The Rukunegara is the manifestation of the philosophy of Alliance of Civilisations in Malaysian nation-building as a Clash of Civilisations can only result in Malaysia’s failure and destruction.

I will like to see this spirit of Alliance of Civilisations in Malaysia highlighted in the forthcoming celebrations for the 62nd National Day on August 31 and the 56th Malaysia Day on Sept. 16.

But there seems to be plot to denigrate and defile these two important occasions.

Malaysians must be alert to the unusual increase of traffic of fake news and hate speech on Malaysian social media recently as if to provoke inter-racial and inter-religious strife in the country.

Malaysia must uphold free speech and democracy, but there can be no room in plural Malaysia for fake news and hate speech especially in the social media to incite doubt, suspicion, fear and hatred by pitting race against race and religion against religion.

This will be one the greatest challenges of the Pakatan Harapan government to remain true to its promise to build a New Malaysia which is a top world-class nation of unity, freedom, justice, excellence and integrity.

I call on Malaysians in the run-up to the 62nd National Day/56th Malaysia Day from August 31 to Sept. 16 to prove the extremists and desperados wrong, that they will not succumb to their machinations to live in fear, doubt and hate of other communities and cultures but on the other hand, focus on what the Perak Sultan Nazrin Shah’s speech at the Second Malaysia-China Youth Civilisational Dialogue on Islam and Confucianism stressed – to respect, understand and appreciate other cultures and civilisations in the country.

Malaysia is the confluence of four great civilisations in the world – Islamic, Chinese, Indian and Western.

Let Malaysians play an active role to leverage on their values and qualities of the four great civilisations to build a great Malaysian nation and a better world.

When the United Nations adopted the Alliance for Civilisations initiative in 2005, it was to defuse tensions between Western and Islamic worlds.

Today, we see the rise of the Asian century and the growing importance of Chinese and Indian civilisations.

Let Malaysia, both in domestic and international polices, play a leading role in recasting the 2005 United Nations Initiative of Alliance for Civilisations into a genuinely universal collaboration of all the great civilisations of the world.

I have often said that there are those who do not expect the Pakatan Harapan government in Putrajaya, a coalition of four political parties with different histories, ideologies and trajectories, to last more than a few months, but PH has proved the prophets of doom wrong.

The Pakatan Harapan government in Putrajaya has survived for 16 months despite the various stresses and strains, contradictions and controversies, of building a New Malaysia, but bigger tests are ahead, as it must be able to persevere and be united and steadfast with greater challenges in the mission to build a New Malaysia for the rest of the five-year term and go on to win the 16th General Election for the mission to build a New Malaysia will take more than one general election cycle to complete.

A very pertinent article appeared in Malaysiakini today, under the heading “Cutting off our nose to spite our face?” by Ramesh Rajaratnam, who while expressing his disappointment at the performance of the Pakatan Harapan government in Putrajaya in the past 16 months, postulated ten things that can happen within 90 day “if the old devil was voted in”, including:

1. All enforcement heads like Attorney-General Tommy Thomas and MACC chief commissioner Latheefa Koya will be replaced with sycophants of Umno.

2. All legal cases involving Umno politicians (and their wives) will be dismissed/withdrawn with flimsy excuses.

3. Fugitive businessperson Low Taek Jho (photo) will be given a ‘tan sri’ title and all charges dropped.

4. 1MDB will be revived and this time, not RM40 billion, but RM400 billion will be siphoned off.

5. All those who spoke up against BN will be hunted and charged. Thomas and Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng will be in jail.

6. Zakir Naik will become a citizen and be awarded a tunship.

Ramesh’s article is indeed food for thought while I agree that the Pakatan Harapan government must never lose sight of the objective to build a world top-class nation of unity, freedom, justice, excellence and integrity.

(Media Statement by DAP MP for Iskandar Puteri Lim Kit Siang in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday, August 25, 2019)