I want to announce tonight that I had intended to propose the co-option of Jannie Lasimbang as a DAP Central Executive Committee member so that we will have a woman leader of global status to be in the DAP national leadership to be in the national vanguard to save Malaysia and Sabah to ensure that there is justice, democracy, human rights, the rule of law and a sustainable environmental policy in our country.
However, this cannot be done now as DAP is entangled with problems with the Registrar of Societies and I will make the proposal to co-opt Jannie Lasimbang into the DAP national leadership after the DAP’s problems with the Registrar of Societies have been resolved.
Jannie is a former Suhakam commissioner and in 1987, a founding member of Partners of Community Organisations in Sabah (Pacos Trust), an NGO dedicated to the rights of the indigenous people.
At the international level, Lasimbang had served as the secretary-general of the Indigenous People’s Alliance in Asia and chairperson of the United Nations Voluntary Fund for Indigenous Communities.
This morning, the DAP co-ordinator for Lahad Datu Johan Nul told me in Lahad Datu that UMNO operatives are trying to frighten Malay and Muslim bumiputras in Sabah from joining the DAP, claiming that DAP is anti-Malay and anti-Islam and that if Umno loses power, the Malays and Muslim bumiputeras will perish as the DAP and the Chinese will grab the political power of the Malays.
These are Umno lies, fake news and false information, which had been used for decades by UMNO in Peninsular Malaysia against the DAP, but they have failed to stop the forward movement of DAP as Malaysian political party for the rights and interests of all Malaysians, regardless of race, religion or region.
This is why over the past few decades. DAP continues to have Malay and Muslim Members of Parliament (including Senators), State Assembly representatives, leaders, members and even Malays-only branches.
But this is the first time I hear that the same lies, fake news and false information about the DAP as anti-Malay and anti-Islam being spread by UMNO operatives in Sabah.
This is a significant political achievement for DAP – not that DAP anti-Malay or anti-Islam – but that even in Sabah, UMNO recognises that DAP has made a historic breakthrough and we are getting support for Malays and Muslim bumiputras in Sabah, with them taking up leadership positions at various levels of the party in the state.
This is why the UMNO lies that the DAP is anti-Malay and anti-Islam, started in Peninsular Malaysia, a few decades ago, has now come to Sabah.
But such UMNO lies and falsehoods will fail in Sabah, just as they are failing in Peninsular Malaysia, for lies and falsehoods cannot survive in the face of truth and reality in the information era.
This is why over 350 Muslim bumiputras have applied to join the DAP when I was in Sandakan yesterday, and they want to form four new branches in the Sandakan area, which the homeground of the Sabah Chief Minister and UMNO leader, Tan Sri Musa Aman.
Yesterday, at the Malaysia Day celebrations in Kota Kinabalu, the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said Malaysia now highly-regarded by the world despite the fact that it was formed only 54 years ago.
He said Malaysia was an unknown country on the world map before, but now, the country was regarded by world leaders as a successful nation.
He said: “As we celebrate Malaysia Day today, let us recall how it was 54 years ago.
“Who knows about Malaysia then? An agricultural state with small population. But today, we are a successful country.
“The warm welcome and respect were given to me by world leaders, including the latest by the US president himself (Donald Trump), because they see Malaysia as a successful nation.”
The majority of Malaysians would not agree with Najib that Malaysia is now a highly-regarded nation.
Najib is very wrong, for Malaysia was a highly regarded nation until he brought shame, infamy and ignominy to the nation by transforming Malaysia into a global kleptocracy with the 1MDB scandal.
Let Najib declare why he dared not face reality to clear or cleanse Malaysia of such infamy and ignominy of a global kleptocracy by addressing the 1MDB scandal!
Is Najib prepared to convene a special session of Parliament to ensure that Malaysia can again become a highly-regared nation in the world, liberated from the infamy and ignominy of a global kleptocracy?
[Speech at the Kota Kinabalu DAP Malaysia Day-cum- August Moon Festival celebrations in Kota Kinabalu on Sunday, Sept. 17, 2017 at 9 pm]