PETALING JAYA: Lim Kit Siang said the Middle Malaysia concept mooted by DAP stresses national transformation in bracing future economic challenges while more effectively uniting all Malaysians.

He said we must not interpret the new economic model purely from economic perspectives, but must first put in place a new model of governance.

“Although prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak has proposed a new economic model, the many issues that have taken place lately such as the disappearance of military aircraft engine and the ‘Allah’ issue have shown that the Barisan Nasional government does not have a new model of governance to give rise to a new economic model”

He said during an interview with Sin Chew Daily that Middle Malaysia means the majority of Malaysians.

“If Middle Malaysia could get the support of majority of people, it would create a favourable prerequisite for the country to face future economic challenges.”

He said the continued deterioration of Malaysia’s global competitiveness shows that investors’ confidence in the country’s system was sliding. At the same time, the country’s ranking in Transparency International’s corruption perception index also went down last year.

“Countries like China have made significant improvements in both the ranking and score in the corruption perception index,” he said, adding that cases like a senior judge sentenced to life imprisonment in China would never happen in Malaysia.

“People’s Champion” only serves to consolidate the support of Malay grassroots

He said the People’s Champion campaign initiated by UMNO was meant to consolidate the support of Malay grassroots, not tailored towards the needs of all Malaysians.

He said that was just UMNO’s political gimmick for the Malays which was going against the 1Malaysia principles.

“Does the People’s Champion campaign launched by UMNO conform to the 1Malaysia spirit? Why was this campaign carried out only by UMNO and not the entire Barisan Nasional?”

He felt the campaign had been launched by UMNO with the next general elections in mind.

“UMNO’s biggest objective has been to consolidate its support and status among the Malays so that it can continue to rule after the next general elections.”

He felt that Najib was conscious of the implications of the RAHMAN predictions that after he took over as the country’s sixth prime minister, the RAHMAN predictions would be materialised, and that he could be the last prime minister from UMNO.

He said all new prime ministers would come up with some kind of new slogans, such as Dr Mahathir’s “clean, efficient and reliable government” in 1981 had helped him secure a landslide victory in the first general election after taking over the office.

Tun Abdullah, meanwhile, also came up with an impressive manifesto that saw him scoring the best ever results for BN in the general elections.

1Malaysia fails to manifest itself

“The 1Malaysia concept mooted by PM Najib may not get the desired results. Malaysians are not against the 1Malaysia concept, but the concept fails to manifest itself in many issues.”

He also said Pakatan Rakyat would not disintegrate even if PKR advisor Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim were convicted in the sodomy case. Instead, he said the Pakatan leaders would boldly face the problems and make sure that the opposition pact would continue to forge ahead towards its target of running the federal administration.

He said that was why DAP had come up with the “Middle Malaysia” concept and stressed the importance of a “Middle Malaysia.”

“After the 2008 general elections, parties in the opposition pact came to the realisation that the establishment of Pakatan Rakyat had a pivotal role on the political development in this country. Anwar’s role was indeed very special prior to the 2008 elections. He brought PKR, DAP and PAS together. Without him, there wouldn’t have been Pakatan Rakyat.”

He said Pakatan had been established for almost two years now, and he believed the component parties realised the importance of the pact.

He said no one would like to see what UMNO like to see most, that is Anwar would be convicted and jailed, and completely taken out of politics.

However, even if something were to happen to Anwar, he believed Pakatan would not crumble because of that.

He said it was not time now to talk about the successor, as the more important thing was to consolidate the direction of Pakatan towards a “Middle Malaysia” so that it could win the confidence of more people and eventually take over the place of BN in the future.

Ku Li to lead Pakatan?

When asked whether DAP would replace both MCA and Gerakan to become the dominant party for Chinese Malaysians, Lim Kit Siang said, “I agree that MCA and Gerakan are going downhill now, especially in view of their failure to express their stand in the ‘Allah’ issue. However, DAP does not aspire to replace MCA or Gerakan in their gradually diminishing roles. Instead, we want to promote ‘Middle Malaysia’ to get the recognition from the new government, and this should lead the country towards a brighter tomorrow and greater openness.”

On rumours that if something were to happen to Anwar, Pakatan would likely pick Tengku Razaleigh as his successor, Lim Kit Siang said he knew many people were talking about this thing, but he didn’t want to speculate on this and there was no need for him to rebuke such presumptive questions either.

“Some people were saying this, and I heard it. But there is no reason that we must get someone from UMNO to lead Pakatan Rakyat.” (Translated by DOMINIC LOH/Sin Chew Daily)