Lim Kit Siang has claimed that Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak is pretending to feel confident about his prospects in the next general election.

The DAP veteran was responding to a news report which claimed that Najib had told his Umno division chiefs last night that the majority of the 1.6 million civil servants are returning to support BN.

“When and how long did Najib and the BN government lose the support of the majority of the 1.6 million civil servants?” asked Lim in a statement.

He also claimed that the prime minister is “whistling in the dark” for three reasons.

“Najib has lost the support of the majority of Malays in the country. Najib has lost the support of the majority of the 1.6 million civil servants in the country.

“Never before in Umno history has an Umno president like Najib lost the support of a higher percentage of Umno members – and we are talking about 3.5 million Umno members,” he added in a statement.

Lim claimed that the prime minister would not be able to recover support from these three sectors by instructing his aide to unleash personal and scurrilous attacks on Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Pakatan Harapan leaders.

The DAP leader was commenting on Najib's press aide Tengku Sariffuddin Tengku Ahmad claiming that while Mahathir is the chairperson of Harapan and considers himself the top dog in the coalition, it is DAP and Lim who would call the shots.

Sariffuddin said this was because DAP had the most number of parliament seats compared to the other three parties in the coalition.

As the battle rages for Malay votes, the opposition coalition often finds itself on the defensive against claims that Harapan is being led by the predominantly Chinese DAP, whom Umno accuses of being a threat to the special position of the Malays and Islam.

Lim and other DAP leaders have repeatedly denied this accusation, and the party has also been roping in more Malay members into its ranks.

Harapan is hoping that Mahathir and his Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) would be able to generate a Malay tsunami in the next polls.

Meanwhile, The Malaysian Insight, quoting a source, claimed that Najib was briefed on the civil servants' growing support during a meeting at the Umno retreat centre in Janda Baik, Pahang, two weekends ago.

“The Janda Baik meeting was to explore ways to ensure support returns from the civil servants. And what can be done if they don’t vote for the government,” said the source.

Support from the civil servants is crucial for BN to maintain its hold on power.