Reject hypocritical political pact — Najib

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Najib raises Liow’s hand after launching the MCA 63rd Annual General Assembly at Wisma MCA. — Bernama photo

Najib raises Liow’s hand after launching the MCA 63rd Annual General Assembly at Wisma MCA. — Bernama photo

KUALA LUMPUR: Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said the country’s future could not depend on a hypocritical political pact, with no sincerity and always doing U-turns.

The prime minister said the people, instead, needed to choose a political party which cooperated closely with all other component parties in the alliance in order to safeguard theirs and the country’s future.

Citing the Barisan Nasional (BN), of which he is its chairman, Najib said the coalition always made decisions based on consensus and practised the principle of moderation, without doing anything extreme.

“You think the opposition is a genuine partnership? Do you think Kit Siang (DAP adviser Lim Kit Siang) really like Mahathir (former prime minister Tun Dr  Mahathir Mohamad)? Do you think Mahathir really like Kit Siang?

“Mahathir had once openly said that Kit Siang was a racist, was anti-Malay and anti-Islam, and Kit Siang had said that Mahathir was a dictator and more. To me, this is not balanced politics. How can we trust a political pact that is based on hypocrisy?” he said when opening the MCA 63rd Annual General Assembly at Wisma MCA, here, yesterday.

The prime minister said the U-turn politics being practised by the opposition pact were not only confusing the people, but also themselves.

“How many times (they have practised) this politics of U-turns, I don’t know. I think they’ve lost direction because already so many U-turns. Not only the public are confused. They themselves are confused. There is no sense of direction.”

Najib said as prime minister, he always reminded himself to be a prime minister for all Malaysians.

However, he added, he needed the people’s support including the Chinese community’s.

In this regard, Najib expressed his appreciation to the Chinese community for giving their support to BN candidates, including in the Sarawak state election, and Kuala Kangsar and Sungai Besar parliamentary seat by-elections.

Najib said the government would cooperate with MCA to increase the number of national-type Chinese schools (SJK).

“About Chinese schools, don’t worry, I will work with MCA to increase the SJK. If you don’t believe me, ask Tan Sri Lim Ah Lek. When I was Education Minister I was working with him. He was deputy president of MCA (at the time). We resolved several relocations of Chinese schools,” he said.

Najib also congratulated MCA president Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai and the whole MCA leadership for having successfully closed ranks after the existence of factions within the party in the past.

“If last time, entering this hall (Dewan San Choon), I heard of team A and team B, and some even said there was team C, yesterday there is only 1MCA. So, I can sleep soundly tonight as the list of the general election candidates from MCA would be based on the premise of best possible candidate for a constituency. This is a process said to be the rejuvenation of MCA. We want to restore MCA’s image in the eye of the public, the voters and the Chinese community in Malaysia,” he said.

In his speech, Najib also shared the success of his recent official visit to China, describing it as the highest honour for the Malaysian government.

“We made exceptional achievements during the visit to China recently. The results were the signing of 14 agreements on iconic and mega projects worth RM144 billion between companies from Malaysia and China.

“When we’ve succeeded in obtaining investments, the opposition protested, claiming we’re selling the country’s sovereignty.

“What’s the difference between investments from China and from Japan or the United States? If Dr Mahathir had asked us to look East; to look at Japan and Korea, I am also looking East, but only adding one more country, China, which is the biggest economy in the world,” he said.

On another note, Najib said he had instructed members of the Malaysian delegation in that visit to China to raise the issue of swiftlet’s nests and to immediately implement the export of the bird’s nests that had not been cleaned and those that had been processed, to China. —Bernama