THERE was a prolonged wayang kulit (shadow play) to topple Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim as the 10th Prime Minister (PMX) but this has come to an end.
It is therefore time to replace the Malay Narrative which has produced five Prime Ministers in five years with a Malaysian Narrative to unite the country, to reverse the national decline in the last quarter of a century and to make Malaysia a great world-class nation.
The Malay Narrative started with allegations that DAP was behind the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government move in 2018 to ratify the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) and the Rome Statute.
But there was no admission or remorse although the main protagonists who made these allegations like PAS president Tan Sri Hadi Awang now knew that such allegations were untrue and baseless.
There continue to be a new spate of wild, preposterous and completely baseless allegations like I am related to the Malayan Communist Party secretary-general Chin Peng and the founding premier of Singapore Lee Kuan Yew.
Like other countries all over the world, Malaysia must find a way to counter the deluges of lies, falsehoods, fake news, dis-information and mis-information in the Age of Information if we are not to end up as a divided, failed and kleptocratic state.
Aftermath of wayang kulit
The first step is to go back to the original nation-building principles of the founding fathers of the nation like Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Razak Hussein, Tun Dr. Ismail Abdul Rahman, Tun Hussein Onn, Tun Tan Siew Sin and Tun V. T. Sambanthan who accepted Malaysia as a multi-racial, multi-religious and multi-cultural nation and who were the first to champion the Malaysian Narrative.
This is in stark contrast to the Malay Narrative, the Chinese Narrative, the Indian Narrative, the Dayak Narrative or the Kadazan Narrative as entrenched in the Federal Constitution, the Rukun Negara or even the Vision 2020 with its concept of Bangsa Malaysia and the nine strategic challenges.
The Sheraton Move political conspiracy which toppled an elected government and ushered in two backdoor PMs have seen the country plunging from one crisis to a more serious national crisis.
With the end of the wayang kulit to topple Anwar Ibrahim as PMX, the next 12 months will prove to be a very important period in the history of Malaysia as to whether we can return to the original nation-building principles of the nation’s founding fathers to make Malaysia a united, competitive, great and world-class nation. – Jan 29, 2024
Retired DAP supremo Tan Sri Lim Kit Siang was Malaysia’s longest serving opposition leader of 29 years on three separate occasions.
The views expressed are solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Focus Malaysia.
Main pic credit: Dewan Budaya
