Chong Chieng Jen
KUCHING: State Democratic Action Party (DAP) chairman Chong Chieng Jen foresees there will be a major breakthrough that may even lead to the changing of the current government led by United Malays National Organisation (Umno) with the setting-up Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Pribumi).
Chong, who is Bandar Kuching MP, said it was only a matter of time when the change of government would happen, whether it would be after the 14th or 15th general election.
He said the new party came about after Umno suffered the third major split in its history following the sacking of its former deputy president Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin from the party.
“The first split within Umno was during the time of Tan Sri Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah which led to the formation of Semangat 46. It weakened Umno but not enough. It only caused ripples.
“The second major split was during Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s incident that led to the Reformasi movement in 1998 that caused some waves which ultimately led to the political tsunami in 2008 and 2013 (general elections) whereby BN(Barisan National) and Umno were denied a two-thirds majority in the parliament. This is the third major split within Umno with Muhyiddin teaming up with former Umno president and former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad to form a new party. With the existence of this new party, it will speed up the downfall of BN and the change of government,” he told a press conference here yesterday.
Dr Mahathir quit Umno following his disagreement with Prime Minister and Umno president Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.
According to Chong, who is also Kota Sentosa assemblyman, based on the history of other countries and political parties, the downfall of a ruling political party that became too strong to an extent that it could not be toppled from the outside, would normally be brought down by the infighting and split within the party.
“Umno has suffered its third split and given the present scenario, I do not think they can withstand this,” he said.
When asked whether the RoS (Registry of Societies of Malaysia) would approve the registration of Pribumi, Chong said: “I think Dr Mahathir is very resourceful. Even if they can’t get the new party registered, they will go through backdoor listing.
“It is just that they want it to be done in a more direct manner first, failing which, they will go for backdoor listing and RoS will have no means to stop it.”