There can be three scenarios to the outcome of the Sandakan parliamentary by-election on Saturday, 11th May 2019:

First scenario – the UMNO-PAS tie-up, using PBS to field a candidate, can win the by-election. UMNO states that it has 10,000 members in Sandakan. If UMNO could mobilise its 10,000 members to vote, and together with PAS, PBS and the support of others, the PBS candidate might be able to poll some 15,000 votes. In such a situation, the UMNO-PAS candidate might win the Sandakan by-election by a few hundred votes.

Second scenario – DAP candidate Vivian Wong wins the Sandakan by-election with a majority of a few thousand votes, confirming the support of the Sandakan voters for the DAP, Pakatan Harapan and the Warisan-led Sabah State Government.

Third scenario which is unlikely and very challenging, calling virtually for a political miracle, i.e. Vivian Wong wins the Sandakan by-election with an even bigger majority than her father, Datuk Stephen Wong in the 14th General Election. In the last general election Stephen Wong polled 19,094 votes and won with a thundering majority of 10,098 votes. This scenario is unlikely in a by-election which is likely to have a lower voter turn-out, but if it happens, it will be a rare achievement which will also be a ringing endorsement not only for DAP, Pakatan Harapan and the Warisan-led Sabah State Government, but represent a national turnaround to the recent three by-election defeats suffered by Pakatan Harapan in the Cameron Highlands, Semenyih and Ratau by-elections and give a great boost and support for the start of second year in the agenda for change for a New Malaysia, New Sabah and New Sandakan.

Today is a historic day for its marks the first anniversary of the great decision one year ago in the 14th General Election on May 9, 2018, to bring about peaceful and democratic change in Malaysia to end the six decades of UMNO/Barisan Nasional rule of corruption, abuses of power and injustices in the country.

What would have happened if the UMNO/BN Government had not been voted out of office a year ago?

It is salutary for all Malaysians to think of this scenario, for Malaysia would have hurtled along the trajectory to become a failed, rogue and kleptocratic state in the very near future, which would be a curse to our children and children’s children.

We now know about some of the corruption, excesses and abuses of power which were committed under the Najib government, but if there had been no change of government a year ago, Malaysia will be hurtling towards the trajectory of a failed, rogue and kleptocratic state, pawning the rights and interests of our children and children’s children.

In the 1970s, there was one country which was not only the richest country in Latin America and one of the twenty richest countries in the world, with a per capita GDP higher than Spain and Greece, and 13 per cent lower than that of the United Kingdom. Per capita GDP-wise, it was two-and-half times richer than Malaysia. It had free education and free health care.

Today, some four decades later, it has become a poor and bankrupt nation – with a per capita GDP which is about five times less than that of Malaysia; suffering from sky-high inflation which left many of its people unable to afford basic necessities from food to medicine; with one out of every three patients admitted to a public hospital dying there; chronic water and electricity shortages; some of the slowest Internet connection speeds in the world; runaway corruption and total breakdown of democratic checks and balances.

The historic decision of May 9, 2018 spared Malaysia the fate of making another dubious history – beating this nation in collapse from a progressive and prosperous country in a matter decades to become a failed and rogue nation after achieving the infamy of a kleptocratic state under the administration of Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

Malaysians achieved a great feat saving the nation from the fate of a failed, rogue and kleptocratic state, which would have enslaved our children and children’s children.

Our task is now to build a New Malaysia, a New Sabah and a New Sandakan.

This is no easy task, but we must remain strong and steadfast in our vision of justice, freedom and unity to build Golden Age for Malaysia which is in the future and not in the past.

This is finally what the Sandakan by-election is all about.

(Media Conference Statement by DAP MP for Iskandar Puteri Lim Kit Siang at DAP Sandakan by-election Ops Centre on Thursday, 9th May 2019 at 11 am)