Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s former political consultant Romen Bose was writing hogwash when he said I was trying to “rebuild the Chinese population” during the Pakatan Harapan administration from 2018-2000 and even claimed that I was “quite successful” in my endeavour.
The DAP secretary-general Anthony Loke was right to dismiss Romen Bose’s claims as the thought that Najib’s ex-aide attributed to me never occurred to me, and I do not know what he was talking about with his further claim that my endeavour was “quite successful”.
I have not read Romen Bose’s latest book Shattered Hopes, but he should not be pulling things from thin air.
The DAP is in good hands and since my political retirement in March 2022, I have been thinking of the past and the future of mankind.
A few days ago, I was in Bujang Valley in Kedah where archaeological discoveries await confirmation that Malaysia has the oldest civilization of some 2,500 years — older than the 1,200 year-old Borobudur in Indonesia or the 1,000-year old Angkor Wat in Cambodia.
Early this month, I was in Dunhuang with its spectacular Mogao Caves in the Gobi Desert, with their murals, sculptures, and treasury of manuscripts — a World Heritage Site as it was meeting point of Buddhist and Central Asian art and culture with Chinese civilisation — and Jiayuguan Pass at the end of Great Wall on the old Silk Road from Lanzhou to Urumqi.
What made my trip to China particularly memorable was the China proposal in the United Nations General Assembly on June 7 to make June 10 the International Day for Civilisational Dialogue.
I celebrated the first International Day on Civilisational Dialogue at the steppes in Xinjiang with its rolling plains.
The Chinese resolution in the UN General Assembly, which was adopted unanimously, was most appropriate.
Thirty years ago, our Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim was the foremost exponent of civilisational dialogue, countering the American political scientist, Samuel Huntington’s thesis of “The Clash of Civilisations”, even before the UN General Assembly adopted the resolution proposed by the then Iran President, Seyed Mohammad Khatami on 4th November 1998 to designate the year 2001 as the United Nations Year of the dialogue among Civilisations. Since then, the idea of dialogue among Civilisations had been made the object of a plethora of conferences and international meetings. Anwar was responsible for an earlier Islam-Confucianism Civilisational Dialogue before he was sacked as Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister.
This is the Asian century in the 21st century and all earthlings need a global mindset thinking beyond individuals, nations or even blocs of nations.
I was particularly appreciative that I was in Janda Baik yesterday at the flagging off of the three-month 10,000 kilometre journey between Kuala Lumpur and Beijing by two Malaysian septuagenarian cyclists to commemorate the 50th anniversary of establishment of diplomatic relations between Malaysia and China. These two septuagenarians gave hope to Malaysians there is no reason why they should not live to be centenarians.
(Speech by DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang at the dinner of DAP MPs at the Glass Mansion, Kuala Lumpur on Monday, 1st July 2024)
