A record 10,000 crowd came to hear a resurgent Anwar Ibrahim vow an end to racial and economic discrimination at a rally in Miri on Friday night, promising to bring down petrol prices the very next day after capturing federal power.
Buoyed by a stunning 10-point manifesto unveiled by the Pakatan Rakyat earlier on Friday, the mixed crowd of Iban, Dayak, Bidayuh, Chinese, Malays and Melanau listened raptly as the Malaysian Opposition Leader reiterated his challenge to Prime Minister Najib Razak and Sarawak Chief Minister Taib Mahmud to an open debate on the country's festering economic wounds.
"This is the time, this is the year our prayers to God will be answered. They can make fun but they will bankrupt the country. Najib says if Anwar rules, Malaysia will bankrupt but if we win this election, we will win Putrajaya," Anwar said in Senadin (scroll below to see footage of the crowd size).
"When that day comes, besok (the next day) in the name of the people, the Kerajaan Rakyat Malaysia, I will announce with immediate effect, I will reduce the price of petrol. If Najib or Taib wants to challenge, accept my debate and I will explain why, how this is possible.
"If we don't steal, nothing to worry. If we don't take money (corruptly), why isn't this possible. And you can check when I was deputy prime minister and finance minister, not one inch of Sarawak land or timber did I take. They can check, I challenge them."
Racism to hide and justify corruption
Anwar also condemned Najib for perpetuating the racist policies handed down through the decades and especially reinforced during the era of former premier Mahathir Mohamad.
He used simple examples to explain why the rich kept getting richer in Malaysia and how the low income people continue to be neglected.
Despite Malaysia's and in particular Sarawak's vast natural resources, more than 40 per cent of the people live at or near to the minimum income level. Of these, 96 per cent are Malays, although a special New Economic Policy has been installed to redistribute income since 1971.
As for Sarawak, it remains the poorest state despite 30-years of Taib's rule, and experts have long questioned where the money from the state's huge petroleum reserves and the harvesting of vast tracts of forests has disappeared to.
Yet despite a wealth of documentary evidence, Najib's federal government has refused to investigate Taib for alleged corruption and benefiting himself, his family and cronies with state projects and deals worth billions of ringgit.
"They condemn us. In Penang, they say we are the tools of the Chinese because of DAP. In Perak, they toppled our Mentri Besar Nizar (Jamaluddin). Najib and Rosmah toppled Nizar because we gave land to the Chinese," Anwar said.
"In Parliament, Umno reps tell me, we have to stop this Dato Seri, we have to 'jaga' (protect) the Malays. I ask them back, you mean we can't give land to the Chinese? No, we have to save the Malays. Wow, how stupid, they sound like Umno-Perkasa. Lying and stupid. They keep insisting, so I tell them - but you gave 'satu gunung' (one whole hill) to Tan Sri Lim Goh Tong. They say, that was in the past. What about Bukit Tinggi then, you gave that to Vincent Tan and not long ago. The point is, they only want to give to the Chinese towkays but not ordinary Chinese. The ordinary Chinese get very little benefit.
"But I am Muslim, trained and taught to be just. When I was small just 6 or 7 years old, in Bukit Mertajam, there are a lot of nutmeg trees. I plucked some and took home. My grandma asked me, did you pay for it. I said no. Did you ask permission? No. She said, then it is stealing. And she made me take the nutmegs back." - Malaysia Chronicle
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