Four years on, Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak has sadly lost his chance to redefine a Malaysia for all Malaysians when he decided to fall back on the race-centric Bumiputra Economic Empowerment (BEE), said DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang.

Lim said that with the BEE, Najib has lost the plot on his two most important policy reforms - a needs-based New Economic Model (NEM) and the 1Malaysia concept - which promised Malaysians a new era.

"Najib had virtually renounced his reformist credentials as prime minister for all Malaysians as well as the torch-bearer for national transformation, whether governmental, political or economic," Lim said in a press statement.

The Gelang Patah MP, however, said that he was not surprised that Najib had abandoned his own policies, as he never really bought into them.

"I had specifically asked (deputy prime minister) Muhyiddin Yassin and all the cabinet ministers whether they were prepared to declare that they were 'Malaysian first' and their race second,” Lim said of a challenge he issued to BN leaders in March 2010.

 

“There was total silence from all the cabinet ministers at the time after Muhyiddin had declared that he was ‘Malay first’ and only then a Malaysian.”

He noted that Najib also dodged the same question when asked later at the Malaysian Students Leaders’ Summit in July 2011.

Lim added that he only knows of one Umno minister, Culture and Tourism Minister Nazri Abdul Aziz, who dared to publicly declare that he is Malaysian first and Malay second.

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