Chinese New Year (Dragon) Message by Lim Kit Siang on Saturday, 21^st January 2012: 

Let Malaysian Chinese unite as one Dragon and together with other Malaysians, effect a change of power in Putrajaya in 13GE

With the closer approach of the 13th General Elections, whatever the date decided by the Prime Minister to dissolve Parliament, one common aspiration uniting Malaysians is gathering momentum – the possibility and potential for change of power at the federal level for the first time in the nation’s 54 year history.

Let Malaysian Chinese unite as one Dragon in the Year of the Dragon and, together with other Malaysians, effect a change of power in Putrajaya in the 13th General Elections to fulfill Malaysia’s potential as an united, harmonious, democratic, just, prosperous and competitive nation.

In his pre-Chinese New Year walk-about in the Federal Territory on Friday, Datuk Seri Najib Razak claimed that Malaysia is the best place in the world to live in as it provided the “best value for money”.

This is the strongest reason why Malaysia needs a change of federal power because the powers-of-the-day in UMNO and Barisan Nasional suffer from an incorrigible disease of denial complex in refusing the admit the failures of government and nation-building in the past few decades which have driven some two million of the best and brightest Malaysians to foreign lands for they could not get respect and recognition or able to hold their heads high as Malaysian citizens in their own homeland.

If more evidence is needed to prove how cut-off the Barisan Nasional leadership has become from the aspirations of ordinary Malaysians, one need only refer to the message by the MCA President yesterday calling on the Chinese voters not to “experiment” in the next general elections as Barisan Nasional’s (BN) leadership has allowed the community to prosper.

Just as the Malaysian economy has developed in the past few decades despite the misgovernance, corruption and abuses of power of the UMNO/BN leadership, the prosperity of the Chinese community had been achieved despite the failings of the Barisan Nasional leadership.

There is nothing that the Malaysian people need thank the UMNO and Barisan Nasional leadership for as it is the reverse – Malaysians are entitled to blame the UMNO/BN leadership for the lost opportunities of Malaysia becoming a more developed, prosperous and competitive economy and a more united and harmonious nation because of its failures of leadership and governance.

This is why a total change of power in Putrajaya is uppermost in the minds of more and more Malaysians and I call on the Malaysian Chinese to unite and rise as one dragon, together with all other Malaysians, to effect a change of power in Putrajaya in the next general elections to begin a new page of history celebrating the greatness of all Malaysians.

*Lim Kit Siang, DAP Parliamentary Leader & MP for Ipoh Timor