Kit Siang: If all feel threatened, who's doing the threatening?

Malaysians must get out of the extraordinary trap where every race and religion suspects, distrusts and fears other races and religions, says veteran DAP leader Lim Kit Siang (photo, above).

"Every community fears that its culture and ethnicity is facing an existential threat. But if all communities, whether they be Malays, Chinese, Indian, Kadazan and Iban, feel threatened by other communities, who is doing the threatening?" he asked in a statement today.

Lim said it was unfortunate that not only did the various ethnic groups feel threatened, but Islam feels threatened and the non-Islamic religions also feel threatened.

The Iskandar Puteri MP went on to call for a unity campaign as the twin celebrations of Merdeka Day (Aug 31) and Malaysia Day (Sept 16) loom.

Lim said that the upcoming national celebrations would be most meaningful if every Malaysian adopted the theme of “I am, you are, we are Malaysian”.

"There have been too much negative vibes in the country in the past 15 months, which have seen the rearing of the ugly heads of distrust, suspicion, fear and hate, as a result of the Internet phenomenon enabling lies, falsehoods, fake news and hate speech to travel at the speed of light to pit race against race and religion against religion," he said.

Lim lamented this development, saying the past 15 months should have been a season of hope and expectation of a change for the better in Malaysia, following the democratic and peacefully change of the Federal government for the first time.

"Malaysia has been described as one of the six countries where 'some light shone through these gathering clouds in 2018' against the backdrop of '13th consecutive year of decline in global freedom', but those hopes seem to have dimmed," he said.

Lim also addressed claims by former Malaysian Bar president Ragunath Kesavan that Pakatan Harapan is similar to Barisan Nasional – in an article entitled: “What we have now is BN 2.0”.

"It is fallacious to equate Harapan as BN 2.0, disregarding the groundwork that has been done for further institutional and political reforms and to transform Malaysia into a top world-class nation of unity, freedom, justice, excellence and integrity, with a 'tiger economy' and far-reaching educational reforms."

"But the Harapan government must heed the increasing impatience of the people that there should be greater progress in reforms in various aspects of national life.

"One thing is for sure, that everything will come to nought if Harapan fails in its fifth pillar-promise to create a Malaysia that is inclusive, moderate and respected globally”, he said.

Lim conceded that a lot of work still needed to be done in every field for Harapan to be successful in establishing a New Malaysia.

"What is important is that Pakatan Harapan government must be inexorably set in the trajectory of a New Malaysia as envisioned by the five pillar-promises of Harapan's 14th General Election Manifesto to develop a top world-class nation of unity, freedom, justice, excellence and integrity.

"Malaysia is the confluence of four great civilisations – Islamic, Chinese, Indian and Western. Let us leverage on the best qualities and values of these four great civilisations to build a great Malaysian nation," he added. - Mkini

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