walked out of PH along with Bersatu in what has come to be called the Sheraton Move, and effectively caused the government’s collapse after just 22 months.
Muhyiddin also claimed that he had been pressured by Lim to abolish the Sedition Act.
“So the Sedition Act is important in deciding that our nation is safe and secure. Guan Eng asked me to abolish the Act. This is the decision in the Cabinet meeting,” he said.
He related that he then formed a committee to assess the situation and it concluded that the colonial-era law could not be done away with, though he did not explain why.
Instead, he asked the audience to question the DAP’s agenda for pushing for the abolition of the Sedition Act.
“Why did they want to act that way? What do they think? That they already have power and the government and can do as they please? Cannot. And you ladies and gentlemen want to support Pakatan Harapan. Do you want to support? I have already given warning.
“Don't give votes. Not even one. One vote for PH is like one vote for the DAP that does not respect our rights,” he stressed.
