Najib should stop shying away from a debate with Anwar and agree to have one within a fortnight

At the 44th Gerakan national delegates conference in Kuala Lumpur today, the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak made two remarkable statements, viz:

• That the Pakatan Rakyat’s Buku Jingga is not worth the paper it is written on; and

• That Pakatan Rakyat is not a credible alternative to Barisan Nasional.

Both assertions are easily disposed of, viz:

Firstly, if PR’s Buku Jingga is not worth the paper it is written on, then why is Najib shying away from a public debate with Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim which would give him the opportunity to tear both Anwar and PR’s Buku Jingga “to pieces”?

Secondly, if Pakatan Rakyat is not a credible alternative to BN, why he keeps postponing calling for the 13th General Election, keeping the country on an election-mode for the longest period under any Malaysian Prime Minister – even to the extent of gaining the dubious record of being the Prime Minister without an elected mandate of his own for the longest period when compared to all the previous four Prime Ministers after Tunku Abdul Rahman, including his father Tun Razak, Tun Hussein Onn, Tun Mahathir and Tun Abdullah?

I am sure Najib is fully conscious of such a dubious record and given a choice, would not want to have it cited in his c.v. that he is the PM without an elected mandate of his own for the longest period.

But what he feared most is not be known as the Prime Minister without an elected mandate of his own for the longest period, but to end up as the last UMNO Prime Minister in Malaysia!

As a result, his survival instincts have got the better of him and he is still agonizing over the decision as to when is the best time to hold the 13 General Election, despite two election budgets, two BR1M payments and all the bragging about going onto the offensive and flaying the PR as not a credible alternative to BN and the PR’s Buku Jingga as not worth the paper it is written on.

Najib should tell it to the marines unless he is prepared to stop shying away from a public debate with Anwar and agree to have one within a fortnight, and to forthwith dissolve Parliament and call for the 13th general election to secure his own mandate as Prime Minister.