Media statement by Lim Kit Siang in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday, 8^th May 2012: 

Will Najib live up to his pledge to make Malaysia “best democracy in the world” and concede defeat in a gentlemanly fashion like Sarkozy?

In the recent French presidential elections on Sunday, the incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy conceded defeat minutes after the polls closed, announcing that he had called the Socialist candidate Francois Hollande to wish him “good luck” as the country’s new leader.

The question that immediately occurred to Malaysians is whether Datuk Seri Najib Razak, who had declared that he wanted to make Malaysia “the best democracy in the world”, would concede defeat in a gentlemanly fashion like Sarkozy if this is the verdict of the voters in the next general elections.

Or will Najib stand by his deplorable speech at the UMNO General Assembly two years ago when he used the language of “crushed bodies, lives lost” for Umno to defend power at any cost in Putrajaya?

It is most deplorable that Najib has come out with the wild, irresponsible and baseless allegation that the Bersih 3.0 “sit-in” at Dataran Merdeka on April 28 was a coup attempt by the Opposition to topple the government.

It suggests that Najib has become quite paranoid as even to believe that there could be a coup by a gathering of peaceful Malaysians, although numbering in hundreds of thousands, united by a common cause for clean elections, who are at most armed with salt and water bottles to defend themselves against police tear gas and chemically-laced water cannon.

Najib owes Malaysians a clear accounting what he would do if the voters in the 13th general elections choose to change the Federal government in Putrajaya – whether he would accept the verdict of the voters like Sarkozy or whether he would revert to his UMNO General Assembly threat of “crushed bodies, lives lost” to defend UMNO power in Putrajaya at any cost?

How can Malaysia become the world’s best democracy when we cannot even qualify the first test of being a normal democratic country – where change of government through the ballot box is accepted as a normal event?

Malaysians want to know whether Najib would apologise and retract not only his wild and baseless allegation of Bersih 3.0 as a coup attempt to overthrow the government, but also his irresponsible speech at the 2010 UMNO General Assembly of “crushed bodies, lives lost” for UMNO to defend power at any cost in Putrajaya as it is totally inimical to his claim of wanting to make Malaysia the best democracy in the world.

*Lim Kit Siang, DAP Parliamentary Leader & MP for Ipoh Timor