KUALA LUMPUR, April 3 — Perkasa, seen by some as the conscience of Umno, is holding Datuk Seri Najib Razak (picture) to ransom for his liberal policies and 1 Malaysia platform, opposition leaders say.
They say Perkasa’s popularity with right-wing Malays is a reminder to the prime minister to cut back his reformist zeal and pander to the “not so extreme” rights group as he had described them in an interview aired by the Al-Jazeera satellite news channel last night.
“Nobody is surprised by Najib’s defence of Perkasa. To many, it is seen as such that Perkasa is holding Najib and his 1 Malaysia concept to ransom,” DAP stalwart Lim Kit Siang told The Malaysian Insider today.
“The question that all Malaysians want answered now is whether Najib plans to stick by his concept and take middle ground or succumb to the pressures of Perkasa,” he asked.
The Ipoh Timur MP accused Najib of procrastinating since he came into office a year ago and blamed Perkasa as one of the main reasons behind the policy delays.
“It is a crucial task now for him to see whether his 1 Malaysia, his New Economic Model, is going to be a meaningful and a major transformation progress for the country,” he said.
When asked if he felt Najib could afford to ignore Perkasa’s cry for the protection of Malay rights in the NEM, Lim said, “This is Malaysia in 2010. This is not Malaysia 40 or 50 years ago. It is time. The NEM has already documented the economic decline and the stagnation of the country.
“In fact, the NEM says there is no option; time is of the essence and that the nation cannot wait.”
In his speech earlier this week on the NEM, Najib had spoken of the need to roll back affirmative action policies which encouraged rent-seeking and patronage and claimed that in the NEM, affirmative action would be needs-based and not race-based.
Perkasa, which has the patronage of former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, has been fighting for the present affirmative action policies to be maintained, citing fears that Malay rights would be sidelined in the government’s more liberal policies.
Lim said that Najib needed to be bold and not allow himself to be bound by the wishes of a single group.
“Why not? I think he can indeed shore up more support for himself if he is brave enough to show he is a statesman and that he is committed and able to stand the test of time, rather than to just be a Prime Minister who mouths off slogans like the previous ones,” he said.
PKR’s strategic director Chua Tian Chang took his criticism of Najib’s defence of Perkasa one step further by suggesting that the right-wing Malay rights group was really the brainchild of the Prime Minister.
“It could be one of two things actually. For one, you can see that Perkasa is holding the ideological ground of Umno while Najib’s 1 Malaysia is the Machiavellian plan to attract external Umno votes.
“So when Perkasa came out in contradiction and is holding the very core values of Umno, Najib is in an awkward position. He cannot reject Umno’s core values,” he told The Malaysian Insider.
He said that the other possibility was that Najib and Perkasa were playing “a game” together, at the expense of the people.
“Perkasa holds the Malay ground so it will always help to deliver support back to Umno eventually by warning the Malays that they need to be united or risk losing all to the Pakatan Rakyat.
“So Najib is crusading on one side to gain support and at the same time, he is getting support from the other groups... it is just a part of the strategy to cover more ground,” he said.
If this were truly the case, said Chua, then it showed that Najib was not sincere in transforming Malaysia.
“It is similar to what the deputy prime minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said about being Malay first and Malaysian next. He is saying that not because he is truly committed to the Malay identity because I can respect that but he is saying it because he claims that he cannot say he is Malaysian first or he would risk being shunned by the Malays.
“It is the same argument here... he is designing it such that he can cover lost ground in Malay extremist support,” he said.
The Malaysian Insider
03/04/10
They say Perkasa’s popularity with right-wing Malays is a reminder to the prime minister to cut back his reformist zeal and pander to the “not so extreme” rights group as he had described them in an interview aired by the Al-Jazeera satellite news channel last night.
“Nobody is surprised by Najib’s defence of Perkasa. To many, it is seen as such that Perkasa is holding Najib and his 1 Malaysia concept to ransom,” DAP stalwart Lim Kit Siang told The Malaysian Insider today.
“The question that all Malaysians want answered now is whether Najib plans to stick by his concept and take middle ground or succumb to the pressures of Perkasa,” he asked.
The Ipoh Timur MP accused Najib of procrastinating since he came into office a year ago and blamed Perkasa as one of the main reasons behind the policy delays.
“It is a crucial task now for him to see whether his 1 Malaysia, his New Economic Model, is going to be a meaningful and a major transformation progress for the country,” he said.
When asked if he felt Najib could afford to ignore Perkasa’s cry for the protection of Malay rights in the NEM, Lim said, “This is Malaysia in 2010. This is not Malaysia 40 or 50 years ago. It is time. The NEM has already documented the economic decline and the stagnation of the country.
“In fact, the NEM says there is no option; time is of the essence and that the nation cannot wait.”
In his speech earlier this week on the NEM, Najib had spoken of the need to roll back affirmative action policies which encouraged rent-seeking and patronage and claimed that in the NEM, affirmative action would be needs-based and not race-based.
Perkasa, which has the patronage of former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, has been fighting for the present affirmative action policies to be maintained, citing fears that Malay rights would be sidelined in the government’s more liberal policies.
Lim said that Najib needed to be bold and not allow himself to be bound by the wishes of a single group.
“Why not? I think he can indeed shore up more support for himself if he is brave enough to show he is a statesman and that he is committed and able to stand the test of time, rather than to just be a Prime Minister who mouths off slogans like the previous ones,” he said.
PKR’s strategic director Chua Tian Chang took his criticism of Najib’s defence of Perkasa one step further by suggesting that the right-wing Malay rights group was really the brainchild of the Prime Minister.
“It could be one of two things actually. For one, you can see that Perkasa is holding the ideological ground of Umno while Najib’s 1 Malaysia is the Machiavellian plan to attract external Umno votes.
“So when Perkasa came out in contradiction and is holding the very core values of Umno, Najib is in an awkward position. He cannot reject Umno’s core values,” he told The Malaysian Insider.
He said that the other possibility was that Najib and Perkasa were playing “a game” together, at the expense of the people.
“Perkasa holds the Malay ground so it will always help to deliver support back to Umno eventually by warning the Malays that they need to be united or risk losing all to the Pakatan Rakyat.
“So Najib is crusading on one side to gain support and at the same time, he is getting support from the other groups... it is just a part of the strategy to cover more ground,” he said.
If this were truly the case, said Chua, then it showed that Najib was not sincere in transforming Malaysia.
“It is similar to what the deputy prime minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said about being Malay first and Malaysian next. He is saying that not because he is truly committed to the Malay identity because I can respect that but he is saying it because he claims that he cannot say he is Malaysian first or he would risk being shunned by the Malays.
“It is the same argument here... he is designing it such that he can cover lost ground in Malay extremist support,” he said.
The Malaysian Insider
03/04/10
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