Firstly let me deplore and condemn in the strongest possible terms the uncivilised and inhuman two explosions at the Boston Marathon which have killed three persons and injured some 30 people in one of the world’s best known marathons.
The Boston Marathon was held on Patriot Day, the third Monday of April, since 1897 and attracted an estimated half-million spectators and some 20,000 participants.
Although the criminal incident happened far-way in Boston, the people of Gelang Patah, Johore and Malaysia, like all human beings throughout the world, are shocked and revolted by such inhumanity and utter disregard for human lives.
The world has become a global village and what happens in one part of the world attracts the concern and attention of people in other parts of the world, like the two explosions of the Boston Marathon.
The Boston Marathon explosions is particularly pertinent to Malaysians, facing the 13th General Elections, as Umno/Barisan Nasional leaders have been warning about chaos and bloodshed ala-Arab Spring.
Let all political leaders, whether BN or PR, stand as one to condemn the violence and inhumanity of the Boston Marathon as well as to reaffirm that what we want to witness in the 13GE is not the bloodshed and chaos of Arab Spring but the peaceful and democratic transition of power like the South Korean Spring in 1997 if the verdict of the 13.3 million voters on May 5 is for a change of government in Putrajaya, with Pakatan Rakyat replacing Barisan Nasional as the new Federal Government of Malaysia.
The four-term Johor Mentri Besar Datuk Ghani Othman is as good as the BN candidate for Gelang Patah with the MCA surrendering the MCA/BN fortress to UMNO.
If this is the case, I invite Ghani Othman to join me in making Gelang Patah the model constituency of clean, free and fair elections out of 222 parliamentary and 505 state assembly constituencies in the country in the 13GE as it is expected to be dirtiest in election history in Malaysia.
Already, the most unscrupulous and unprincipled “dirty tricks” have been used coupled with unspeakable lies and falsehoods that is spread anonymously.
I invite Ghani to join me in reaching an accord to make Gelang Patah the most gentlemanly contest where:
- No personal attacks or character assassination, not only by the candidates, but their election teams and workers;
- No playing the race or religion card, as the 13GE should be an occasion to promote and foster greater and closer race relations among the races to promote national unity, and not an occasion divide and polarise further the diverse races and religions in the country.
- No politics of money or the use of money to buy votes, which is the root cause of the rampant corruption in Malaysia.
- Commitment by both of us to condemn and dissociate ourselves from “dirty tricks” perpetrated in Gelang Patah, even by anonymous quarters.
- Ghani and I should sign the Transparency International-Malaysia’s Election Integrity Pledge (EIP) with the establishment of a EIP Watchdog Commission in Gelang Patah constituted by Malaysians of impeccable character.
I await the response from Ghani
Media Conference Statement by Lim Kit Siang after walkabout at Taman Ungku Tun Aminah on Tuesday, 16th April 2013 at 9 am