DAP is making use of the Malays, especially former leaders in government, in order to attain power, says Umno supreme council member Ismail Sabri Yaakob.

This is because DAP, on its own, is unable to win over the Malays, said Ismail in a Utusan Malaysia report today.

“DAP realises this,” Ismail told delegates at the Kuala Kedah Umno division meeting in Alor Setar yesterday. 

“Umno – as a party fighting to defend religion, race, the monarchy, and the Malay language – will never be another party’s tool.”

“But PKR and Bersatu are different because they were created to fulfil the personal agenda of Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim to become the prime minister and not to uplift the Malays. That is why they are used and are willing to betray their principles and work with DAP,” he said. 

Ismail said the Malay support PAS had brought to the general election in 2013 had caused DAP to become so confident that it had made its  party slogan “Ini kalilah”, meaning “this is the time” it will see victory.

“DAP knows they have the most seats in the opposition and that qualifies them to (name the) the prime minister because the Federal Constitution does not say that the prime minister has to be Muslim.

“And even if the party does not keep the prime minister’s post, it can make sure the post goes to someone who is ‘controllable’. Talk that the leader of ‘parti bunga’ (Bersatu) will become prime minister is only political sweet talk,” he said. 

In the last election, BN took 133 parliamentary seats, 88 of which was won by Umno. The now defunct Pakatan Rakyat coalition, made up of PKR, DAP and PAS, won 89 seats. 

The Pakatan Harapan coalition, which does not include PAS and has Bersatu chairman Dr Mahathir Mohamad as coalition chairman, has 71 parliamentary lawmakers. DAP controls 38 seats.

DAP leaders have consistently denied wanting the prime minister’s office. DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang, whose name Umno leaders have floated as a possible PM candidate for Pakatan Harapan, has maintained that he does not wish to be prime minister, saying that to win, the government would require Malay support, in which case DAP would likely see its representation in the coalition reduced. 

“Although the Malaysian Constitution provides that any Malaysian can be a prime minister, the idea of becoming prime minister of Malaysia had never entered my mind,” Lim said in April. – August 20, 2017.