It is not only the Anwar unity government that is under test, the parliamentary opposition is also under test, whether it supports political stability for the next five years for a reset of nation-building policies to unite a very polarised nation to become a first-rate world-class Malaysia instead of hurtling along to become a divided, failed, and kleptocratic state.

This thought came to me when I read reports of the former Bersatu information chief Wan Saiful Wan Jan asking in Parliament if the 10th Prime Minister was inspired by the Communist Manifesto in drafting the 2023 Budget, and whether the latter was trying to instigate class warfare.

This term may be often used by US Republicans to attack any efforts by Barrack Obama to address societal inequality when the latter was in office as US President, but does the Malaysian Parliamentary Opposition want to see Malaysia as polarised as the United States instead of finding a Malaysian route to national unity among our diverse races, languages, religions, and cultures?

I am also reminded of one of the most preposterous allegations which the PAS President, Hadi Awang, had hurled against the DAP but which he had never been able to substantiate — that the DAP is anti-Malay, anti-Islam, communist, and promoting Islamophobia.

In his keynote address at the International Forum on Islamophobia: Meaningful Engagement Through Madani Discourse yesterday, Anwar strongly advocated for reasoned discourse in accordance with Maqasid Syariah, and not enmity or hatred, when responding to Islamophobia to maintain order and peace.

But Hadi is undermining the discourse against Islamophobia when he shouts “Islamophobia” for any criticism against him as PAS President for his failures and shortcomings.

It is full 14 weeks when he made the preposterous allegation that DAP is promoting Islamophobia but he has not been able to substantiate his serious allegation. When is he going to substantiate his allegation or will he retract his allegation against the DAP?

When China’s President, Xi Jinping, visited Saudi Arabia last December for the first China-Arab States Summit, he was given a better welcome than when US President Joe Biden visited Saudi Arabia last July. Is Wan Saiful suggesting that Saudi Arabia has turned “communist”?

(Media Statement by DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang in Petaling Jaya on Tuesday, 28th February 2023)