By Patrick Lee - Free Malaysia TodayKUALA LUMPUR: Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak is a desperate man struggling to contain the internal strife in Barisan Nasional, said Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim today.
He said that Najib's vitriolic attack on Pakatan Rakyat was proof of this.
"He wants to divert attention away from the internal problems and the corruption that is taking place in BN right now," he told reporters at the Parliament lobby.
According to Anwar, Najib's comments showed that there was a tussle in the ruling coalition, and the prime minister was “under siege” since it was not the latter's style to launch such verbal assaults.
Speaking at the BN convention yesterday, Najib had described Pakatan Rakyat as an evil coalition with trecherous and anti-national leaders.
He accused Anwar, the PKR de facto leader, of practicing nepotism since the latter's wife was the party president and the couple's daughter, the newly elected vice president.
The premier called DAP a “father and son dominated” Chinese chauvinist party and berated PAS for sacrificing its Islamic ideals.
'He is PM because of his father'
Meanwhile, Anwar asked if fighting against corruption was considered being anti-national.
“Was yesterday's peaceful protest (against water privatisation) a sign of anti-nationalism?” he asked, referring to the protest which saw the police using tear gas and water cannons to disperse the crowd.
“If Najib is really a responsible leader, he should give space to the opposition to answer. But he shouts at us and doesn't give us space. But here is a PM who is using the police, the judiciary and the entire media to launch this severe personal attack against me and Pakatan leaders,” he said.
Anwar also found it strange that Najib attacked him over nepotism, and said that the PM and his own family had benefited from their government positions.
"This comes from a person who rose because his father was PM, and has appointed his cousin (Hishammuddin Hussein) as the home minister," he said.
He added that Najib's rise to power was not the same as DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng who had to work up the ranks.
“He (Najib) is there simply because he is the (former) PM's son,” Anwar said.
Anwar also criticised Umno leaders for playing the race card to further their political power, while keeping much of the country's wealth for themselves.
“I detest the idea of using the race card to appeal to the Malays and to make poor workers and rubber tappers feel that they are tuan (masters) when the few very rich Malays squander and amass wealth in the billions,” he said.
Be wary of the 'boomerang' effect
Commenting on Najib's scathing speech, DAP's Lim said such attacks could only “boomerang” on him and BN.
He added that Najib was guilty of three - “delusion, amnesia and arrogance” - of the four political diseases which the premier had warned would crush BN.
Lim said if Najib wanted his 1Malaysia concept to be taken seriously, he should be mindful of Samuel Johnson’s dictum, “Patriotism is the last refuge of scoundrels.”
“He should not set the bad example of doubting the sincerity, bonafide or worse the patriotism of his political adversaries,” he added.
The DAP veteran challenged Najib to a series of live television debates between BN and Pakatan leaders on who was really “anti-national”, “evil”, “despicable” and “very dangerous”.
PAS vice-president Mahfuz Omar said that Najib's attacks indicated that Malaysians were more supportive of Pakatan than BN.
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