I fully support the call on the Attorney-General Tan Sri Tommy Thomas to review the case of disabled person Mohamad Sani who is jailed today for attempting suicide as Parliament is in the process of decriminalising suicide.

This will be in keeping with the Pakatan Harapan’s promise of a New Malaysia – a more humane and caring nation that looks after the welfare of the more unfortunate sections of society.

Today, there is the good news that Malaysia has achieved its best score and rank to date on the Democracy Index, placing 43rd from a total of 167 countries.

The Democracy Index 2019 report, released by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), gave Malaysia a score of 7.16 from a maximum score of 10.

Malaysia had scored between 5.98 and 6.88 since the index began in 2006. It was ranked 52nd last year with a score of 6.88.

Malaysia’s score of the Democracy Index 2019 improved and the country rose nine places in the global ranking from No. 52 last year to No. 43 out of 167 countries.

One important reason why Malaysia had been falling down the slippery slope of a failed, rogue and kleptocratic state is because the nation’s leaders had disregarded the compass of nation-building which our forefathers had put together, in particular the Malaysian Constitution and the Rukunegara.

As a result, we have sunk to the lower levels of world indices for human accomplishments, achievements and excellence.

If Malaysians had not made the historic decision to peacefully and democratically bring about a transition of power in six decades, Malaysia would not have achieved the best score and rank on the Democracy Index 2019, nor achieved its best performance in a quarter of a century since 1995 in registering a single-year improvement six points for the Transparency International (TI) Corruption Perception Index (CPI) 2019 score and 10 placings in TI CPI 2019 ranking.

We must neither be complacent nor satisfied with these results , and must strive for better performance, whether in the Democracy Index, TI Corruption Perception Index or other world indices in the coming year.

But these turnarounds are necessary before we can aim for higher and better accomplishments in various fields of human endeavour in Malaysia.

(Media Statement by DAP MP for Iskandar Puteri Lim Kit Siang in Gelang Patah on Monday, 3rd February 2020)