Malaysia is at the crossroads – to move forward to be a top world-class nation with an inclusive nation-building policy leveraging on the best qualities of the diverse races, religions, languages and cultures or to be relegated to the trajectory towards a failed state obsessed by divisive and intolerant race and religious politics.

This challenge to Malaysian nation-building was highlighted by two recent events – firstly, the formal union of UMNO and PAS and secondly, the first post-14GE Barisan Nasional Supreme Council meeting after it had been reduced from 14 to three communal-based political parties, which decided that there was no consensus to dissolve Barisan Nasional.

The last few months have seen an intensification of the toxicity and viciousness of the politics of lies, hate, fear, race and religion in the country, which were first used in the 14th General Election campaign with three-fold objective:

1. To demonise the DAP as anti-Malay and anti-Islam;

2. To paint Pakatan Harapan as DAP stooge and puppet, and

3. To incite fear and panic that Malays will lose political power, perish and become strangers in their own land under a Pakatan Harapan government. Read the rest of this entry »

Kenyataan Media oleh Ahli Parlimen DAP Iskandar Puteri Lim Kit Siang di Kuala Lumpur pada hari Khamis, 7 Mac 2019:

Pakatan Harapan perlu menggunakan formula yang telah berjaya menumbangkan Barisan Nasional pada Pilihan Raya Umum ke-14 bagi melawan serangan terbaharu UMNO-PAS yang memainkan politik pembohongan, kebencian, ketakutan, perkauman dan keagamaan

Pakatan Harapan perlu menggunakan formula yang telah berjaya menumbangkan Barisan Nasional pada Pilihan Raya Umum ke-14 bagi melawan serangan terbaharu UMNO-PAS yang memainkan politik pembohongan, kebencian, ketakutan, perkauman dan keagamaan.

Jika Pakatan Harapan dapat menewaskan politik pembohongan, kebencian, ketakutan, perkauman dan keagamaan yang dimainkan Barisan Nasional dan PAS, sekalipun dilakukan secara berasingan, pada Pilihan Raya Umum ke-14 yang lalu, tidak ada sebab mengapa ia tidak boleh sekali lagi digunakan untuk menyerang balas kempen pembohongan, kebencian, ketakutan, perkauman dan keagamaan yang dibawa UMNO-PAS.

Sebelum Pilihan Raya Umum ke-14, UMNO mendabik dada bahawa mereka akan memperolehi kemenangan ekoran yakin dengan kempen pembohongan, berita palsu, kebencian dan ketakutan yang dimainkan mereka antaranya seperti berikut: Read the rest of this entry »

Kenyataan Media oleh Ahli Parlimen DAP Iskandar Puteri Lim Kit Siang di Kuala Lumpur pada Selasa, 5 Mac 2019:

Cabaran buat Pakatan Harapan selepas mengalami kekalahan dalam Pilihan Raya Kecil Semenyih adalah untuk mencari formula bagi membangkitkan sokongan dan harapan di kalangan rakyat bahawa Pakatan Harapan komited terhadap agenda pembinaan Malaysia Baharu yang memberi manfaat kepada semua rakyat Malaysia dan generasi masa depan, tanpa perlu menjadi lebih UMNO dari UMNO atau lebih PAS dari PAS

Cabaran buat Pakatan Harapan selepas mengalami kekalahan dalam Pilihan Raya Kecil Semenyih adalah untuk mencari formula bagi membangkitkan harapan dan sokongan di kalangan rakyat bahawa Pakatan Harapan komited terhadap agenda pembinaan Malaysia Baharu yang memberi manfaat kepada semua rakyat Malaysia dan generasi masa depan, tanpa perlu menjadi lebih UMNO dari UMNO atau lebih PAS dari PAS.

Tahun 2019 akan menjadi tahun terpenting dalam sejarah negara yang mana akan menentukan sama ada Malaysia Baharu yang mahu dibentuk gabungan Pakatan Harapan yang terdiri daripada Bersatu, PKR, Amanah dan DAP mampu digerakkan atau sekadar khayalan semata-mata.
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UMNO Acting President Datuk Mohamad Hasan said that Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz’s on vernacular schools are merely his personal view and does not represent that of UMNO.

Is this acceptable when Nazri speaks in his capacity as Barisan Nasional Secretary-General.

Furthermore, does this mean that UMNO endorses Nazri’s questioning of non-Malay and non-Muslim as Finance Minister, Attorney-General and Chief Justice?

This appears to be the unavoidable conclusion from Mohamad Hasan’s silence on the matter, although it is clear that such a position would be going against the Malaysian Constitution and its nation-building principles. Read the rest of this entry »

Suhakam Chairman Tan Sri Razali Ismail is to be commended for denouncing former UMNO Minister Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz for inciting racial hatred in our plural society.

It is most deplorable that to win votes in the Semenyih by-election, Nazri is prepared to incite racial hatred and advance a narrow, intolerant and extremist narrative in Malaysia by questioning the appointment of non-Malays and non-Muslims as the Finance Minister, Attorney-General and Chief Justice – in total disregard of history and the nation-building principles embodied in the Malaysian Constitution.
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I first visited Kota Kinabalu 50 years ago on the day of infamy for Malaysia – the May 13, 1969 racial riots.

I left Kuala Lumpur for the flight to Kota Kinabalu on the morning on May 13, 1969 to help the independent Kota Kinabalu parliamentary candidate as polling in Sabah and Sarawak in 1969 were to be held after Peninsular Malaysia, which was held on May 10, 1969.

I was just elected Member of Parliament for Bandar Melakja and it was in answer for the SOS call from the Independent Parliamentary candidate for Kota Kinabalu that I flew to Kota Kinabalu that morning – not realising that May 13, 1969 was to be a day infamy for Malaysia. Read the rest of this entry »

Yesterday, I said the many national holidays in Malaysia afford Malaysians the opportunities for reflection and review as to why the country failed to achieve greater goals, such as pondering how Malaysia could transform from a global kleptocracy to a leading nation of integrity in the world.

Just as ordinary Malaysians saved Malaysia from a global kleptocracy and a failed state, the challenge of whether Malaysia transforms from a global kleptocracy to a leading nation of integrity in the world will rest on their shoulders.

Similarly, ordinary Malaysians also have to wrestle with another great conundrum of the nation – whether Malaysia can succeed in nation building out of the diverse races, religions, languages and cultures that have made Malaysia their home to become a model of an united, tolerant, successful, progressive and prosperous plural entity in a complex and plural world. Read the rest of this entry »

Malaysia has many national holidays which provide Malaysians more opportunities for reflection and review as to why one or the country failed to achieve greater goals or achievements.

The 2019 Chinese New Year is similarly a useful occasion for a national review by all Malaysians of the many great questions confronting the nation.

One of these great issues of the nation is undoubtedly how Malaysia transform from a global kleptocracy to a leading nation of integrity in the world.
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The 14th General Election of May 9, 2018 has rightly been described as a battle which was miraculously won by Malaysians who had the patriotism, fortitude and passion for justice, freedom, integrity and unity but we have only won a battle and not a war.

Let us have the stamina, perseverance and foresight not only to win a battle on May 9, 2018 but to win the war to build a New Malaysia for future generations of Malaysians.
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On Thaipusam, I am always reminded of two great icons for the New Malaysia the Pakatan Harapan wants to build after the last general election: Karpal Singh and Nik Aziz.

On Thaipusam Day in 2013, Karpal Singh had a visit at his home from Tok Guru Nik Aziz Nik Mat.

The then-menteri besar of Kelantan and mursyidul am (spiritual leader) of PAS celebrated his own 82nd birthday in Karpal’s home and offered him a slice of his birthday cake. Read the rest of this entry »

2018, Malaysians stood tall for the first time in many years and shocked themselves as well as the world by carrying out a peaceful and democratic transition of power in Putrajaya to give hope to Malaysians and the world not to give up on democracy, however noisy and messy it might be, as a system of governance.

2019 will probably be the most decisive year in the nation’s history which will decide whether the New Malaysia the Pakatan Harapan coalition of DAP, Bersatu, PKR and AMANAH want to build is a work-in-progress or a sheer chimera. Read the rest of this entry »

Merry Christmas to all Christians in Malaysia.

Let us celebrate this first Christmas after the historic decision on May 9, 2018 to bring about a peaceful and democratic transition of power in the six decades of Malaysian history,

Let us unite to Save Malaysia from a global kleptocracy by becoming a leading nation in integrity.

Even better , let us fulfil our destiny to be a world top-class nation in various fields of human endeavour, including becoming among the world’s top nations where there is peace, tolerance, acceptance and co-existence among the diverse religions in the country. Read the rest of this entry »

The highlight of the visit of the DAP delegation to China is undoubtedly the briefing and crossing of the six-lane Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge – a 55-kilometre (34 mi) bridge–tunnel system which is both the longest sea crossing and the longest fixed link on earth.

In our briefing, we were informed that the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge (HZMB) was designed to last for 120 years and built with a cost of 126.9 billion yuan (US$ 18.77 billion).

The cost of constructing the Main Bridge was estimated at 51.1 billion yuan (US$ 7.56 billion) funded by bank loans and shared among the governments of China, Hong Kong and Macau.
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A modern-day Lewis Caroll would have found the Malaysian political landscape a fertile field to fire his imagination if he wanted to write Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland 2.0.

We have the leader of a political party which for six decades until the recent General Election had claimed the divine right to govern the country succumbing to pressures to relinquish his post as he has failed to give any direction to his party after a crushing defeat in the last general election. Read the rest of this entry »