I am encouraged and lifted up by the positive responses I have received in my visits to Perth, Canberra, Sydney and Melbourne, suggesting that Malaysians in the worldwide Diaspora participate fully in the great task today of building a New Malaysia.

The great and historic result of the 14th General Election on May 9, 2018 has given Malaysians a second chance to reset nation-building policies to reject the trajectory towards a failed state, rogue democracy, kakistocracy where Cabinet Ministers cannot differentiate between a turtle egg and on ordinary egg, and a global kleptocracy towards a trajectory towards a united, harmonious and successful plural nation which is model of democracy, leading nation of integrity and a top world-class nation in every field of human endeavour.

The New Malaysia is struggling to be born. It cannot be accomplished in 100 days or five months, but will take a decade or even two decades.

It is not what Tun Dr. Mahathir wants, what Anwar Ibrahim wants, what Lim Kit Siang or Lim Guan Eng wants, what Mohd Sabu wants, but what the 30 million Malaysians, including the Malaysians in the Malaysian Diaspora worldwide, want.

This is why I had suggested in my current Australian and New Zealand tour that Malaysians in the worldwide Diaspora should fully participate and contribute to the building of a New Malaysia, by establishing a new civil movement which can be patterned after Bersih and Global Bersih which had done great and sterling work in the area of electoral reforms with the establishment of New Malaysia and Diaspora New Malaysia movements in the countries and foreign cities where there are substantial numbers of Malaysians – so that a Diaspora New Malaysia Melbourne, Diaspora New Malaysia Sydney, Diaspora New Malaysia Canberra, Diaspora New Malaysia Perth, etc. as well as Global Diaspora New Malaysia can be a platform and channel for the ideas, energies and contributions of Malaysians worldwide to the building of a New Malaysia.

The Port Dickson parliamentary by-election on October 13 will be an important milestone in the building of a New Malaysia, where Anwar will take his rightful place in Parliament.

The four Pakatan Harapan parties of DAP, PKR, Bersatu and AMANAH have agreed to Tun Dr. Mahathir as the seventh Prime Minister and Anwar Ibrahim as the eighth Prime Minister.

I will miss the Port Dickson by-election nomination on Sept. 29, as I will still be in New Zealand, but I will return to Malaysia to campaign for Anwar to ensure Pakatan Harapan wins a resounding victory in Port Dickson by-election on 13th Oct signaling popular support for a New Malaysia

In the past five months, criticisms and unhappiness have surfaced about the new Pakatan Harapan government.

We accept these criticisms but urge Malaysians to have a Big Picture and Long view mindset, as the New Malaysia we want to build is work-in-progress which will take more than one general election cycle to accomplish, as such a task require 10 to 20 years to complete.

We must never yield to negative or self-destructive mindset that the New Malaysia initiative will fail, and that the UMNO/PAS conspiracy that the Pakatan Harapan government can be toppled before the 15GE if not earlier in two years can be brought to fruition.

In the coming months and years, difficulties, differences and even contradictions in Pakatan Harapan are bound to surface, but if we adopt the positive attitude that we want the Pakatan Harapan mission to build New Malaysia to succeed, all these difficulties, differences and contradictions will be resolved in such a positive context.

(Speech by DAP MP for Iskandar Puteri Lim Kit Siang on “Building a New Malaysia” at Multicultural Hub, Melbourne, on Saturday, 22nd September 2018 at 6 pm)