This is the first time I am outside a general election nomination centre for 53 years since 1969.

While waiting for the completion of the nomination process for the Pakatan Harapan candidate for Tanjong, my daughter Lim Hui Ying, I thought about the future of Malaysia.

In my 57 years in Malaysian politics, I have stood for parliamentary election in five states in Malacca, Selangor, Penang, Perak and Johore – all in pursuit of the Malaysian Dream for Malaysia to be a great world-class plural nation which could in Bapa Malaysia Tunku Abdul Rahman’s words be “a beacon of light in a difficult and distracted world”.

I call on the voters in the five constituencies which I have represented as Member of Parliament in the last six decades – Kota Melaka (1969-78, 1982-86), Petaling in Selangor (1978-1982), Tanjong in Penang (1986-1999), Ipoh Timur in Perak (2004-2013) and Gelang Patah (2013-2018) Iskandar Puteri (2018 – 2022) in Johore – to be strong bases to spread the message of the Malaysian Dream where there is unity in diversity with everyone regarding himself as “Malaysian First” be they Malays, Chinese, Indians, Kadazans, Dayaks or Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Christians, Sikhs, Taoists, whether from Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah or Sarawak.

PAS President Hadi Awang said Malaysian Dream is to forget we are Malays, Chinese, Indians, Kadazans, Dayaks or Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Christians.

Hadi is very wrong. Bangsa Malaysia does not ask Malaysians to forget or extinguish their ethnic identities as Malays, Chinese, Indians, Kadazans, Dayaks or give up their religious identities as Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus and Christians, but to celebrate their diverse racial and religious identities with an overarching common identity as Malaysians First.

Bangsa Malaysia means the Malays, Chinese, Indians, Kadazans and Dayaks in Malaysia are closer to each other than with their counterparts in other countries.

Malaysia has potential to be among the best countries in the world, as we are at the confluence of four great civilisations – Malay/Islamic, Chinese, Indian and Western – but we have not been able to leverage on the best values and virtues of the four great civilisations and have lost our way in the last six decades of nation-building.

We started well in the early days of our nation, writing into the Constitution and the Rukun Negara the nation-building principles which if followed will make Malaysia a great world-class plural nation – constitutional monarchy, separation of powers, the rule of law, parliamentary democracy, an independent judiciary, good governance, public integrity with minimal corruption, respect for human rights and unity in diversity in a multi-racial, multi-lingual, multi-cultural and multi-religious nation.

But we took a wrong turn in nation-building and instead of becoming a first-class great nation, we have become a second-class mediocre country which, if not checked, will deteriorate to become a third-class failed and rogue state like Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe in three or four decades’ time.

I ask Malaysian voters to ask two questions before Polling Day on November 19, 2022 – whether Malaysia can be saved and whether it is worth saving Malaysia.

If Malaysia is not save-able or not worth saving, then that is the end of the story.

But Malaysia is still “save-able” and worth saving. Malaysia has not reached the stage of a totally broken, divided and failed nation like Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe although we have fallen considerably from our expectations of a world-class great plural nation.

But this salvation effort will take not one or five years or one general election, but decades and several general elections.

But we must start now.

I call on the voters of the five parliamentary constituencies I have represented as Member of Parliament – Kota Melaka, Petaling, Tanjong, Ipoh Timur and Iskandar Puteri – to play a leading role in this national campaign to Save Malaysia to become a great world-class plural nation recognised by the world as one of the best countries in the world instead of being mocked and despised as being a kleptocracy, kakistocracy and an impending failed state.

I particularly call on Penang voters to lead Malaysian voters to make Malaysia among the best in the world and not a failed and rogue state like a kleptocracy on Malaysia Centennial in another four decades.

(Media Statement by DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang at the Tanjong Nomination Centre in Dewan Sri Pinang, Penang on Saturday, November 5, 2022)