BINTULU, Nov 18 — DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang is confident that Pakatan Harapan (PH) will form the next federal government and Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim will be the 10th prime minister after this 15th general election (GE15), if voter turnout on Saturday is at least 80 per cent.
“If voters have high turnout to exercise their rights, I think there is a possibility for Pakatan Harapan to win and Anwar become the 10th prime minister.
“I call on the voters to exercise their rights, the vote for the next five years is the vote for the next 30 and 40 years, because we all Malaysians want to be great again,” he told a press conference here yesterday.
Asked if PH can form the next government without the support of coalition parties from Sarawak and Sabah, he said that would only be known after the polling results on Saturday night.
He said for now, it is too early to predict any political cooperation from the two states.
“I don’t see any problem of PH working with GPS (Gabungan Parti Sarawak) or any others in the interest of the nation and interest of Sarawak,” he said when commenting on the possible PH-GPS partnership.
Sarawak Premier Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Abang Johari Tun Openg has stated on many occasions that GPS wants a stable federal government.
According to Lim, Barisan Nasional (BN) and Perikatan Nasional (PN) only talked about prosperity and stability, but they did not even dare to touch on good governance in Putrajaya.
“Is it possible to have stability and prosperity if you don’t have good governance, if you have corruption, abuse of power, injustices?” he asked.
He believed presently there is a wind of change in Peninsular Malaysia and the wind has been blowing very hard and strong.
“Whether it will reach a political tsunami level, we have to wait until Saturday,” he said.
For Sarawak, he said PH has built its own strength all these years, if not the PH representatives would not be elected by the people to represent them in Parliament and State Legislative Assembly.
He hoped Sarawakians and Sabahans would vote wisely for a better tomorrow and realise the people’s dream for Malaysia to be a world class nation instead of second rate, a joker country and in danger of becoming a failed and divided nation in another three or four decades.
Asked about DAP’s candidate for Bintulu, Chiew Chan Yew, who is in a three-cornered fight against the Bintulu incumbent Datuk Seri Tiong King Sing of GPS and PN’s candidate Duke Janteng, he believed that Chiew has what it takes to be a new generation of young leaders for the country.
“Chan Yew has demonstrated himself, his commitment, his devotion, though he lost by 23 votes in the last state election, what we DAP believe is to continue to fight not for ourselves, we have nothing for ourselves, but for the people, for the state and country,” he said.
Independent surveys conducted on the possible outcome of the GE15 mostly indicated PH leading the race at the moment.
It was reported that caretaker Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri said all these findings were just a psychological warfare by the opposition parties to attract voters, especially those who are still sitting on the fence, to support them.
Lim when asked on the matter said he was not aware of these findings but what was sure was that Ismail Sabri did not believe that the Umno and BN coalition could form a government.
“It appears that Ismail Sabri agrees that PH is in the lead, whether the lead is enough to form a government is a question for Saturday.
“We do not want a situation where BN and PN can jointly form a government, we want PH to be able on its own to form a better government,” he added.
Also present at the press conference were PH Sarawak secretary Alan Ling and Chiew Chan Yew. — Borneo Post
