COMMENT | When I left Malacca 32 years ago to contest in Penang, it was because we did not want to win only in Malacca, we wanted also to win in Penang, Perak, Selangor and now in Johor in our struggle to achieve the 'Malaysian Dream' of us becoming a united and diverse world top-class nation.

When the DAP central executive committee, together with national and state leaders, decided not to use the rocket symbol in the 14th general election (GE14 ), but to use instead the Pakatan Harapan common logo of PKR’s blue eye, it was the DAP’s supreme sacrifice and strategy to ensure that GE14 is not battle of individuals or even political parties, but a national patriotic movement to save Malaysia from becoming a failed, rogue and kleptocratic state.

We do not want just DAP to win, but all the parties in Pakatan Harapan – PKR, Amanah and Bersatu – to win, and we want to send out a message to all Malaysians that the time has come for every one of the 15 million registered voters to rise above self, race, religion, region and even political party, to vote as one Malaysian people, an affirmation that we are Malaysians first and our race, religion, region or even political party, second.

This is particularly a message to the 3.6 million Umno members and one million PAS members to rally around this patriotic campaign to save Malaysia in the 14GE by voting for Harapan.

The decision not to use the rocket has been a difficult, painful, even heart-wrenching one. I had contested in 11 general elections and one by-election under the rocket symbol, and I do not deny that like other DAP leaders, I had shed tears over the decision.

But for the sake of the country and our children’s children, we must be brave to make difficult and even painful decisions.

Making Malays great again

Although the parliamentary constituency of Bukit Katil in Malacca has been redelineated and renamed Hang Tuah Jaya, I hope that the voters of Hang Tuah Jaya will continue to send PKR vice president Shamsul Iskandar Md Akin to represent them in Parliament.

Umno leaders, propagandists and quinoa cybertroopers have tried to create fear among the Malays that if Umno is defeated, the Malays in Malaysia will perish and the Chinese will dominate and take over Malaysia.

Any rational or right-thinking Malay will see through the chicanery and humbug of this immoral politics of fear and politics of race.

Let us remember Malay hero Hang Tuah’s pepatah, “Takkan Melayu hilang di dunia” (The Malay race will not vanish from this earth).

Hang Tuah was right. “Melayu takkan hilang di dunia” under a Harapan federal government, as Harapan will prove that it is more successful, efficient and capable of looking after the rights and interests of all Malaysians, whether Malays, Chinese, Indian, Kadazans or Ibans than under Umno/BN government.

Harapan not only wants to win the mandate to form the Malaysian government in the 14GE, we want to prove in five years that Malaysians, whether Malays, Chinese, Indians, Kadazans or Ibans, will get a better deal under a Harapan government than under an Umno/BN government, for we do not intend to be a one-term government but to continue to win the mandate of the electorate in the 15th, 16th and subsequent general elections.

When Merdeka was achieved in 1957, the Chinese represented some 37 percent of the population. Now the Chinese represents some 24% of the population in Malaysia, which will fall below 20% after 2030.

These are not my figures, but official figures issued by the Umno/BN government.

How then is it possible for Malays to perish and the Chinese take over Malaysia, when the percentage of the Chinese in Malaysia has fallen from 37% in six decades to 24% and will continue to fall to below 20% in a decade’s time?

Who’s the real threat?

To be fair and frank, whether under a Harapan or Umno/BN government, Malays will not perish in Malaysia and political power seized by the Chinese or other races.

How could this happen when there are three critical demographic factors embedded into the Malaysian system – firstly, the increasing Malay percentage in the Malaysian population; secondly, the overwhelming majority of Malaysian voters are Malay voters and thirdly, the overwhelming majority of parliamentary and state assembly constituencies in the country are Malay voter-majority constituencies.

Up till now, no Umno leader, propagandist or cybertrooper has been answer the questions posed by eminent DAP member and national laureate Pak Samad as to how Malays can perish in Malaysia if Umno is defeated, when he asked:

"How are Malays under threat? How can religion (Islam) and Malays be threatened when those in power have been Malay for six decades?

"What have they (Malay leaders) been doing in six decades (if Malays can be under threat)?”

In actual fact, Umno especially under Najib has not been looking after the rights and interest of the Malay populace, but only those of Umno cronies and kleptocrats.

I must thank the long-time Umno MP for Johor Baru, who is Felda chairman and former Minister, Shahrir Abdul Samad, for a unique insight into the mentality and mindset of Umno leaders.

I met Shahrir at the steps of the entrance of Parliament in the last week of the 13th parliamentary session.

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”.

Supreme challenge for M’sians

Shahrir is sorely mistaken, as in Malaysia, there is only one political party that has such a mentality and mindset, conducting itself along the lines, “What I want, I get; what I want, I take.

In fact, in the political hegemony practiced by Umno in BN, then premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad became a hegemon.

It is a sea-change for Mahathir in Harapan, for Mahathir cannot be a hegemon in Harapan but must become a consensus-builder, as Harapan is a coalition of equals, while the BN is a political band led by an Umno hegemon and 12 other subservient and servile political parties.

For instance, dare any one of the other 12 component parties in BN raise the 1MDB scandal, whether in Parliament, cabinet or BN’s supreme council?

The 14th general election is the supreme challenge of Malaysians for the country to join the ranks of normal democracies, where voters can peacefully and democratically change the government through the ballot box without any threat of violence, chaos or catastrophe.

LIM KIT SIANG is DAP parliamentary leader and incumbent Gelang Patah MP.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.