What stability without majority Malay support, PN asks Anwar

Selangor Perikatan Nasional (PN) secretary Dr Afif Bahardin today scoffed at Anwar Ibrahim's statement on political stability in the aftermath of the Aug 12 state elections, saying the prime minister had lost the confidence of the majority of Malay voters. 

Afif, who won the contest for the Taman Medan state seat, said the elections revealed a further drop in Malay support for the Pakatan Harapan (PH)-Barisan Nasional (BN) alliance, while PN had gained 73% of the community's support. 

"How can the prime minister claim political stability when he has clearly lost the vote and confidence of the majority of the Malays?

"No prime minister since Merdeka has had less Malay support than Anwar Ibrahim. This is unprecedented, and his own doing. 

"Instead of coming up with concrete and effective plans to deal with the people’s economic woes, Anwar and his cohorts in PH spent their time abusing their opponents as 'pengkhianat'. This obviously did not strike a chord with voters, who are uninterested in Anwar and PH’s petty and self-centred enmities," he said. 

Anwar was reported as saying yesterday that his coalition government had succeeded in maintaining power and political stability at the state elections. 

In an interview with CNBC, he also said that PH and its partners still held "a very comfortable" two-thirds majority in Parliament. 

Afif however described Anwar's remarks as "hollow, delusional and laughable".

He also hit out at descriptions of Malay voters as "extremists" and part of a "green wave", calling these "blatantly untrue". 

"Malay voters actually were sending a message to PH-BN about their concern for cost of living and economic worries. 

"They also showed through the ballot box their disgust for Anwar’s unholy coupling with the corruption-tainted Umno president, Ahmad Zahid Hamidi. 

"It is time for Anwar and PH-BN to stop the endless attempts to portray that all is well in their tottering government which is without Malay support. Instead, they should attempt to govern effectively and alleviate the people's mounting economic woes," he said.