Yesterday, I expressed confidence that the Anwar Unity Government can survive for five years and graded the survival chances as follows:
- 90% it can survive for one year;
- 80% it can survive for three years; and
- 70% it can survive for the full term of five years.
I stressed that an important element determining the durability of Anwar as the 10th Prime Minister of Malaysia is whether UMNO can play a leading role to reset Malaysia and return the country to the original nation-building principles of plural Malaysia as set out in the Constitution and the Rukun Negara – constitutional monarchy, parliamentary democracy, separation of powers, rule of law, an independent judiciary, Islam as the official religion of the country and freedom of religion for all faiths, good governance, public integrity with minimum corruption, a clean and honest government, meritocracy, respect for human rights, an end to the various injustices and inequalities in the country, a world-class economic, educational, health and social system, and national unity, understanding and harmony from our multi-racial, multi-lingual, multi-religious, and multi-cultural diversity.
I also said that “the disastrous performance of UMNO in the 15th General Election is proof that it is a mistake to believe that the Malay voters are loyal supporters of BOSSKU despite the many 1MDB charges in court, for if this was true, then UMNO should have experienced a revival instead of unprecedented defeat in the national general election last November”.
In the 15th General Election, UMNO lost to Perikatan Nasional (PN) coalition of PAS and Bersatu because they seemed “clean and pure” as compared to UMNO, but the post-15GE developments have shown that PAS and Bersatu are not the inheritors of the first four UMNO Presidents for a clean and honest government – Onn Jaafar, Tunku Abdul Rahman, Razak Hussein and Hussein Onn.
Bersatu has now a bigger corruption scandal than the 1MDB scandal – the RM7.2 billion Jana Wibawa scandal – while PAS has taken a shocking stand that corruption is caused by non-Muslims – ignoring the giant strides which China. India and Indonesia have made in their fight against corruption as against Malaysia in the last three decades.
Malaysia can be a role model for the world as an example of inter-racial, inter-religious, inter-cultural and inter-civilisational understanding, tolerance and harmony or in Bapa Malaysia Tunku Abdul Rahman’s words, “a beacon of light in a difficult and distracted world”.
Bersatu and PAS have nothing to offer Malaysians of diverse races, religions and regions about the future of Malaysia.
From the performance of the PN leaders and MPs in the eight-week meeting of Parliament, they have not only disregarded the Yang di Pertuan Agong’s advice to ensure political stability so that Malaysia can be great again, they have no compunction to rely on lies, falsehoods and fake news to undermine national unity in a plural society by further polarising race and religious relations – as evidenced by PAS President Hadi Awang’s preposterous allegation that DAP is promoting Islamophobia and Bersatu Youth chief, Wan Ahmad Fayhsal Wan Ahmad Kamal’s allegation that there are people selling their kidneys to make ends meet which both could not substantiate,.
The outlook for the Anwar unity government is positive, but it must not self-destruct by embarking on polices which are totally at variance with its core values and the principles of the original nation-building principles for a plural Malaysia which had the support of the first four UMNO Presidents.
The Anwar unity government must enter the general election in the six states of Penang, Selangor, Negri Sembilan, Kedah, Kelantan and Terengganu in July/August to uphold the nation-building principles in the first quarter of a century of Malaysia’s nationhood under the first three Prime Ministers of Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Razak and Tun Hussein Onn for democracy, rule of law, good governance and “unity in diversity” as against a theocratic, divided, failed and kleptocratic state on Malaysia’s Centennial in 2057.