A JOHOR DAP committee member has rebutted UMNO Supreme Council member Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed for suggesting that Pakatan Harapan should publicly apologise to UMNO for decades of attacks on its former adversary turned government partner.
Rather, Dr Boo Cheng Hau said Barisan Nasional (BN)-UMNO should take on the responsibility itself for the “rampant mismanagement” of the country’s socioeconomic wellbeing and corruption caused during its tenure as a dominant ruling party in the past and apologise to all Malaysians.
Citing an analysis of the Mahkota by-election last Saturday, he noted that out of the 27,000 voter who had voted for Barisan Nasional’s (BN) candidate Syed Hussien Syed Abdullah, more than 14,000 voters had comprised Pakatan Harapan (PH) voters.
“BN-UMNO and the country’s socioeconomic ailments are like a severely ill diabetic patient with gangrenous toes that need amputation to salvage his life before sepsis occurs,” Dr Boo remarked in a statement on Tuesday (Oct 1).
“PH under the leadership of Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has taken painful reforms, similar to a painful amputation in surgery, that has saved not only UMNO but also the country from destruction.
“And hence, BN-UMNO should not only retract its demand for PH to apologise but instead it should express a full gratitude to PH, which is like a well-intent and competent surgeon who did the amputation of gangrenous toes and saved a severely ill diabetic patient.”
Further applying the diabetic patient analogy, Dr Boo contended that PH’s cooperation with BN-UMNO is conditional – that is, BN-UMNO has to be determined to reform itself and the country’s ailing institutions like a severely diabetic patient who is willing to abide by the doctor’s prescription, advice and strict diet.
“Otherwise, BN-UMNO would have to face the electorate’s verdict in the upcoming elections on its own,” he added.
Earlier, Nur Jazlan said that PH must realise that no single party in the unity government coalition could claim to be the main pillar of the alliance, following the outcome of Saturday’s election.
He called for PH to apologise to UMNO for the slander, accusations and negative perceptions of UMNO that PH created over the years, tarnishing the party’s image among voters.
Nur Jazlan also said that PH could forget about staying in power without the support of Malay votes that UMNO could bring.
In the Mahkota by-election, BN fielded an UMNO candidate, Syed Hussien, who was elected with a majority of 20,648 votes over his rival, Haizan Jaafar from Perikatan Nasional. – Oct 1, 2024
Main image: Facebook/Boo Cheng Hau
