DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang picked five topics that would be hot on the lips of Malaysians as they get together to welcome the Year of the Water Dragon as follows.

NONE (1) The attorney-general's appeal against Anwar Ibrahim's acquittal in the Sodomy II trial by the Kuala Lumpur High Court. "This expresses the determination of the top Umno leaders to want to see Anwar ( left ) in jail," he remarked.

(2) The Court of Appeal's decision to overturn the Kuala Lumpur High Court decision to acquit and discharge DAP national chairperson Karpal Singh on the sedition charge relating to Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak's illegal, unconstitutional and undemocratic coup d'etat against the Pakatan Rakyat Perak state government.

Lim said both these incidents have killed off public hopes that Malaysia is firmly set on the road to restoration of national and international confidence in our justice system, with a just rule of law and truly independent judiciary.

(3) The RM300 million National Feedlot Corporation (NFC) scandal, which he said highlights the worsening state of corruption and cronyism in the country.

Even before this scandal, Lim said, the country had fallen to its worst in the Transparency International (TI) Corruption Perception Index (CPI) 2011 ranking of 60 and score of 4.3 in the past 17 years. Lim estimated figures would plunge to new depths in 2012.

azlan "This is why there is no public confidence in the independence, integrity and professionalism of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC).

"It has not been able to shake off its early image as a tool of the BN to hound and persecute Pakatan leaders, resulting in the cold-blooded murder of Teoh Beng Hock - a crime that is still crying out for justice."

(4) The fraud and hypocrisy of the International Conference on the Global Movement of the Moderates was his fourth pick. He said this was when racism, extremism, hate and downright falsehoods reached new heights under Najib's 33-month premiership, with the chief culprit none other than the Umno newspaper, Utusan Malaysia .

"What was most significant about the conference was what did not happen - Najib's failure to respond to my five tests to demonstrate that the prime minister qualifies to be regarded as the voice of moderates in Malaysia."

(5) The fifth is the GE. "There can only be hope and salvation for the country and real change if Malaysians, regardless of race, religion and region, vote out Umno/BN in Putrajaya and install a new Pakatan federal government with Anwar Ibrahim as the seventh prime minister of Malaysia," Lim concluded.