RETIRED DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang is banking on the five constituencies that he had served during his political career that spanned 57 years “to be a strong base to preach the Malaysian Dream” thus enabling the country to become “a world-class great plural nation” come the Malaysian centennial celebration (year 2057).
He hopes that the five constituencies which he had represented as MP – Kota Melaka, Petaling (Selangor), Tanjong (Penang), Ipoh Timur (Perak) and Iskandar Puteri (Johor) – will showcase unity in diversity with everyone calling himself as “Malaysian First” regardless of ethnical background, place of origin (Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah or Sarawak) or creed.
Recall that Johor DAP chairman and Perling state assemblyman Liew Chin Tong will be contesting in Iskandar Puteri in which Kit Siang is the incumbent MP after the latter announced his retirement at the party’s national congress in March.
“Malaysia has potential to be among the best countries in the world as we are at the confluence of four great civilisations – Malay/Islamic, Chinese, Indian and Western – but we have not been able to leverage on their best values and virtues,” he said this during the DAP Iskandar Puteri dinner to announce the second batch of Johor candidates yesterday evening (Oct 30).
“We have lost our way in the last six decades of nation-building … we took a wrong turn in nation-building which instead of becoming a first-class great nation, we have become a second-class mediocre country which, if not checked, will deteriorate to become a third-class failed and rogue state like Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe in three or four decades’ time.”
As such development unfolds, Malaysia has lost out to Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea and Vietnam and unless the country bucks up, Malaysia will lose to more nations.
“In 1965, one Singapore dollar is equal to one Malaysian ringgit. Today, one Singapore dollar is equal to 3.345 Malaysian ringgit,” lamented veteran lawmaker.
“Our schools and universities were among the top ones in the world but they have deteriorated steadily with Malaysia in the bottom one-third of the countries in the world in international assessment of science and mathematics.”
He added: “If Malaysia is not save-able or not worth saving, then that is the end of the story. But Malaysia is still ‘save-able’ and worth saving. Malaysia has not reached the stage of a totally broken, divided and failed nation like Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe although we have fallen considerably from our expectations of a world-class great plural nation.” – Oct 31, 2022
Main photo credit: Lim Kit Siang Facebook
