Following the recent defections by several army veterans to the opposition coalition, BN deputy chief Muhyiddin Yassin today summoned the support of the Ex-Army Association of Malaysia (PBTM) for the ruling coalition.

NONE The caretaker deputy prime minister spent about 45 minutes speaking to a crowd of 5,000 army veterans who were bused in from around the country, taking pains to train his guns on the opposition coalition and its manifesto.

However, Muhyiddin said that his speech was not part of the BNs campaigning.

"This is not campaigning. I don't have to campaign here, because I know you support us. But I need you to pass this message on to Malaysians," he urged the vociferous crowd at the Putra World Trade Center (PWTC) today.

Several high profile army veterans recently joined Pakatan Rakyat and some have been fielded in crucial parliamentary seats, including Johor Bahru and Pasir Gudang in Johor and in Lumut in Perak.

Many of the veterans who have joined Pakatan have cited their disillusionment with the government's inability to take care of the welfare of army veterans as one of the key reasons for joining the opposition.

'Pakatan's pledges will bankrupt nation'

Muhyiddin then spent time delving into the details of the Pakatan manifesto, presenting BN arguments about how promises of oil price reductions and the abolition of PTPTN higher education leans and tolls would bankrupt the nation.

"When we attained independence, our poverty rate was 67 percent but now it is only three  percent. Our income per capita was US$800 and now it is US$10,000," he said.

Muhyiddin went on to ask the crowd if they believed the BN government would be able to deliver on its Vision 2020 pledge, to which the crowd responded with a resounding "Yes!"

"Why do you want to Ubah? We have peace and stability, changing that only means chaos," he said, before adding that the opposition coalition was "sleeping on the same pillow, but with different dreams".

NONE Known to be a hardliner in Umno, Muhyiddin called on the veterans to be patriotic by defending the country's "religion and moral etiquette".

"We must reject lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender, we must reject liberalism, and we must reject pluralism," he said, while stressing on the need to help the Malay community so that their economic capacities matched that of the other races in the country.

"The opposition is now afraid. People have risen up to show their support for BN," he added.

PBTM president Admiral (Rtd) Mohd Anwar Mohd Nor said the BN government had always been very caring and aware of the needs of the veterans.

"The little shortcomings will be addressed once the government is given a new mandate," Mohd Anwar said.

He said that PBTM had deliberately titled the gathering of army veterans as “Patriotic Echo” (Gema Patriotik) because "certain parties" had disrupted the sense of patriotism among veterans for "personal political gains".