Incorrect strategy cost BN votes.

Twice the finance minister and now a sought after political commentator, Tun Daim Zauniddin attributed the Barisan Nasional’s poor showing at the May 5 general election to incorrect strategy.

He told the China Press newspaper that Malaysia’ general election is a parliamentary election and not a presidential election, adding that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s advisers should be sacked.

“If you associate a vote for BN as a vote for him (Najib), then BN’s poorer results reflect on him too.

“This is a parliamentary election, not a presidential election. The PM’s advisers should be sacked,” he said.

And is Najib a lame duck prime minister and Umno president?

The following is the English transcript of the interview, which covered a wide variety of issues surrounding the outcome of the 13th GE, made available to this blog. I record my appreciation to the China Press for its superb effort and to Daim’s office.

The Day After

Q1: Tun, what was first in your mind when you first received the full election result? Did you expect it?

A: I wasn’t surprised. At around noon the feedback I got was that BN 141, DAP 38 but my own assessment was BN between 125 and 135 only.

Q2: Do you think this election was a fair one? Opposition parties and NGOs still accused BN of misuse the government facilities, and the problematic integrity of the electoral roll.

A: Of course it is fair. If it’s not fair how come in Penang and Selangor Pakatan improved on majorities and Federal BN get only 133. These accusations are not new. They said all these even before the elections. I’ve said earlier that they will be saying all these because they know they can’t get to Putrajaya.

Read my interviews before this, I said they will be proclaiming to world they would win and that if they don’t its because they have been robbed and therefore entitled to protest, incite people which is that they are doing now and they want people to go to streets. They want FRUs, water cannons and teargas then CNN, Al Jazeera, etc will be back and they are back in the news.

Anwar and Kit Siang are inviting police to arrest them. They want to be arrested. They are totally irresponsible. If you see the recent rallies and that majority of the participants are Chinese, what do you think will happen if one hot-headed Malay organisation wants to organise a counter rally? But Anwar and Kit Siang don’t mind, if there is another inter-racial incident, they would blame BN. If you are willing to sacrifice peace and stability for your ends, what kind of leadership is this?

They say they should be the rightful leaders of this country, yet they defy laws, defy the police, and they have no respect for, and undermine every institution of government which they say they should helm. What kind of leadership promotes lawlessness and anarchy? What message do you send and what lessons do you teach the young and the impressionable? Leadership comes with responsibility.

There are laws in this country. Go to court, of course, they say courts are not fair, yet these same courts have acquitted Anwar. Again when it’s convenient to them they go to the courts to sue and silence their detractors. They accept where they won and reject where they lost. They are selective. Karpal practises and appeals before this same court.

Be brave and honest. Accept the results. Karpal says he is happy with the results. PAS has accepted. Azmin is critical of Anwar’s refusal to accept the results and doing these rallies, but don’t read too much into his statements. It’s like an old married couple’s quarrel, one party merajuk (sulks) but in the end they are still together.

Anwar is already up to his tricks — putting out feelers to Barisan MPs. He is waiting after the Cabinet appointments for another round of his September 16.