MP SPEAKS | DAP musn't work with kleptocrats but flexible to build M'sia
MP SPEAKS | The political crisis in Perak has ended with a new mentri besar from Umno. What are the lessons to be learnt from the six-day Perak political crisis?
Firstly, the Perak crisis is likely to be the last political crisis in 2020, which has seen many political crises including the Sheraton Move in February which toppled a legitimate Pakatan Harapan government and replaced it with a backdoor illegitimate Perikatan Nasional (PN) government.
Also on the list of political crises was the Sabah election which sparked the third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic which has yet to be brought under control and also the controversial voting of Budget 2021 in Parliament on Nov 26.
But we should go further back to the historic 14th general election on May 9, 2018 which toppled a then seemingly invincible BN government and the kleptocratic regime of then prime minister Najib Abdul Razak.
After the May 9 watershed, the Umno leadership had been obsessed with one objective – to restore Umno's hegemony in Malaysian politics and its decision to misuse the information age to unleash a most dangerous and poisonous campaign of falsehood and fake news to make the Malays in the country believe that their rights, position, and future are at stake because DAP is in power...
MP SPEAKS | The political crisis in Perak has ended with a new mentri besar from Umno. What are the lessons to be learnt from the six-day Perak political crisis?
Firstly, the Perak crisis is likely to be the last political crisis in 2020, which has seen many political crises including the Sheraton Move in February which toppled a legitimate Pakatan Harapan government and replaced it with a backdoor illegitimate Perikatan Nasional (PN) government.
Also on the list of political crises was the Sabah election which sparked the third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic which has yet to be brought under control and also the controversial voting of Budget 2021 in Parliament on Nov 26.
But we should go further back to the historic 14th general election on May 9, 2018 which toppled a then seemingly invincible BN government and the kleptocratic regime of then prime minister Najib Abdul Razak.
After the May 9 watershed, the Umno leadership had been obsessed with one objective – to restore Umno's hegemony in Malaysian politics and its decision to misuse the information age to unleash a most dangerous and poisonous campaign of falsehood and fake news to make the Malays in the country believe that their rights, position, and future are at stake because DAP is in power.
The campaign was doubly false – that the DAP was anti-Malay, anti-Islam, and anti-rulers and that the DAP was the controlling power in the 22-month Pakatan Harapan government when it was in fact a Pakatan Harapan coalition government.
Umno teamed up with PAS to expand its poisonous campaign from the politics of race to the politics of religion and both struck gold at the end of December 2018.
They were able to exploit the proposed ratification of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (Icerd) and incite and inflame the Malays when DAP knew nothing about the proposed Icerd ratification.
The DAP was demonised and painted as anti-Malay, anti-Islam, and anti-royalty for spearheading Icerd's ratification, when it was all the work of the then Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah.
For 32 months, the Umno and PAS propaganda of lies and falsehoods – joined by Bersatu in the past 10 months – was designed to reach a climax in the 15th general election to inflame Malay feelings and passions to restore Umno to a hegemonic status, which would have condemned Malaysia firmly in the trajectory of a failed state, kleptocracy, and kakistocracy.
This is because the plural society of Malaysia, of diverse races, languages, cultures, and religions, would be increasingly and may be irredeemably polarised, and it will be impossible to unite Malaysians regardless of race, religion, and politics as Malaysia would have become a kleptocracy, kakistocracy, and a failed state.
Only yesterday, the head of a multinational investment bank, Credit Suisse Malaysia’s Managing Director and Head of Equities Stephen Hagger warned that Malaysia will suffer if corrupt political leaders and figures continue to walk free of corruption charges.
Hagger said the recent downgrading of the country by American credit rating agency Fitch Ratings was such an example.
Former CIMB chairperson and brother of the former prime minister, Nazir Razak said at a recent Chevening Alumni Leadership Talk:
"The system (the 1970-designed system of NEP) is no longer fit for purpose and that Malaysia is in dire need of another system reset. I will leave it to the historians to argue about when and why the system fell into decline.
"But since the Asian Financial Crisis of the late 1990’s we have been under-firing economically, growing apart as communities, losing our best talents. and falling behind newly-emerging countries like Indonesia and Vietnam for FDI.
"The 4th Industrial Revolution will only compound under-performance of economies that are not leveraging their best talents, struggle to attract quality investments, and defer to vested interest and incumbents: Where innovation and entrepreneurship are stifled."
This morning, the Perak sultan said that the swearing-in of the third Perak menteri besar since the 14th general election was a reflection of failure in the Perak legislative assembly.
The sultan reminded the state lawmakers that they were elected only because of the trust shown by the people.
“The people have chosen them to carry out the responsibility to provide services and upgrade their economy as well as their social needs.
“The people, especially the poor, are affected by the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, where some have lost their jobs and income.
“The people should not be betrayed due to the influence of the emotional grudge over conservative political thinking.”
Malaysia at the crossroads
If we continue in the trajectory of a kleptocratic, kakistocratic, and failed state, what will Malaysia be like in the year 2050? Can Malaysia in year 2050 get out of the trajectory of a kleptocratic, kakistocratic, and failed state?
63 years ago, when I was 16 years old, I wrote in the class magazine:
"We, the youths of today, must now prepare ourselves to ‘serve to lead’…The role of youths in independent Malaya is now more pressing and difficult for the inexperienced shoulders of the youths of this generation. We will be the first true independent shoulders to bear this responsibility.
"Let us then work with greater zeal and will, that our standard be not flying at half-mast.To accomplish this, we must bear in mind that cooperation between the different races is of paramount importance, working on a common basis that we are imbued with the spirit of tolerance, cooperation, and loyalty. So let us ‘live and let live’ in friendly fraternity and harmony."
The DAP was founded 54 years ago to make Malaysia succeed as a world-class nation in various fields of human endeavour and not to be against any race, language, religion, or culture. We are determined to make our mission succeed.
For this purpose, DAP must always remain true and steadfast to our principles so we always remain a principled political party.
We will not cooperate with kleptocrats and those who abused their powers for personal gain but we must be open-minded and flexible to cooperate with Malaysians of integrity, regardless of race, religion, or politics, to build a united, just, prosperous, and great Malaysia.
LIM KIT SIANG is the DAP MP for Iskandar Puteri.
The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.
