The “Door always open” statement by the Parliamentary Opposition Leader, Hamzah Zainuddin, that he does not discount the prospect of Perikatan Nasional (PN) returning to power is a sombre reminder why the Anwar unity government should have zero tolerance to toxic politics of lies, fear, hate, race and religion which are not only based on falsehoods but could destroy not only the Anwar government and plural Malaysia as well.
A PN government is not concerned about achieving a tiger economy for Malaysia, or restoring Malaysia’s greatness as world-class plural nation in education, health, social or environmental terms, but in a direction which will end up on Malaysia’s Centennial in 2057 as a divided, failed and kleptocratic state.
This was why the first PN government under Muhyiddin Yassin was such a dismal failure in dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic, and despite his violation of the Constitution in illegitimately, illegally and unconstitutionally suspending Parliament in January 2021 to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic, ending up the six-month suspension of Parliament with ten times more Covid-19 cases and 24 times more Covid-19 deaths in cumulative total for these two figures than at the start of the suspension of Parliament.
Hamzah must be proved wrong that PN could capture Selangor state power in the coming state general elections and that PN has a 50-50 chance to capture Negri Sembilan.
The Anwar unity government must work out a strategy in the six state general elections for Selangor, Negri Sembilan, Penang, Kedah, Kelantan and Terengganu that will send out the message that there is no such thing as an irresistible “green tide” phenomenon in Malaysian politics and on the contrary the six state general elections results point to a strengthening of the likelihood that the Anwar unity government can last five years.
The six state general elections is a mini-15 General Election, although it will be held after the 15GE on Nov. 19, 2022.
Hamzah’s speech at the Concorde Club is a reaffirmation that PAS under its President, Hadi Awang will continue to camouflage under PN, as Hadi has turned out to be the biggest practitioner of the toxic politics of lies, fear, hate, race and religion in Malaysia.
The prospect that the Anwar unity government can last five years, and there will be political stability to carry out the greatest job in Malaysia – the stopping of the national decline after six decades of nationhood, and a reset of nation-building policies to return to the original nation-building principles the nation’s founding fathers have written into the Constitution and the Rukun Negara – by first restoring foreign investor confidence and stem the emigration of highly-skilled talents from Malaysia, especially in the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) sectors, is the greatest challenge before all Malaysians today.
Let all Malaysians rise up to the occasion to make Malaysians all over the world proud to be Malaysians again.