THIS is a historic occasion for more than one reason. It is my first trip to Teluk Bahang. It is also the first time that I am speaking to the local MCA and UMNO leadership.
DAP and the Barisan Nasional (BN) have been political enemies for the past 50 years but this should not make us enemies at a personal level.
We however never expected to be cooperating and to be in the same coalition, helping each other.
It is fortunate that in the 15th General Election (GE15) of Nov 19, 2022, we did not end up with Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin or Tan Sri Hadi Awang as the Prime Minister (PM) but with Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim as the 10th PM and head of the Pakatan Harapan (PH)/BN/Sabah/Sarawak unity coalition government.
It took three UMNO PMs and 22 years from 1995 to drop from the inaugural Transparency International (TI) Corruption Perception Index (CP) 1995 ranking of 23 out of 41 countries to 62 out of 180 countries in 2017.
However, it took Muhyiddin 10 months from March 1 to Dec 31, 2020, as “backdoor” PM to drop from the 51st ranking in 2019 to the 62nd ranking in 2020 after he toppled the PH government in the infamous Sheraton Move political conspiracy.
In 2016, Muhyiddin asked me for DAP support for him to become PM but I told him that the DAP had committed itself to making Anwar the PM of Malaysia.
With his record on corruption when he was the “backdoor” PM, unconstitutionally suspending Parliament so that there is no good governance and no Parliamentary check-and-balance on the executive on corruption and abuses of power, Muhyiddin is not fit to become PM of a plural Malaysia.
It is also lucky that Hadi did not become the PM of Malaysia as he has proved to be the leading politician who used lies, falsehoods, fake news and hate speech the most and I am still waiting for him to substantiate his wild and preposterous allegations against me for being anti-Malay, anti-Islam, anti-Rulers, the causer of the May 13, 1969 riots in Kuala Lumpur and a communist.
If Hadi cannot substantiate the wild and preposterous allegations against me, is he going to withdraw them and apologise for them?
Anwar in his Ekonomi Madani has outlined the following objectives which if successful, will see Malaysia rise up again to become a great world-class nation:
- Top 30 biggest economies in the world in terms of nominal gross domestic products. Malaysia currently ranks 35.
- Top 12 in the IMD World Competitive Index. The current rank is 27.
- Top 25 in the UN Human Development Index. The current rank is 62.
- Top 25 in the Transparency International (TI) Corruption Perception Index (CPI). The current rank is 61.
Perikatan Nasional (PN), comprising PAS and Bersatu, lacks intentions to propel Malaysia towards global excellence. Their focus seems to regress Malaysia by half a millennium, disregarding the rightful roles of diverse races and religions under the Malaysian sky.
PN ought to draw lessons from visionary figures such as Malaysia’s initial trio of PMs – Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Abdul Razak and Tun Hussein Onn. These leaders, also serving as UMNO presidents, embraced Malaysia’s identity as a diverse nation encompassing various races, languages, religions and cultures.
PH and BN had never expected to cooperate in the GE15 but the consequences of PH and BN not cooperating to allow Muhyiddin or Hadi to become PM were too horrifying to contemplate, as was going against the advice of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah.
The PH and BN are cooperating not for self-interest but for the good of the country.
In fact, for the purpose of ensuring that Malaysia can rise again and become a great world-class nation, the DAP should be prepared to work with the members and supporters of Bersatu and PAS.
We must make a virtue of necessity and remember what the nation’s founding fathers have tried to lay the basis of a successful plural nation by bringing the various races, religions and cultures to cooperate and co-exist with each other, and these founding fathers have included the nation’s first three PMs and other founding fathers of the nation like Tun Ismail, Tun Tan Cheng Lock and Tun V. T. Sambanthan.
The BN-PH candidate in Teluk Bahang is Ahmad Zaki Shah Haedan.
We not only want Zaki to win Teluk Bahang on Aug 12, we want all PH and BN candidates in the six state polls to win on Saturday because I believe the members and supporters of PH and BN want Malaysia to rise again and become a successful world-class nation and not to end up as a divided, failed and corrupt state.
Let us make a virtue of necessity. We cooperate for the good of Malaysia, so that Malaysia can be great again. – Aug 9, 2023
Veteran lawmaker and retired DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang was Malaysia’s longest serving opposition leader (29 years on three separate occasions).
The views expressed are solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Focus Malaysia.
Main photo credit: Harian Metro
