There would be no 1MDB scandal and Malaysia would not be regarded as a corrupt and kleptocratic country by the world if the three MCA Ministers under Liow Tiong Lai were prepared to resign from the Cabinet in protest against them.

We are right to blame Najib Razak for turning Malaysia from a great world-class nation into a second-rate, mediocre and kleptocratic country in six decades and he must pay his proper deserts, having been sent to Kajang Prison for his first batch of 1MDB corruption misdeeds and crimes.

But the 1MDB scandal and Malaysia becoming a kleptocracy are impossible if we have God-fearing, honest and upright leaders in the upper reaches of Malaysian society, particularly in the cabinet.

I ask every Minister the Najib Cabinet what he or she had done to stop the 1MDB scandal and turning Malaysia into a kleptocracy.

The founding fathers of the nation, like Onn Jaafar, Tengku Abdul Rahman, Tun Razak and Tun Ismail, including Tun Tan Cheng Lock and ‘Tun Sambanthan would never countenanced Malaysia becoming a kleptocracy.

The question is why Liow Tiong Lai, as MCA President, and the three MCA Ministers, did not do anything to stop the 1MDB scandal from happening.

Did the three MCA Ministers think keeping their Cabinet position as Ministers is more important than to ensure that Malaysia did not become a kleptocacy where there is rampant corruption in the country?

When I was in school, I was very impressed by two past stories, the story of Ye Fei and Wen Tiansiang.

Have Liow Tiong Lai and the other two MCA Ministers never heard of Ye Fei and Wen Tiansiang.

If only the three MCA Ministers have 10 per cent of the spirit and morality of Ye Fei and Wen Tiangsiang, Malaysia would not have become a second-rate mediocre country which is regarded by the world as a kleptocracy.

(Speech by DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang at the DAP 15GE ceramah at Karak, Bentong on Saturday November 12, 2022 at 6 pm)