It’s hard for Barisan Nasional members, especially the party’s former chairperson, Dato’ Seri Najib Razak, to accept the shocking loss during GE14, mainly because the party had been ruling Malaysia for over six decades ever since the country’s independence.
The loss was too much for Najib to handle that he reportedly resorted to calling his jailed rival, Anwar Ibrahim. In an interview with Reuters, Anwar said he had received two phone calls from Najib and after the second call, the former prime minister was completely “shattered”.
Source: Malay Mail
“When he called on the night of the election, I advised him as a friend to concede and move on,” Anwar said.
He also advised the former premier to issue a statement at once instead of delaying it and risk being misunderstood as trying to play dirty. However, Najib turned a deaf ear to Anwar’s advice and said nothing despite Pakatan Harapan already winning enough seats to form a new government.
In case you fell asleep while waiting for the Election Commission to announce the result on election night (9th May), Najib cancelled the press conference at PWTC and only showed up on the following day (10th May).
Even then, he said that no one party had a simple majority and that it was up to the King of Malaysia to decide who should form the federal government.
“He was just very evasive… he refused to concede early,” Anwar added.
Source: Reuters
During election night, Najib was thinking hard about who he should call for consultation and sage advice. One thing for sure is that Najib did not offer the PKR de facto leader a deal in any “serious manner”.
“Even if he had referred to that (a deal), I would have just ignored… I was just listening to him. After the second call, he was totally shattered,” Anwar said.
Najib has definitely been having a hard time post-general election, especially with the recent police raid in his home. Let’s hope he can stay strong to provide his full cooperation to the police investigation!
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