‘BN was in denial mode, ignored people’s hardship’

FORMER finance minister Tun Daim Zainuddin says the rejection of PKR vicepresident Tian Chua’s nomination, redelineation of electoral boundaries, grouses over goods and services tax (GST), issues regarding postal votes and polling were the last straws that broke Barisan Nasional’s (BN) back.

He said the BN, afflicted with the “disease of denial”, ignored the hardship brought on by inflation as a result of the implementation of GST.

On top of that, it resorted to money politics to bribe the people during the general election, and made a fool of the electorate, he said during an interview with China Press published yesterday.

“They (BN leaders) have been in power for much too long, thinking that they could not be defeated.

“Indeed, they are well organised, well funded and have the experience, but they did not care about the people, whose grouses fell on deaf ears. They thought the people were stupid. The prices of goods had been going up but they said that in the last eight years, the inflation rate was a mere 3%, which the people find laughable.”

Daim, who was appointed to the Team of Eminent Persons by Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad on Saturday, pointed out that during the election campaign, the huge crowds at Pakatan Harapan’s (PH) ceramah were an indication of the winds of change. But BN dismissed it, saying PH had been ferrying bus-loads of people to the venues.

“They (BN leaders) are the ones doing it (ferrying ‘supporters’ to its ceramah).”

He said Malaysians overseas flew home, from as far as London, to vote, indicating their extreme dissatisfaction with the previous BN government.

The number of slip-ups in postal voting showed that the BN government tried to cheat, he added.