Pakatan will unite-and-rule the country, not divide-and-rule like BN

Kit Siang

Malaysia Chronicle

Pakatan Rakyat launched its Sabah secretariat on the eve of Malaysia Day, promising to unite-and-rule the country and not divide-and-rule as its leaders claim the current federal government was now doing.

“What Malaysians are seeing is the colonial tactics of “divide and rule” of the races in the country taken over by Umno and acquiesced by the other subservient Barisan Nasional component parties being practised at the most opportunistic and irresponsible degree,” DAP adviser Lim Kit Siang said during a speech in Kota Kinabalu on Wednesday night.

“In contrast, Pakatan Rakyat formed by PKR, PAS and DAP is offering a completely different formula of nation-building and governance based on “unite and rule” – to unite the various races, religions, cultures and regions in the country as one national identity to fulfill Malaysia’s potential for greatness which we have lost along the way in the past five decades of Barisan Nasional stewardship.”
Both BN and Pakatan are gearing for national polls expected to be held way before the 2013 deadline, with pundits predicting it will take place towards the end of 2011. Prime Minister Najib Razak was also in Sabah, in Sandakan, promising to” bring about a great change to our beloved Malaysia”.

However, Kit Siang poured scorn on the PM’s promise to curb extremism, which Najib had said he was saddened by and conceded was a stumbling block to national progress.

“Najib’s job as Prime Minister is not just to express sadness at the rise of extremism but to provide leadership to stamp out racial bigotry and religious extremism especially when they come from UMNO and allied or outsourced groups,” Kit Siang said.

“There can be no question that the rhetoric of race and religion had reached an unprecedented level in the past 17 months since he took over the helm of federal government, and what compounded the problem was that the racial bigotry and religious extremism were all coming from one direction – UMNO and its allied or outsourced groups, raising the fundamental question whether Najib has the political will and leadership to stand up and be counted to stamp out extremism coming from his own camps.”