The assurance by Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim that the DAP would not be in control of Pakatan Harapan if the coalition under his watch wins the coming polls shows both the degree of toxic politics of race and religion which had been disseminated in the current 15th general election campaign and the likelihood that Anwar Ibrahim will be the 10th Prime Minister of Malaysia.
The DAP had been accused of controlling Pakatan Harapan when it was in government for 22 months from the 14th General Election on May 9, 2018.
PAS President, Hadi Awang even accused the DAP of trying to remove the special position of Islam as well as the privileges of the Malays and Bumiputra in the country by pushing for the ratification of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) in the early months of Pakatan Harapan government in 2018, when in actual fact, DAP Ministers and leaders were completely surprised by the then Prime Minister, Mahathir Mohamad’s speech on the proposed ratification of ICERD at the United Nations General Assembly in September 2018.
This has been collaborated by the then Foreign Minister, Saifuddin Abdulah who blamed P. Waythamoorthy as the “lead” Minister handling ICERD in 2018. This has been denied by Waythamoorthy and the truth has yet to be fully revealed.
But the issue of the ICERD ratification in 2018 is about truth and lies. Should political leaders be disseminating lies, untruths and false information?
I have been accused for the appointment of Tommy Thomas as Attorney-General and Richard Malanjum as Chief Justice. I approve of their appointments but I have never proposed any candidate for high office to Mahathir when he was Prime Minister in the 22 months of Pakatan Harapan government.
It is a reflection of the challenges of information age, where lies, fake news and disinformation abound, that I was accused in non-Malay areas as a puppet of Mahathir in those 22 months of Pakatan Harapan government while Mahathir was accused of being my puppet in Malay circles.
There is no truth in these lies, for both Mahathir and I are nobody’s puppet.
I have said that the three weeks since the dissolution of Parliament on Oct. 10 have seen a sea-change in the political mood of the country, and even those who at first are indifferent or disenchanted with politics since the Sheraton Move are beginning to realise that six decades of racial programming cannot be changed overnight in the democratic process and that Rome was not built in a day.
I myself am not satisfied with the change and reform that was achieved in 22 months of Pakatan Harapan government before it was toppled by the undemocratic and unconstitutional “backdoor” Sheraton Move political conspiracy, but nowhere in the world could a government fulfil in 22 months a campaign promise for five years.
This change in mood is confirmed by a Merdeka Centre survey that shows that UMNO/Barisan Nasional is trailing behind Pakatan Harapan in a close second in voters’ preference in the 15th general election.
This has spawned a new scare story about a “dominant” DAP in Pakatan Harapan and a Chinese Prime Minister.
DAP was never “dominant” in the 22-month Pakatan Harapan government as shown by the Pakatan Harapan Cabinet of 28 Ministers where the DAP was overshadowed in the distribution of seven PKR Ministers, six Bersatu Ministers, six DAP Ministers, five Amanah Ministers, three Warisan Ministers and one MAP Minister.
The DAP had never aspired to have a Chinese or non-Malay Prime Minister, although the Malaysian Constitution states very explicitly that any Malaysian can be a Prime Minister.
United Kingdom is having an ethnic Indian Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak and even the United States has taken 200 years for Barack Obama to be the first black President in the United States but I do not expect to see a non-Malay Prime Minister in Malaysia in this century.
What else are the cybertroopers and propagandists of hate, lies and falsehood incapable of cooking up?
(Media Statement by DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang in Penang on Saturday, November 5, 2022)