Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak (pictured) has called on his supporters to take to social media activists to defend his Barisan Nasional (BN) government.
“We have long been in defensive mode. Enough. It is now time to attack!” he wrote in a blog titled “2017 social media activists assembly” on najibrazak.com.
Najib said the election battlefields had moved from face-to-face debate to cyberspace.
He called on social activists to remember “basic principles” of the need to avoid internal feuds and to be committed to defending the BN government. He said followers needed to expand their cyber network so that messages were delivered more widely.
He referred to previous general elections and what he called the opposition’s dissemination of “false news that we were bringing in voters from Bangladesh to vote and that we created blackouts in certain places to manipulate votes”.
Japan has praised Malaysia for successfully bringing home nine nationals who were stranded in North Korea.
Najib reportedly spoke to Japanese ambassador to Malaysia, Dr Makio Miyagawa, during Crown Prince Naruhito’s official visit.
The scandal-hit prime minister said Japan had repeatedly tried unsuccessfully to get its citizens released from North Korea.
“The ambassador told me there were over 100 Japanese who had been kidnapped by North Korea in the 1970s and ’80s. They have no idea what happened to their nationals.
“They have negotiated hundreds of times but bore no results.
“The Japanese ambassador salutes Malaysia. We managed to bring [them] home,” the embattled premier said.
The murder of Kim Jong-nam, the half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, at Kuala Lumpur International Airport on February 13 led to a diplomatic crisis with Pyongyang.
Najib was speaking during the opening of the 600km East Coast Rail Link (ECRL) project serving Kemaman and Besut.
“I will leave for China next month as I was invited to attend a conference. One of the topics will be the ECRL project encompassing Pahang, Terengganu and Kelantan.
“These three states will enjoy the benefits…but Pekan is not in the picture.
“I did not divert [the ECRL] to Pekan although I am Pekan member of parliament.
“This was because I do this for the people. If we were to export, we can do so from Kemaman port as well as from Port Klang,” he said.
Najib said he hoped the ECRL project would bring a GDP boost to the three east coast states of 1.5 per cent.
Picture credit: Wikimedia
