Umno should stop building castles in the air and think that the ruling coalition can bounce back like Singapore's People's Action Party (PAP) at the next polls, the DAP said today.
Party parliamentary leader Lim Kit Siang said that the Barisan Nasional led by Datuk Seri Najib Razak looked set to even lose the federal government in the next general election unless the prime minister addressed the debt ridden 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) scandal, the RM2.6 billion that went into his personal accounts and investigations into the murder of Mongolian national the Altantuya Shaariibuu.
"What are the chances of the BN coalition rebounding like Singapore’s PAP to scale back 10% of the popular vote or just to become a majority party winning at least 50% of the popular vote?
"There does not seem to be any inkling that Najib is prepared to be open, transparent and accountable on these three fatal issues for the BN coalition," he said in a statement today.
On Friday, Singapore's ruling party romped to a strong election victory winning 83 of the 89 seats in an expanded parliament, while the opposition Workers' Party ended up with six seats, one less than the seven it held previously.
As such, Lim advised leaders in the ruling coalition not to count their chickens before they hatch, in expecting BN to rebound like Singapore’s PAP in securing a resounding victory in the 14th general election.
In an immediate response to the Singapore election results, Communications and Multimedia Minister Salleh Said Keruak had said the landslide victory by the ruling party in Singapore signified that the "noisy minority" does not necessarily reflect public sentiment.
He said this is also true for Malaysia, which last month saw hundreds of thousands of Malaysians, regardless of race, religion, region, age or gender, converging in Kuala Lumpur, Kuching and Kota Kinabalu to express their united and common demand for good governance and clean, free, fair elections.
"There may be thousands marching and screaming and demonstrating its displeasure.
"But there may be an even larger group that has no issues and do not share the views of this minority group of noisy protesters.
"Undeniably, in Malaysia as well, the noisy minority dominates and monopolises the internet and the social media.
"However, just like what happened in Singapore, the silent majority got turned off with what the noisy minority was saying on the internet and on social media."
He added the "overkill" by the "noisy minority" had worked in favour of the government, and that politicians do not fear the "noisy minority" as it is the "silent majority" that they are worried about when they make their decision at the polls.
The Gelang Patah MP said BN ministers appeared to live in a dream world of their own, failing to grasp that the Najib government is a minority one, winning only 47% of the popular vote in the 2013 general election.
He said that the BN percentage of the popular vote had been on the downward decline from 2008 to 2013 – in the 12th general election (2008), the ruling coalition won 51.4% or some 4.08 million votes, whereas in GE13, their popular vote had dropped to 47.4% or some 5.2 million votes.
Lim added that the 2013 general election results made Najib the first minority prime minister in the nation’s history.
In contrast, he said Singapore's PAP increased its popular vote by some 10% in the last two general elections from 60.1% to 69.9%.
"BN ministers and leaders should stop building castles in the air," Lim added. – September 14, 2015.
