Barisan Nasional deputy chief Najib Abdul Razak has stepped up his attacks against the opposition as he campaigned for the ruling coalition in the frontline state of Penang yesterday.

najib bn penang campaign 290208 greetings Najib - who was in neigbouring Kedah earlier yesterday - has hit out at PAS , pointing out the while the Islamic party’s symbol is the moon, the highest it could go was ‘the top of coconut trees’.

When he arrived in Penang’s mainland later in the evening, he has his sights set on the other two main opposition parties - DAP and PKR.

“They can’t even agree on a common logo - PAS is still playing with the moon, PKR is one eye closed, one eye opened.

najib bn penang campaign 290208 crowd “DAP has a rocket which has never been launched. It’s on the ground when we have already sent our astronaut, Dr Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor, to space,” he told a 500-odd crowd at a meeting with community leaders in Bagan Dalam, Butterworth, last night.

“He (Sheikh) was with me (earlier), but I didn’t bring him here tonight because he is more popular than me - everyone wants to take photo with him, so I decided not to bring him along,” Najib quipped.

permatang pauh parliamentary seat election results 180108 Apart from Bagan Dalam, the Umno No 2 also stopped over in Permatang Pauh to lend his support to the BN incumbents in the two state seats under the constituency who are facing a strong challenge from the opposition.

Permatang Pauh is currently held by PKR president Wan Azizah Wan Ismail. Two of the three state seats under Permatang Pauh - Seberang Jaya and Penanti - are held by Umno. PAS has Permatang Pasir , which is the Islamic party’s sole state seat in Penang.

Meanwhile, Bagan Dalam , which is held by MIC, is expected to see a sizable swing among its 22.3% Indian voters in favour of the opposition. Bagan Dalam is a state seat under Bagan where DAP leader Lim Guan Eng is fighting to make his parliamentary comeback.

The two areas were Najib’s eighth and ninth stop during a day-long cross-states campaign.

‘Parti Kurang Relevan’

Najib argued that the opposition has failed to emulate the BN’s power-sharing concept - which he described as a time-tested formula - and this was evident when they could not come out with a common election manifesto.

“PAS, DAP and PKR has their own manifesto. They are not ready yet to form government - they can only have an electoral understanding, nothing more than that,” he told the multi-racial crowd.

najib bn penang campaign 290208 fluster “BN has the winning formula for over 50 years - it will be so in this election and many, many elections to come,” he added to a resounding applause from the crowd.

Najib, who was accompanied by outgoing Penang chief minister Dr Koh Tsu Koon and several party candidates, called on the electorates to vote wisely on March 8 and “not to gamble their future away”.

He also described the opposition as “sharing the same bed but having different dreams”.

“PAS wants a theocratic Islamic state and DAP wants a completely different thing, which is a secular state - this is just like oil and water.

“Meanwhile, PKR stands for Parti Kurang Relevan (an irrelevant party) because they have only one seat,” he said, referring to Permatang Pauh.

Without naming names, Najib in an obvious reference to PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim slammed PKR for treating the Permatang Pauh seat like a family inheritance.

“This seat is like an inherited seat, from wife to husband or from the daughter to father,” he said.

Wan Azizah has earlier said she might step down to pave way for a by-election so that Anwar could contest for the seat should she retained it.

Najib: We want to win in style

Similarly, Najib also hit out at DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng, who is running in both parliament and state seats in Penang in the bid to make an electoral comeback.

najib bn penang campaign 290208 seated “When he is not ‘laku’ (popular), he will be parachuted elsewhere. After he failed in Malacca, he is parachuted to Penang this time, and if he failed, he will go to Perak.

“He’d just followed his father (Kit Siang), he is treating Penang as his second stop,” argued Najib, who himself contested the Pekan seat in Pahang after the death of his father, then prime minister Abdul Razak.

The Umno No 2 also publicly vowed to help his boss, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, to secure a handsome victory for the BN.

“We not only want to win, but we want to win in style,” he said.

MIC’s Bagan Dalam candidate PK Subbaiyah in his welcoming speech earlier told Najib: “Sir, your charm will bring us victory.”

najib bn penang campaign 290208 astronaut There was a slight commotion when 15-minute into the programme, a group of Malay youths suddenly appeared in about 50 motorbikes carrying BN party flags and parked next to the venue.

Earlier, Najib attended a carnival at Permatang Pasir.

Also present at the carnival were his wife, Rosmah Mansor, his banker brother Nazir, his cousin Umno Youth chief Hishammuddin Hussein, astronaut Sheikh and AirAsia chief executive officer Tony Fernandez.

Watch 5-min video of Najib in Penang