This is a historic occasion for more than one reason.
This is my first trip to Teluk Bahang.
It is also the first time that I am speaking to the local MCA and UMNO leadership.
DAP and the Barisan Nasional have been political enemies for the past 50 years but this should not make us enemies at a personal level.
We however never expected to be co-operating and to be in the same coalition, helping each other.
It is fortunate that in the 15th General Election of 19th November 2022 did not end up with Muhyiddin Yassin or Hadi Awang as the Prime Minister but Anwar Ibrahim as the 10th Prime Minister and head of the Pakatan Harapan/Barisan Nasional/Sabah/Sarawak unity coalition government.
It took three UMNO Prime Ministers and 22 years from 1995 to drop from the inaugural Transparency International (TI) Corruption Perception Index (CP) 1995 ranking of 23 out of 41 countries to 62 out of 180 countries in 2017, but it took Muhyiddin 10 months from March 1 to Dec. 31, 2020 as “backdoor” Prime Minister to drop from 51st ranking in 2019 to 62nd ranking in 2020 after he toppled the Pakatan Harapan government in the infamous Sheraton Move political conspiracy.
In 2016, Muhyiddin asked me for DAP support for him to become Prime Minister but I told him that the DAP had committed itself to make Anwar Ibrahim the Prime Minister of Malaysia.
With his record on corruption when he was the “backdoor” Prime Minister of Malaysia, unconstitutionally suspending Parliament so that there is no good governance and no Parliamentary check-and-balance on the Executive on corruption and abuses of power, Muhyiddin is not fit to become Prime Minister of a plural Malaysia.
It is also lucky that Hadi Awang did not become the Prime Minister of Malaysia as he has proved to be the leading politician who used lies, falsehoods, fake news and hate speech the most – and I am still waiting for him to substantiate his wild and preposterous allegations against me for being anti-Malay, anti-Islam, anti-Rulers, causer of May 13, 1969 riots in Kuala Lumpur and a communist. If Hadi cannot substantiate the wild and preposterous allegations against me, is he going withdraw them and apologise for them?
Anwar Ibrahim in his Ekonomi Madani has outlined the following objectives which if successful, will see Malaysia rise up again to become a great world-class nation, viz:
- Top 30 biggest economies in the world in terms of nominal gross domestic products. Malaysia currently ranks 35.
- Top 12 in IMD World Competitive Index. The current rank is 27.
- Top 25 in the UN Human Development Index. Current rank is 62.
- Top 25 in the Transparency International (TI) Corruption Perception Index (CPI). Current rank is 61.
Perikatan Nasional (PN) of PAS and Bersatu has no plans for Malaysian to rise again to become a great world-class nation. They only want Malaysia to go back 500 years to deny the other races and religions their rightful place under the Malaysian sun.
PN should learn from the founding fathers like the first three Prime Ministers of Malaysia and who were also UMNO Presidents, Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Razak, and Tun Hussein Onn who accept Malayia as a plural nation of many races, languages, religions, and cultures.
Pakatan Harapan (PH) and Barisan Nasional (BN) had never expected to co-operate in the 15th General Election, but the consequences of PH and BN not co-operating to allow Muhyiddin or Hadi to become Prime Minister was too horrifying to contemplate as well as going against the advice of the Yang di Pertuan Agong.
The PH and BN is co-operating not for self-interests for the good of the country.
In fact, for the purpose of ensuring that Malaysia can rise again and become a great world-class nation, the DAP should be prepared to work with the members and supporters of Bersatu and PAS.
We must make a virtue of necessity, remember what the nation’s founding fathers have tried to lay the basis of a successful plural nation by bring the various races, religions and cultures to co-operate and co-exist with each other – and these founding fathers have included the nation’s first three Prime Ministers, Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Razak, Tun Hussein Onn (who were also UMNO Presidents) and other founding fathers of the nation like Tun Ismail, Tun Tan Cheng Lock and Tun V. T. Sambanthan.
The BN-PH candidate in Teluk Bahang is Ahmad Zaki Shah Haedan.
We not only want Zaki to win Teluk Bahang on August 12, we want all PH/BN candidates in the six state polls to win on Saturday, because I believe the members and supporters of PH and BN want Malaysia to rise again and become a successful world=class nation and not to end up as a divided, failed and corrupt state.
Let us make a virtue of necessity. We co-operate for the good of Malaysia, so that Malaysia can be great again.