UMNO can no longer say it commands the support of the Malays after a senior party leader told members that the community has many other choices within the opposition coalition, DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang said.

Negri Sembilan Memtri Besar Mohamad Hassan in his speech at the opening of the Sembrong division Umno delegates’ conference in Kluang yesterday, told party members they can no longer be complacent because the Malays now have many choices such as PAS, Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) and Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu).

Wading into this, Lim said Mohamad’s comment was the “best rebuttal to claims by Umno leaders that Malays will perish” if Umno is defeated in the coming general election.

“Umno can no longer think that the Malays need it but instead it is Umno that need the Malays in order to survive,” Lim said in a statement today.

The DAP veteran said Umno have held on to power by “generating the fear” that if Umno is defeated in a general election, Malays will lose political power and “become strangers in their own land”.

“This is a great lie, for the Malays will not lose political power if Umno is evicted from Putrajaya, so the question of the Malays recovering political power does not arise,” Lim said, adding that Umno’s leaders must answer two questions with regard to how the Malays are under threat.

“How can Islam and Malays be threatened when those in power have been Malays for over five decades?

“What have the Malay leaders been doing for five decades if Malays are still under threat?”

He said the country’s demographic “reality is the surest guarantee” that the Malays will not lose political power whatever happens to Prime Minister Najib Razak or to Umno in the next general election.

In 1970 Malaysia’s population comprised 44.32% Malays, 34.34% Chinese, 8.99% Indians, 11.89% non-Malay Bumiputeras, 0.67% others.

In 2010, the percentage of Malays increased to 55.07%, Chinese reduced to 24.34%, Indians dropped to 7.35%, non-Malay Bumiputeras maintained at 11.94% and 1.3% others.

During the 13th general election in 2013, 52.63% of the voters were Malays, 29.68% Chinese, 7.31% Indians, 8.96% non-Malay Bumiputeras and 1.43% others.

Out of the 165 Parliamentary seats in Peninsular Malaysia, 114 are Malay majority seats, representing some 70% of the total, with 22 being Chinese majority seats (13%) and 29 mixed seats. There is not a single Indian majority seat.

Meanwhile, Lim also noted that Umno vice-president and Defence Minister Hishammuddin Hussein claimed during the same Umno meeting at Sembrong yesterday that the opposition will spread more lies as the election nears.

“We in Umno are not taught like that. We will fight the culture of lies with honesty and sincerity, not follow their example,” Hishammuddin was quoted as saying.

Lim said, “I am most flabbergasted by Hishammuddin’s most amazing claim, as I have for decades been the target of Umno propaganda, lies and demonisation campaign.”

Lim claimed the three lies routinely used against him were that:

“I had led illegal street demonstrations in Kuala Lumpur sparking the May 13 riots in Kuala Lumpur in 1969, when in truth, I was never in Kuala Lumpur during the May 13, 1969 period as I was in Kota Kinabalu in Sabah.

“I am anti-Malay and anti-Islam when no Umno leader could produce an iota of evidence in my political history of half a century to show that I am anti-Malay and anti-Islam.

“And, that I am campaigning for a Christian Malaysia when I am not a Christian.” – August 27, 2017.