Barisan Nasional (BN) now knows it is being sidelined by the people, PAS’s Datuk Nik Aziz Nik Mat said today as he linked an offer by a former government spokesman to the ruling coalition’s new consciousness post Election 2013.
The Islamist party’s spiritual advisor (picture) also questioned the sincerity of Tan Sri Zainuddin Maidin’s proposal that the DAP join the BN’s fold, pointing out his Pakatan Rakyat (PR) ally had previously been singled out for being a “chauvinist, communist party of belligerent infidels” bent on establishing a Christian state.
“Suddenly today the DAP is offered entry into BN?” Nik Aziz was quoted asking in the PAS-owned Harakah Daily, voicing his incredulity at the proposal.
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He pointed out that the BN, especially its anchor party Umno and its media, had kicked up a huge fuss and accused the DAP of pawning “Allah”, the Arabic word for god that many Muslim Malaysians regard as exclusive to their community.
Malay broadsheet, Utusan Malaysia, had sparked nationwide uproar when it carried a front-page report accusing the secular DAP of trying to set up a Christian theocracy in 2011, under the headline, “Malaysia negara Kristian? (Malaysia a Christian state?)”
It triggered another outrage in a recent report on May 7 with its banner headline asking “Apa lagi yang Cina mahu? (What else do the Chinese want?) suggesting the minority community was to blame for the BN’s dismal electoral score.
Nik Aziz said he was doubtful that the former information minister whom he noted was still loyal to Umno had issued such an offer, but said, “I count this as clear proof that BN is aware they are increasingly being sidelined by the people.”
The former Kelantan mentri besar suggested that it would be better for Umno to leave the BN and join the PR pact, which currently consists of PAS, DAP and PKR.
“Without realising, it is not a new branch they need to find but that old tree named BN that must be felled,” he said.
He added that the country’s biggest political party at 3.5 million members needed to reflect too that its struggle was outdated and warned that the party and BN would be discarded from national politics it is failed to accept the changes.
BN notched 133 out of 222 seats in the Dewan Rakyat, enough to form a simple majority government in last Sunday’s polls.
But it had lost the popular vote to the opposition PR, which had gained more seven more federal seats and strengthened its support in the cities, leading to a worrisome urban-rural divide that could hamper the country’s goal of joining the ranks of the world’s wealthy.
