April 10, 2011
Najib (centre) greets people during a walkabout at the Padungan market, April 7, 2011. — Picture by Choo Choy May
SUNGAI BULOH, April 10 — Datuk Seri Najib Razak dismissed today the notion that his spending a record six days in Sarawak for the upcoming state election was a desperate move to defend the hornbill state, saying he was merely doing his job. The Malaysian Insider earlier reported that the prime minister will go on the stump for Barisan Nasional (BN) in Sarawak for six days from today until Friday.
Opposition leaders have tarred the whirlwind tour as a desperate move, adding that it was a clear sign the ruling pact was feeling the heat in its struggle to defend a state often referred to as its “fixed deposit”.
“I think it is my duty to go to the grassroots when there are by-elections or state elections. So what I have been doing is not unusual,” Najib told reporters after officiating the launch of the 1 Malaysia Cardiff City Junior Football League 2011 here today.
“And also Sarawak is such a huge state, there are 71 constituencies. So even if we want to go to a few areas, we will need a couple of days because of the distance.”
The BN chairman, who already dropped in for a one-day visit on Thursday, will now lead the coalition’s campaign for Sarawak and is scheduled for a hectic journey across the hornbill state beginning today, making lightning stops at numerous hotspots in Kuching, Miri and Sibu.
He will touch down at the Kuching International airport here at 7.40pm tonight before attending a meet-the-leaders session at the Kuching South City Council at 8.30pm.
BN is said to be facing tremendous pressure from Pakatan Rakyat (PR), particularly in the Chinese-majority constituencies where voters seem taken in by DAP’s “vote for change” agenda.
In the capital city here as well as in Sibu and Miri, DAP’s rallies have been drawing crowds in the thousands, a rare occurrence in Sarawak where voters have been described as cautious and conservative.
Despite the opposition’s fierce campaign tactics, BN’s Sarawak-based parties appear to have gotten off on a lacklustre start in their quest to defend the state, employing the pact’s age-old playbook of organising formal meet-the-people functions and walkabouts graced by the presence of federal ministers.
BN’s campaign is also said to be bogged down by countless reports and allegations of corruption and abuse of power against its Sarawak chief of executive, Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud, the country’s longest-serving chief minister.
Ultimately, Najib is doing it for himself.
Why?
Reason being if BN wins handsomely in the Sarawak State Elections 2011, Najib will ride on high confidence into the the next GE and return to power as PM!
Najib not desperate for power?
BULLSHIT.
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