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Call for Najib's resignation Posted: 20 Apr 2011 11:04 PM PDT DAP dares MCA to dissolve and call for Najib's resignation By Clara Chooi April 21, 2011 Lim called the MCA leaders hypocritical. — File pics KUALA LUMPUR, April 21 — The DAP challenged MCA leaders today to dissolve their party or call on the prime minister to resign should he lose Chinese community support in the coming general election. DAP adviser Lim Kit Siang charged that the MCA was being hypocritical in calling for Sarawak Chief Minister Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud's resignation due to his failure to deliver the Chinese vote last week, pointing out that the MCA itself had performed no better in Election 2008. In the Sarawak state polls last Saturday, Barisan Nasional (BN) lost 16 seats to the opposition, most of them Chinese-majority urban seats. In Election 2008, MCA suffered its worst ever electoral defeat when it saw its parliamentary representation cut by more than half from 31 to just 15 seats. "Now they are asking Taib to resign on grounds that he lost the Chinese vote. Will they apply the same standard to PM (Datuk Seri) Najib (Razak)? "And why is MCA still in the Cabinet? Why was MCA's president (Datuk Seri Dr) Chua Soi Lek so keen on securing his son (Chua Tee Yong) a deputy minister's post?" Lim asked. DAP publicity chief Tony Pua, who led the party's campaign in Sarawak, agreed, saying that the MCA should "dissolve" itself for having failed in its purpose of representing the Chinese community. "If you are talking about support based on race, the MCA has failed to represent the Chinese. So their organisation is completely irrelevant. They should dissolve themselves," he said. Lim and Pua were responding to a statement by MCA vice-president Gan Ping Sieu yesterday calling for Taib's resignation due to the outcome of Saturday's polls. The DAP leaders also berated MCA's Loh Seng Kok for "insulting the intelligence of Sarawak voters" when he claimed the Chinese community had been duped into voting for the opposition for racial reasons. "They are insulting their intelligence because Sarawak voters, all those who supported DAP, were voting for the Pakatan Rakyat (PR). They were voting for new politics which surpasses racial boundaries," said Lim. Pua said it was the SUPP which had played the race card. He pointed out that the outcome of the Sarawak polls had not only shown an increase in Chinese community support towards the DAP but an improvement in support from all communities towards PR as a pact. This, he said, was mirrored in how the opposition had managed to increase its popular vote from 37 per cent in 2006 to 45.5 per cent or 300, 288 votes while BN managed to secure 54.5 per cent or 372, 379 votes. "MCA and Gerakan leaders are feeling so aggrieved that they were treated with utter contempt in Sarawak that they are making these nonsensical statements. "It is their way to vent their anger. They should know their days are numbered unless they change and rise above racial politics," said Lim. Pua also pointed out that it was the MCA's parallel, the Sarawak United People's Party (SUPP), that had played the race card in the polls in order to convince people to reject the opposition. In its campaign, the SUPP had warned Sarawakians that they would lose Chinese representation in the state Cabinet if they voted for the DAP. On April 16, however, the DAP scored an electoral upset by winning 12 of the 15 seats it contested, most of them Chinese-majority urban seats. The SUPP was nearly wiped out when the party, which claims to represent the Chinese, won in just six of the 19 seats it contested, only two of which were Chinese majority while the rest were Dayak seats. "I want to challenge MCA to point out when and where in our entire campaign in Sarawak were we racist? Go back to school and learn what racism is. "Fighting corruption, abuse of power and nepotism is not racism. These issues cut across the races and if MCA thinks they are racist, they should evaluate their own party constitution which prohibits other races from taking part in their organisation," said Pua. Lim agreed, pointing out that the MCA and Gerakan were largely to blame for the SUPP's fall in Sarawak as leaders for both the peninsula-based BN partners had joined in the election campaign. "The real reason why SUPP did so badly was because of the assistance rendered by MCA and Gerakan leaders who have only served to highlight the need for the country to rise above race and go for new politics. Since peninsula voters have rejected Gerakan and MCA, the Sarawak voters are doing the same. "Nobody cared about them in Sarawak. Not just that, they were treated like garbage and with utter contempt," he said.

Difficult for BN to win two-thirds majority in GE Posted: 20 Apr 2011 10:56 PM PDT KUALA LUMPUR, April 21 — Barisan Nasional (BN) will have a tough time scoring a two-thirds majority win in the next general election due to the continued snubbing of the ruling coalition by urban voters. Analysts believe that the recently-concluded Sarawak election will also have a spillover effect on the possible outcome of the upcoming national polls, but differ as to when Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak will call for it. While some political pundits believe that Najib will call for elections by year end, others say that the rise in urban vote swing towards Pakatan Rakyat (PR) as well as anti-Taib (Sarawak Chief Minister Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud) sentiments would be reason enough for Najib to delay national polls until early 2012. "It is going to be difficult for Barisan Nasional to achieve a two-thirds majority," Dr Agus Yusoff told The Malaysian Insider today. "Urban voters, particularly non-Malays, have voted against BN, as seen in Sarawak... this will have a big implication on BN, the effect of urban discontent towards BN can have a spillover effect in rural areas, given time," said the university lecturer. BN won 55 out of the 71 seats in the Sarawak assembly, down from 63 it held when the assembly was dissolved last month. The DAP doubled its presence to 12 seats while PKR tripled its representation to three despite contesting 49 seats. An independent also took a seat. In Election 2008, PR won a total of 82 out of 222 federal seats, with the DAP winning 28 seats, mainly in urban areas where there are large communities of Chinese, who decided to throw out BN's lawmakers for the opposition party's representatives. The developments in the country within the next few months remain crucial, Agus cautioned, as "anything drastic" could change the voting trend, either in favour or against the ruling coalition. "The economy is important... when the country is stable and its people are comfortable, then the government can feel safe. "But in Sarawak, Tan Sri Taib Mahmud's insistence in not stepping down has affected Chinese votes for BN, if this remains BN will be affected further," said Agus. BN retained its two-thirds majority in the Sarawak state assembly or 75 per cent of the seats in the Sarawak legislature. Initial estimates showed that BN's popular vote went down from 62.93 per cent in the 2006 state election to 55.24 per cent in last weekend's polling. PR, mainly the DAP, mounted a successful anti-Taib campaign, engaging in massive ceramahs attended by thousands of Sarawakians. This in turn resulted in BN losing more urban seats compared to previous state elections. Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has also added pressure on Taib, telling him to do the "needful", while campaigning in Malay/Melanau areas. Taib has said he will go in "two or three" years or "midway" into his new term, but stopped short of providing a firm date. UKM lecturer Professor Shamsul Adabi Mamat chose to remain optimistic about BN's electoral chances. The analyst feels that the ruling coalition should not be fixated with obtaining a two-thirds win. Shamsul said a "comfortable majority" win scenario would suffice, where BN wins more than half of the 222 parliamentary seats but would fall short of the desired two-thirds. "A comfortable majority win is enough, two-thirds is not so important," Shamsul told The Malaysian Insider. He said that as long as BN had the rural votes, which made up the majority of the federal electorate, it should not be too worried about maintaining power. "Yes, two-thirds is the focus, but BN needs to know that even a comfortable majority win is a huge victory. "We live in interesting times, in a society with different cultures, differences of opinions, so not everyone may agree on everything," he said. Shamsul believes that judging by BN's performance right now, Najib will call for national polls by the end of this year. "A general election must be held as soon as possible... BN has the momentum right now with the Sarawak win. I think Najib realises this and would know how to capitalise this. "My guess is that Najib will call for polls by the end of this year," said Shamsul.

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