Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi today said that opposition parties were envious of Barisan Nasional’s success in administering the country and commanding the support the people.

He said this why the ruling coalition has become the target for slanders by the opposition.

gerakan agm 061007 abdullah with koh and kerk Following the increasingly strong support for BN, he said those who were envious of the coalition had made up all kinds of stories so that supporters of its component parties would quarrel among themselves.

"They (opposition) make up various stories so that we are suspicious of each other which leads to chaos, quarrels and eventually we become weak," he was quoted as saying by Bernama .

Abdullah said the opposition spread lies saying that the Malays and the Chinese were not supporting each other and made use of the Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) to ask Malaysians not to support BN and MIC.

"The opposition parties hope that by making up these stories they can influence the people to support them when BN is divided," he added.

Abdullah said the opposition had been making wild allegations all this while using various ways but the people still supported BN.

"The opposition must realise why. They know, but pretend not to know although BN had led Malaysia to become the most developed country among the developing nations in the world," he said.

'We have achieved success'

Abdullah said the people realised that it was only through BN that political parties and minority groups in this country could work together.

"Who dares to say that his race is not developed or that they are always at the losing end ever since BN ruled the country more than 50 years?" asked the premier.

"Praise be to God that we have achieved success (in many areas). So who dares to say that his community's wealth and assets have not increased over the years?

"But success does not come easy while the country will never be peaceful if its people are plagued by suffering and hardship," he said.

"I have never said that we have done everything and that everything is perfect, but the situation in Malaysia has improved and the BN government will continue to implement welfare programmes," he added.

Abdullah said if the poverty level had been 10 percent previously, it had now gone down to 5.7 percent.

"We cannot deny that this is another success. If there are no more hardcore poor people and everything is alright, then we don't need the programme to eradicate poverty by 2010."

He stressed that the poverty-eradication programme covered all races in both rural and urban areas.

The government would continue with this programme for as long as there were poor people because human beings could turn agnostic due to abject poverty, he said.