With GE15 race heating up, Zahid says voting against BN is damning Malaysia’s future

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 8 — Barisan Nasional chairman Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi claimed today that a vote for any of his coalition’s rivals in the 15th general election (GE15) would be choosing to doom the country.

On his Facebook page, the BN chairman and Umno president insisted only his coalition could secure Malaysia’s stability and prosperity.

“In conclusion, a vote for Pakatan Harapan (PH), Perikatan Nasional (PN), and Gerakan Tanah Air (GTA) is a vote for further destruction of Malaysia’s future,” he said.

Ahmad Zahid claimed that choosing Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin’s PN would effectively be voting for PH as the former previously reached out to the latter for a political cooperation, adding that Muhyiddin’s party appeared sad when this failed.

He further claimed it was not impossible that the two coalition would team up after the election to renew their pursuit of the “big tent” strategy.

“What a joke. To hell with your ‘big tent’ because BN will still be BN,” he said.

He then sought to portray DAP as the bogeyman for voters, saying any vote for the PH coalition would help put the primarily-Chinese party in control.

DAP was clearly the party behind the coalition’s policies, Ahmad Zahid claimed before suggesting that the rival party has been told to keep a lower profile now in order to mask its purported control.

“DAP seemed to have dominated the PH government that lasted 22 months,” he said, asserting that the party’s deputy ministers appeared more powerful than ministers from other PH components.

As for Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s GTA, he honed in on the former prime minister’s dismissal of the PH election manifesto as “not a bible” after winning the general election, to indicate the coalition could not be believed.

He also highlighted Dr Mahathir’s preference for austerity measures and penchant for accusing Malaysians of “laziness”.

Ahmad Zahid’s BN is in a tight race with PH and PN in the general election in which none is expected to win with a clear majority.

BN had initially been the favourites until the latest Merdeka Center pre-election poll showed that the coalition’s approval among voters has fallen further below the 2018 level when it was voted out of power for the first time in the country’s history.