MP SPEAKS | The events of the last 10 days since the watershed 14th general election of May 9, when Malaysians inside and outside the country can once again feel proud, caused someone to comment: “Last week many katak (frogs)! This week many kotak (boxes)!”

The change of the Malaysian government in Putrajaya, the first in 61 years, through a peaceful and democratic process, is a dream that generations since the achievement of Merdeka in 1957 and the formation of Malaysia in 1963 had not thought possible to see come to fruition in their lifetime.

It is an exhilarating experience for Malaysians to breath the air of freedom on May 9, giving substance to theme of GE14 (and the title of my GE14 booklet) “Set Malaysia free.”

But there is a lot of work to do, if the historic events are to herald a New Malaysia – to reset nation-building policies and direction to achieve the Malaysian Dream of being a “beacon of light for a disturbed and distracted world.”

The dream is a nation of diverse races, religions, languages and cultures as a united, harmonious, just, democratic, progressive and prosperous Malaysian nation where Malaysians see themselves as citizens rather than a member of their race, religion, region and socioeconomic position.

GE14 is a national watershed where a New Malaysia can be born. There must not only be systematic and institutional reforms, but also mindset changes to usher this in.

Important national institutions in the country have suffered major loss of public confidence, and it is urgent and imperative to restore public confidence in them – whether the institutions of the executive, parliament and the judiciary, the important organs of the of the state like the Attorney-General’s Chambers, the inspector-general of police, the chief commissioner of the MACC, the Election Commission chair, etc.

We must never again allow the politics of race, hate, lies and falsehood to dominate Malaysian political life.

The difficult process to rebuild public confidence in the damaged national institutions must start immediately, which involves not only new laws, rules and institutions, but the re-opening of the invidious and scandalous cases of injustices of the recent past, like the Teo Beng Hock case.

We must do our utmost to ensure that the Malaysian Spring of May 9 leads to greater freedom, democracy and better life for all Malaysians, regardless of race, religion, region or party affiliation, and not end up disastrously like the Arab Spring of 2010.

LIM KIT SIANG is MP for Iskandar Puteri.

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