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Speech by Lim Kit Siang at the 2,000-People
Gelang Patah DAP Parliamentary Liaison Committee dinner themed "Let Us
Move Towards Two Party System Together" held at SJK © Gua Kuang I(2)
Hall, Skudai, Johore on Friday, 21st
November 2008 at 10 pm:
Will Najib call snap election end-2009/
early 2010 to get full mandate and legitimacy as sixth Prime Minister
and will RAHMAN prophecy come true with Najib as last in the line of
UMNO Prime Ministers?
Will Datuk Seri Najib Razak call a snap
general election at the end of next year or early 2010 to get a full
mandate and legitimacy as the sixth Prime Minister and to put behind him
all the many serious allegations now hounding and haunting him?
This is an option Najib will have to give serious consideration when he
takes over as the sixth Prime Minister next March.
Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi dissolved Parliament in March 2004 four
months after taking over the premiership while Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad
dissolved Parliament in March 1982 eight months after becoming the
fourth Prime Minister, both scoring landslide victories in the "first
flush" of a new Prime Minister with the 2004 general election victory
the most unprecedented.
Will Najib take a leaf from Abdullah and Mahathir and plan for an early
snap general election when he takes over as Prime Minister next March,
whether end of next year or early 2010?
This is the first strategic decision Najib has to make as Prime
Minister, whether to craft a national euphoria when he assumes the
premiership and go for early polls whether end-2009 or early 2010 or
complete the bulk of the 12th Parliamentary term to hold the 13th
general election in 2011 or 2012.
Najib and his core advisers must now be weighing the pros and cons of
having early snap polls.
The arguments for early snap polls are the same reasons why Abdullah and
Mahathir chose the option – to take full advantage of the "honeymoon"
goodwill as well as the political euphoria that could be generated by a
new Prime Minister, which cannot be sustained if Najib completes the
full term of the present Parliament.
Furthermore, a convincing victory in an early polls will have the great
benefit of giving Najib the necessary legitimacy which he will lack when
he becomes Prime Minister in March, as unlike the other five Prime
Ministers, Najib will be starting his premiership hounded and haunted by
many serious allegations of impropriety raising grave questions about
his fitness for the high office.
There is however a great risk if Najib goes for an early poll option –
that he may suffer a major electoral setback, a possibility no more
unthinkable after the March 8 "political tsunami".
The most famous political prophecy in Malaysia, the RAHMAN prophecy, is
now making furious rounds in Malaysian political circles.
The RAHMAN prophecy on the first six Prime Ministers of Malaysia is
about to be proven completely true – starting with Tunku Abdul RAHMAN,
followed by Tun ABDUL Razak, Tun HUSSEIN Onn, Tun MAHATHIR Mohamad,
Datuk Seri ABDULLAH Badawi and Datuk Seri NAJIB Razak.
The questions that ensue are:
- Is Najib the last in the line of UMNO
Prime Ministers, with UMNO political hegemony and stranglehold
on Federal power broken after Najib?
- Will Najib be the
shortest-serving Prime Minister in Malaysia if he is defeated by
Pakatan Rakyat in a snap general election whether end-2009 or
early-2010?
Nobody can answer these questions until
probably next year but until then, they will bulk larger and larger in
the political dream and consciousness not only of Najib and UMNO leaders
but all Malaysians.
*
Lim
Kit Siang, DAP
Parliamentary leader & MP for Ipoh Timor
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