Although the Covid-19 pandemic is in its sixth month, the global transmission shows no sign of slowing. While all over the world, countries are preparing for a second wave, the first wave is still strong, swelling up into a tsunami.

Two days ago, 141,973 new cases were confirmed worldwide – the highest daily increase in the coronavirus transmissions since the pandemic began.

There have been great global changes since Malaysia imposed the movement control order (MCO) on March 18.

Four of the world’s top 10 countries in terms of cumulative total of Covid-19 confirmed cases – China, France, South Korea and Switzerland – have dropped out of the list, to be replaced by Brazil, Russia, India and Peru.
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In his live telecast yesterday announcing the replacement of the conditional movement control order (CMCO) by the recovery movement control order (RMCO) on Wednesday till August 31, the Prime Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, addressed all sorts of issues except the “elephant in the room” – the lockdown of Parliament and the crippling of the constitutional role of Members of Parliament to provide parliamentary oversight and scrutiny of the government to ensure quality of governance during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Prime Minister spoke about a variety of subjects like barber shops, hair saloons, beauty parlours, pubs, nightclubs, karaoke centres, entertainment outlets, theme parks, public swimming pools, rugby, wrestling, boxing, football, basketball and hockey, but he strenuously avoided the subject of Parliament, which had been locked down for over three months except the for the one-day sitting of Parliament on May 28 which did not last even an hour.

Is the RMCO going to be an excuse for the July meeting to be cancelled altogether? Read the rest of this entry »

Mengulangi semula seruan untuk diadakan sidang Parlimen khas minggu depan untuk memastikan pelaksanaan PKP yang kreatif dan fleksibel bagi mengukuhkan infrastruktur kesihatan awam Malaysia untuk melindungi petugas barisan hadapan, meningkatkan kebolehan ujian saringan negara, melindungi golongan dan sektor terpinggir, dan untuk menyediakan satu strategi keluar untuk negara

Berikut adalah peristiwa-peristiwa suram yang direkodkan di seluruh dunia dalam peperangan melawan Covid-19:

Pertama, Amerika Syarikat kini telah melepasi paras setengah juta kes Covid-19 yang disahkan, dengan jumlah kes positif keseluruhan sebanyak 502,876 kes dan 18,747 kematian.

Kedua, selepas melepasi paras seratus hari, tiga kawasan, Amerika Utara, Eropah, dan Timur Tengah telah mempunyai jumlah kes disahkan melebihi daripada keseluruhan Asia, dengan Amerika Utara melebihi setengah juta kes dan Eropah menghampiri paras setengah juta kes. Read the rest of this entry »

The sad and shocking news of the death of the Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department and the MP for Tanjong Piai, Mohamed Farid Md Rafik, came to me while DAP MP for Kepong Lim Lip Eng and I were visiting a long-house in Kapit, away from any telephonic access.

Mohamad’s sudden death is a promising political future cut short by heart attack, and I convey the deepest condolences to his bereaved family. The passing of Farid is a great loss to his family, Johor state and the nation.

Pondering on the unkind twist of fate, the poem by H.W. Longfellow which I had learnt in school in the fifties came back to me:

Tell me not, in mournful numbers,
Life is but an empty dream!
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
And things are not what they seem.

Life is real! Life is earnest!
And the grave is not its goal;
Dust thou art, to dust returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul.

Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,
Is our destined end or way;
But to act, that each to-morrow
Find us farther than to-day.

Art is long, and Time is fleeting,
And our hearts, though stout and brave,
Still, like muffled drums, are beating
Funeral marches to the grave.

In the world’s broad field of battle,
In the bivouac of Life,
Be not like dumb, driven cattle!
Be a hero in the strife!

Trust no Future, howe’er pleasant!
Let the dead Past bury its dead!
Act, act in the living Present!
Heart within and God o’erhead!

Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time;

Footprints, that perhaps another,
Sailing o’er life’s solemn main,
A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
Seeing, shall take heart again.

Let us, then, be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait.

RIP Farid.

(Media Statement by DAP MP for Iskandar Puteri Lim Kit Siang in Sibu on Sunday, 22nd September 2019)

Marilah kita semua rakyat Malaysia berganding tenaga untuk menjadikan Malaysia sebuah negara bertaraf dunia dalam semua perkara

Sambutan Hari Raya untuk tahun ini berlangsung berlangsung sebulan selepas ulang tahun pertama Pilihanraya Umum ke-14 yang menyaksikan Malaysia diselamatkan daripada keburukan kleptokrasi global dan perubahan hala tuju negara kearah yang lebih baik.

Jika tidak kerana Pilihanraya Umum yang ke-14 ini, kita sudah tentunya akan mendahului Venezuela dari segi kerosakan — dahulunya salah satu daripada 20 negara terkaya di dunia dan Amerika Latin, yang mewah dengan sistem pendidikan dan perubatan percuma untuk rakyatnya tetapi kini miskin, terkebelakang, dan bankrup.

Kita sekarang berada dalam tahun kedua untuk memperbetulkan hala tuju polisi pembangunan negara bagi memenuhi potensi pembangunan negara kita yang berbilang kaum ini, yang merupakan satu pertemuan harmoni pelbagai tamadun, agama, dan budaya dunia.

Kita haruslah mengambil iktibar dan mempelajari segala nilai murni daripada setiap tamadun, budaya, dan agama yang berbilang ini untuk membina suatu Malaysia Baharu yang boleh menjadi tauladan dunia — sebuah negara yang progresif dan makmur yang dibina dengan adunan pelbagai kaum, bahasa, dan budaya.

Biar apa pun perbezaan kita, sama ada bahasa, kaum, agama, ataupun budaya, marilah kita sentiasa bersatu sebagai rakyat Malaysia dan kekal positif, saling sayang-menyayangi antara satu sama lain, dan jauhkan diri kita daripada kebencian, penipuan, intoleransi, dan ekstremisme. Read the rest of this entry »

Together with the Deputy Minister for Defence, Liew Chin Tong and other party leaders, I paid my last respect to Tan Sri Lee Shin Cheng in Putrajaya.

Tan Sri Lee Shin Cheng’s passing is a great loss to the nation.

He should a role model for all Malaysians to become a great Malaysian if the country is to fulfil the Malaysian Dream to become a world top-class nation.

A self-made man with a humble beginning, Shin Cheng is an example of what could be achieved with hard work, dedication, perseverance, grit and vision by a person even without university education.

Shin Cheng is a rarity in present-day Malaysia. If Malaysia to fulfill her vision to become a world top-class nation in every field of human endeavour, then we must create conditions in a New Malaysia where a Shin Cheng is not a rarity but commonplace in the country.

Malaysia needs not just one Shin Cheng, but an army of Shin Chengs from among all ethnic groups in the country, so that Malaysia can compete with the rest of the world and not continue to be obsessed by divisive and destructive mindset preoccupied about competition among Malaysians.

(Media Statement by DAP MP for Iskandar Puteri Lim Kit Siang in Putrajaya on Monday, 3rd June 2019)

It is now 7.20 pm. According to the Election Commission website unofficial results, DAP has polled 16,012 votes, PBS 4,491 votes, winning
with a stunning majority of 11,521 votes with the three independent candidates losing their deposit with 126 votes, 178 votes and 788 votes respectively.

Unofficially, Vivian Wong is now the Member of Parliament, winning the Sandakan parliamentary seat with a bigger majority than her father, Stephen Wong, who with a majority of 10,098 votes.

In fact, Vivian Wong has made history as she has won the Sandakan parliamentary seat with the greatest majority in the history of Sandakan.

Even more important, Vivian Wong’s victory in the Sandakan by-election is a national turnaround, wiping out the three Pakatan Harapan by-election defeats of Cameron Highlands, Semenyih and Rantau and a knockout
blow to former Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s shameless “Malu Apa Bossku” campaign.

(Media Comment by DAP MP for Iskandar Puteri Lim Kit Siang in Sandakan on Saturday, May 11, 2019)

I was in Jinan, the capital of Shandong Province in China, when I heard the sad news of the death of firefighter Adib Mohd Kassim, and I tweeted as follows:

“Shocked over Adib’s death. He is a Malaysian patriot and hero. His perpetrators must be punished. Let Adib be our inspiration.”

Adib is not just a Malay hero, but a hero for all Malaysians and must be honoured as an inspiration to build a new and united Malaysia which can be a world showcase of a successful plural nation.

It will be great if an annual Adib Award can be started on next year’s National Day to honour Adib’s services and sacrifices as an inspiration for Malaysians to dedicate themselves to the building of a new and united Malaysian nation which is also a showcase to the world of inter-racial, inter-religious and inter-cultural harmony, tolerance and understanding in a plural society.

There are those who want to use Adib’s death to incite racial and religious tensions and unrest in the country.

I do not think this is what Adib would want to see, as he would want to dedicate his life to the building of a united, harmonious, successful and prosperous multiracial, multi-lingual, multi-religious and multi-cultural Malaysian nation.

(Media statement by DAP MP for Iskandar Puteri Lim Kit Siang in Gelang Patah on Christmas Day, December 25, 2018)

Former DAP MP for Raub Ariff Sabri who blogged as Sakmongkol AK47, and who had been struck by a brainstem stroke seventeen months ago in May 2017 and rendered bedridden, has revived his blog and written again on “The Rule of Law”.

Ariff, who was unable to contest in the 14th General Election in May 2018, wrote today, exactly four months after the historic, peaceful and democratic change of Federal Government:
Read the rest of this entry »

The opening session in ten days’ time of the 14th Parliament elected on May 9, 2018 should confirm Malaysia has embarked on the re-building of a New Malaysia with various historic parliamentary reforms and decisions.

The Malaysian Spring of May 9, 2018 should not end up as disastrously as the Arab Spring, and that is why the first meetin of the 14th Parliament from July 16 – August 16, 2018 is very important and crucial in laying the foundation stones for a New Malaysia.

Two weeks after the adjournment of Parliament will be the 61st National Day anniversary on August 31, 2018 while a fortnight later on Sept. 16, will be the 55th Malaysia Day anniversary celebration – and both events are historic occasions for the new Pakatan Harapan government to showcase what is in store for Malaysians to start anew the nation-building process to achieve the Malaysian Dream for the Malaysia to be a world top class nation and not a basket case of a nation hurtling down the trajectory towards a failed, rogue, kakistocratic and kleptocratic state. Read the rest of this entry »

All Malaysians welcome with hope, joy and pride the first Hari Raya Aidifitri after the historic and watershed 14th General Election on May 9, 2018.

Malaysians are rightfully proud that they can now stand tall in the world after effecting a peaceful and democratic transition of power, an affirmation of democracy as a system of governance at a time when democracy is in decline all over the world, and to repudiate the infamy, ignominy and iniquity of a global kleptocracy.

What gives great hope for the future is the exhilarating spirit, energy and power of Malaysians – not Malays, Chinese, Indians, Kadazans or Ibans – coming together to save Malaysia from becoming a failed, kakistocratic, rogue and kleptocratic state, and succeeding against formidable odds and forecasts of all mainstream pollsters and analysts.

It is no exaggeration to say that never before in previous thirteen general elections since 1959 had the country seen such intensity and viciousness in the politics of fear, hate, lies, race and religion as in the 14th General Election.

This has made Malaysia’s second chance to fulfill the Malaysian Dream to be a top world-class nation which is “a beacon of light to a disturbed and distracted world” even more precious and invaluable. Read the rest of this entry »

Tan Sri Mohamad Apandi Ali will be assured of a place in the 1MDB rogues’ gallery with Najib Razak, Jho Low and Arul Kanda if he continues to defy national and international opinion and refuses to resign as Attorney-General.

When the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) on June 15, 2017 filed additional civil forfeiture proceedings to recover a total of US$1.7 billion of 1MDB-linked assets, making it the largest action brought under the US Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative, the Attorney-General Tan Sri Mohamad Apandi Ali came out with a statement within hours to declare that there was nothing new and to express his regret about “insinuations” against the Prime Minister in the DOJ’s latest 1MDB forfeiture suit.

Apandi was telling a lie to claim that “there was nothing new” in the additional litigation proceedings of the US DOJ, and this was why I issued a statement on June 16, 2017 asking whether Apandi had read the ten “killer paragraphs” in US DOJ’s latest 1MDB kleptocratic suit to forfeit 1MDB-assets which directly linked Najib’s RM2.6 billion donation to 1MDB, and if so, how could he suggest that there was nothing new? Read the rest of this entry »

UMNO is confident that Barisan Nasional can defeat me in Iskander Puteri parliamentary constituency, believing that if MCA can get the support of 30 per cent of the Chinese votes, UMNO would do the rest.

UMNO strategists on how Barisan Nasional could defeat me in Iskander Puteri may be right or wrong, as only when the votes are opened and counted on May 9 would we know whether the UMNO/BN plan to end my 52-year political career in Iskandar Puteri will succeed.

But it is very sad that everywhere, BN coalition is just a political contraption to hide UMNO’s real design to further marginalse the other Barisan Nasional component parties.

I am reminded of the words of the UMNO veteran and Johor Baru Member of Parliament, when we met at the steps of the entrance of Parliament in the last week of the 13th Parliament.

He asked whether I was contesting against him in the Johor Baru parliamentary seat, and when I told him that it was not a DAP seat but a PKR seat, Shahrir said:“What DAP wants, DAP gets; what DAP wants, DAP takes”. Read the rest of this entry »

The wife of the Prime Minister, Datuk Paduka Seri Rosmah Mansor yesterday revealed that one of the reasons she started the Permata programme for children was because she wanted to teach them to be respectful of their elders, parents and teachers and singled out the PKR Vide President Nurul Izzah as a person lacking such qualities.

I leave to Nurul to respond to Rosmah’s allegation but Rosmah has only highlighted the basic flaw and failure of the Malaysian education system when the Prime Minister himself has not been sufficiently imbued with basic moral and religious values not to tell lies or to steal!

The two notorious “achievements” of Najib are firstly, to enact the world’s first anti-fake news law, not to combat lies, fake news and false information but to censor exposes about UMNO/BN abuses of power and corruption, in particular the international multi-billion 1MDB money-laundering scandal; and secondly, giving Malaysia’s the international infamy and ignominy of a global kleptocracy. Read the rest of this entry »

Alwi Jantan
Kuala Lumpur
23rd November 2017

Where are my brothers and sisters,
My friends of yester years?
Who together built this nation
With a democratic constitution?

The time has come for us to rise
In unison and in one voice
To save our beloved nation
For our future generations. Read the rest of this entry »

Last night, at the launching ceremony for Johor Pakatan Harapan in Tampoi, I challenged the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Chief Commissioner Tan Sri Dzulkifli Ahmad to explain at the Pakatan Harapan “Sayangi Malaysia, Hapuskan Kleptokrasi” rally in Petaling Jaya on Oct. 14 what MACC had done about fighting corruption and abuses of power in the  1MDB scandal.

I was responding to his statement two days ago that the people are watching me to judge my commitment and seriousness towards fighting corruption and abuses of power.
 
I told Dzukifli that I had stood the test of being judged by the people for 52 years since my involvement in politics in Malaysia, and reminded the MACC head that the people are watching him and the MACC to judge whether they are fakes and phonies, who only dare to go after the “ikan bilis” and the “medium-sized fishes” but dare not touch the “sharks” of corruption.

Let us see whether Dzulkifli has the courage, commitment and zeal against corruption to come to the Pakatan Haeapan “Sayangi Malaysia, Hapuskan Kleptokrasi” rally in Petaling Jaya on Oct. 14 to explain how the MACC had ensured that the 1MDB scandal do not turn Malaysia into a global kleptocracy. Read the rest of this entry »