The Tanjong Piai parliamentary by-election is in fact the most despicable and unprincipled by-election campaign waged by the Muafakat Nasional, comprising firstly PAS and UMNO and now, MCA.
In the Malay areas, Malays were told that the Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad was my puppet, that the Malays and Muslims have lost their rights and position in Malaysia. But in Chinese areas, the Chinese were told that I was nothing but Mahathir’s stooge and that the Chinese had lost their rights and position in Malaysia.
In this era of social media, when lies, fake news and hate speech can be spread in a matter of seconds, both the Malay and Chinese voters would have voted against Pakatan Harapan if they do not have the time and opportunity to verify the truth or otherwise of these lies, fake news and hate speech, which include the monstrous lie that I was not born in Batu Pahat in 1941 but came to Malaysia from China in 1957 when I was 16 years old.
The Muafakat Nasional of PAS, UMNO and MCA, is not competing with Pakatan Harapan as to which coalition have the best policies to make Malaysia a successful top world-class nation of unity, justice, freedom, excellence and integrity, as all that PAS, UMNO and MCA want is to wreck and destroy the Pakatan Harapan Government, although they have nothing constructive to propose, in particular about the future of Malaysia.
For instance, does Muafakat Nasional of PAS, UMNO and MCA support the Pakatan Harapan objective to transform Malaysia from a global kleptocracy into a leading nation of integrity in the world?
Of course not, in fact, they deny that Malaysia had been a global kleptocracy and even deny that there is such a thing as a 1MDB scandal – that it was all fake news created by the Pakatan Harapan to throw the Barisan Nasional out of power in the last general election.
On Sunday night, on eve of his Kuala Lumpur High Court decision whether he is to walk free after being acquitted or be ordered to enter his defence for seven charges of abuse of power, corruption and money-laundering involving RM42 million of funds from SRC International, former Prime Minister Najib Razak was in Slim River in Perak to attend a special function where he said that Tanjong Piai parliamentary by-election will be an important step for the Barisan Nasional to return to power by the 15th General Election.
I have said that Pakatan Harapan would have lost the Tanjong Piai parliamentary by-election if polling had been held last week
Tonight, I want to make an urgent call on the voters of Tanjong Piai, in particular the outstation voters, to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat to ensure a Pakatan Harapan win in the by-election to make it clear that after the historic and quite miraculous decision of the 14th General Election of May 9, 2018, Malaysians do not want Barisan Nasional to return to power in Putrajaya with PAS in Muafakat Nasional, reaffirm endorsement of the voters of Malaysia in the 14th GE to reject global kleptocracy and to continue the long journey to make Malaysia a top world-class nation of integrity.
If Najib had walked out of the Kuala Lumpur High Court yesterday as a free man, acquitted of all charges of corruption and abuse of power related to the SRC International charges, all efforts to transform Malaysia from a global kleptocracy to a leading nation of integrity in the world would have come to a halt.
It would have emboldened all who have claimed that the 1MDB scandal is fake news, although it was recently listed by Transparency International as one of the 25 corruption scandals that “shook the world” in the past 25 years.
Transparency International, the global anti-corruption movement, which recently celebrated its 25th anniversary, had released an annual Corruption Perception Index (CPI) ranking and score for the nations in the world since 1995.
If we examine the TI CPI for the past 25 years, we will find one unusual characteristic, that Malaysia is one country which had worsened in both CPI ranking and score while other countries whether in Asia like China, India, Japan, South Korea, or in ASEAN whether Indonesia, Philippines and Vietnam had improved either in CPI ranking or score, and had made progress over the last 25 years in the war against corruption.
But Malaysia achieved its worst TI CPI ranking of No. 62 under the Najib premiership in the 2017 TI CPI and the worst TI CPI score of 4.3 out of 10 points in the 2011 TI CPI.
In fact, in seven of the ten years of Najib premiership, Malaysia’s TI CPI score was below the midpoint of below 50 out of 100 points or five out of 10 points in the earlier indices.
The journey to transform Malaysia from a global kleptocracy to a leading nation of integrity which is ranked among the top 30 to 35 nations in the world will take at least one decade to accomplish.
It is an example why the Pakatan Harapan objective to re-set nation-building policies to become a top world-class nation of unity, justice, freedom, excellence and integrity cannot be completed in one general election cycle, and Malaysians must have the stamina and perseverance to stay the course for at least a decade until the job to build a New Malaysia is done.
There are those who advocate using the Tanjong Piai by-election to teach Pakatan Harapan, Bersatu or DAP a lesson, which is quite misguided and misplaced, for we should not be trifling with the rights and future of our children and children’s children, especially as no other political party or coalition is committed to make Malaysia a top world-class nation of unity, justice, freedom, excellence and integrity,
One message of a loss of Pakatan Harapan in Tanjong Piai parliamentary by-election will be the strength and power of the politics of extremism in race and religion, as well as of lies, fake news and hate speech and that politicians must pander to the extremism of race and religion to survive.
Such consequences will be dire and far-reaching and will be detrimental to the growth of moderate politics of the centre in Malaysia, based on the appeal as to how to unite all Malaysians regardless of race, religion or region, in their capacity as Malaysian citizens rather than setting one race against another or one religion against another.
The Pakatan Harapan government is not a perfect government. We have committed missteps and made mistakes but we are prepared to make amends.
Our commitment to reset nation-building policies to build a New Malaysia which is a top world-class nation of unity, justice, freedom, excellence and integrity is solid and unswerving as we are prepared to be guided and judged by the the Buku Harapan in the 14th General Election.
Let the Tanjong Piai voters prove the Muafakat Nasional of PAS, UMNO and MCA wrong that the 1MDB scandal is fake news when it is the most shameful chapter in Malaysian history which not only brought infamy, ignominy and iniquity to the nation as a global kleptocracy but denied funds which could have been spent for the benefit of the people.
Pakatan Harapan will suffer a major setback in the effort to transform Malaysia from a global kleptocracy into a leading nation of integrity if this plank of the Pakatan Harapan agenda fails to get continuing support from Malaysians.