Both Barisan Nasional (BN) and Perikatan Nasional (PN) leaders are offering Malaysians an impossible formula during the 15th General Election – that with more corruption, Malaysia will have stability and prosperity.
I invite the BN and PN leaders, in particular Zahid Hamidi, the President of UMNO/BN and Muhyiddin Yassin the Bersatu President and Hadi Awang the PAS President (who will be the leader of PN after 19th November 2022 will depend on whether Bersatu or PAS win the most parliamentary seats in the 15GE to tell Malaysians which country in the world has stability and prosperity because they have rampant corruption.
All three BN/PN leaders, Zahid, Muhyiddin and Hadi, have problematic stand on corruption.
Zahid is on video as declaring at the MIC Assembly on October 10, 2022 that the 15GE is the “mother of all elections” to free UMNO/BN leaders from being charged in court for corruption and being sent to jail. He does not want to fight corruption, but fight the problem of UMNO/BN leaders from being charged in court for corruption and sent to jail.
I call on the voters of Malaysia to state clearly and loudly on Nov. 19, 2022, that leaders who are corrupt and abused their powers must be sent to jail.
Muhyiddin is not against corruption – but only opposed to the monstrous 1MDB scandal, for which he was sacked as Deputy Prime Minister and Deputy UMNO President by Najib Razak and later sacked from UMNO.
This is why during his “backdoor premiership” from March 2020 to August 2021, the Transparency International (TI) Corruption Perception Index (CPI) 2021 dropped five spots to 62nd position out of 180 countries, and scored 48 out of 100 points in the index, compared to its 2020 score of 51.
In 2020 the country ranked 57, while in 2019 it was placed at 51 with a score of 53 points.
In the first year of Pakatan Harapan government in 2018, Malaysia TI CPI was the best in 25 years, while TI CPI 2021 reflecting Muhyiddin’s “backdoor” premiership was the worst in 27 years. The TI CPI 2022 will be released in January 2023, reflecting Ismail Sabri’s second “backdoor premiership”, where I believe Malaysia will suffer a further plunge.
This is powerful proof that corruption is rampant in the Malaysia not just because of the 1MDB scandal as there is also a long catalogue of other financial and corruption scandals apart from the 1MDB scandal.
As for Hadi, he has destroyed his commitment to truth, justice and moderation by making all sorts of statements which are untrue – that DAP is anti-Malay, ant-Islam, anti-Royalty and his latest absurd allegation that DAP is communist.
Zahid, Muhyiddin and Hadi have no qualms if Malaysia falls lower and lower in future TI CPIs, even if China overtake Malaysia before 2030 and Indonesia and India overtake Malaysia in the decade after 2030.
Only the Pakatan Harapan candidate for the 10th Prime Minister of Malaysia, Anwar Ibrahim does not believe like the trio that stability and prosperity are built on corruption and kleptocracy, as there is no such example in the world.
For this reason to make Malaysia one of the top 30 countries in the world for clean and honest government, and to build stability and prosperity, Anwar is head and shoulders above Zahid, Muhyiddin and Hadi to be the 10th Prime Minister of Malaysia and head a clean and good Federal government in Putrajaya for a change.
(Speech by DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang at the DAP 15th General Election ceramah in Bekok in Labis parliamentary constituency on Friday, 11th November 2022 at 1 pm)
