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Bloomberg
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak called on his party to stay united ahead of a potential election within months, urging members to avoid complacency even as the opposition descends further into disarray.
Surrounded by key lieutenants on stage at a 71st anniversary celebration of his United Malays National Organisation, the premier attacked detractors including former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, saying they will fail in their attempts to topple UMNO.
“Unlike the opposition, we are one family and we strive for the same vision,” Najib told tens of thousands of supporters at a stadium near the capital Kuala Lumpur. “We will defend the party even if we have to shed blood doing so.”
Najib is striving to put behind him a political funding scandal that tainted much of his second term as premier. The Barisan Nasional coalition led by UMNO is seeking to extend 60 years of uninterrupted rule in elections that must be held by mid-2018. He’s being helped by a group of opposition parties that are squabbling among themselves and have competed against each other in smaller polls.
The main Islamic opposition party known as PAS had already shown interest in backing Najib on some policies.