PARLIAMENT in the May-June meeting should lead the nation with a motion to save Malaysia by a reset and return to the original nation-building principles of a plural Malaysia to become a model state to the world of inter-ethnic, inter-religious, inter-cultural and inter-civilisational understanding, tolerance and harmony instead of ending up as a divided, failed and kleptocratic state.
I fully support the idea of the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim in Kuantan yesterday (April 18) that Malaysians have been offered an opportunity to save Malaysia which must not be missed or Malaysia will end up as a failed state.
When I was in school in the 1950s, we were educated to be Malayans and then Malaysians, and not just to be Malays, Chinese, Indians, Kadazans, and Dayaks.
We will continue to be Malays, Chinese, Indians, Kadazans and Dayaks, which is our ethnic identity. We will also continue to be Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus or Christians, which is our religious identity. But we have a common national identity as Malaysians.
But somehow, our schools have failed in this objective in the last six decades and we have not produced enough Malaysians first, who retain their ethnic, religious and cultural identities but are Malaysians first.
Malaysia can only be great if we can unite as Malaysians, combining the strength of our diverse ethnic, religious, linguistic, and cultural identities to make Malaysia a world-class nation for the good of the people and the world.
There was a time when it was an embarrassment to be a Malaysian in the world. We must make sure that this belong to the past and such an embarrassing situation will never return in the future.
We want all Malaysians, with their diverse ethnic, religious, linguistic, and cultural identities, to be Malaysian First rather than Malay, Chinese, Indian, Kadazan, Dayak first or Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, Christian first and Malaysians second.
This is what the Constitution and the Rukun Negara principles taught us.
Can we reset and return to these nation-building principles for a plural Malaysia, which received support from the first three Prime Ministers of Malaysia, who were also UMNO presidents – Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Razak Hussein and Tun Hussein Onn? — April 19, 2023
Veteran lawmaker and retired DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang is the incumbent MP for Iskandar Puteri.
The views expressed are solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Focus Malaysia.
