UMNO and Barisan Nasional (BN) have always used “fear mongering” tactics to entice voters, opposition leaders said in response to recent remarks by a prime minister’s aide Pakatan Harapan (PH) is taking Chinese vote for granted. 

Pakatan Harapan chief secretary Saifuddin Abdullah said what Umno or BN is doing is “double speak”.

“To the Malays they say ‘don’t trust Pakatan Harapan because it is dominated by the Chinese (DAP)’. To the Chinese, they say Pakatan Harapan has forgotten them. 

He said they used the same “double speak” when explaining the need to implement the goods and services tax (GST).

“They told the Chinese GST is good because most of the Malays who were not paying tax will now have to pay. To the Malays, they said most of the Chinese businessmen who were not paying tax will now have to pay,” he told The Malaysian Insight. 

Special officer to the prime minister, Isham Jalil in a closed-door session with polling district leaders of the Bukit Lanjan state constituency said the opposition coalition was taking the Chinese vote for granted, by proposing Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail as interim prime minister and deputy prime minister. 

The session was held on December 8, at Selangor Gerakan headquarters in Bandar Utama, Petaling Jaya. 

It is learnt the session was a collaboration with BN component party, Gerakan’s candidate for Bukit Lanjan, Syed Abdul Razak Alsagoff. 

“I trust the people are not stupid. They can judge for themselves,” Saifuddin said. 

DAP’s Hannah Yeoh, meanwhile, said race and religion will always be used by the ruling party to cover up corruption and incompetency. 

“The inconsistency has always been obvious. Utusan said PAS ‘diperkudakan’ (being used by) DAP while MCA said DAP empowered PAS during Pakatan Rakyat days,” she said, referring to the Umno’s mouthpiece Utusan Malaysia. 

“They hope by playing race or religion people will forget and forgive them. Malaysians deserve better and cleaner governance. Umno will not and cannot deliver that,” she said. 

Amanah communications director Khalid Samad said Isham’s statement only revealed the situation BN faced.

“The majority of non-Malays are supporting PH, so they must find ways to make them return to BN. This is done by asking what happens to the Chinese or non-Malay leadership in PH?

“They are also trying to say Dr Mahathir is a puppet-master,” he said.

Isham had said it was Dr Mahathir who was pulling the strings in PH, despite assertions earlier by several BN leaders DAP was the puppet master in the opposition coalition. 

At the recently-concluded Umno general assembly, grassroots leaders also believed the former prime minister who is now leading Pakatan Harapan was a puppet of DAP.

Communications and Multimedia Minister Salleh Said Keruak previously said the past actions of DAP veteran leader Lim Kit Siang showed the party was the de facto leader in the opposition.

Given the majority seats DAP had compared with others in the opposition pact, Salleh said the party dictated what happened in PH, adding the so-called partnership with Bersatu was merely to give PH a Malay face. – December 10, 2017.