I remember September 1995, one of the darkest periods of DAP history, when the people of Bagan stood up and gave democracy a new lease of life at a time when democracy was in peril and DAP was in trauma after a dismal electoral setback in the 9th General Election, giving the DAP by-election candidate, Lim Hock Seng, a 11,802-vote majority, 100 times the majority which DAP secured four months earlier in the April 1995 general election.
Twenty-seven years later, in the November 19, 2022 15th Malaysian Parliamentary general election, the people of Bagan again stood up and re-elected Lim Guan Eng as the MP for Bagan with a 55,797-vote majority – with the three other contending candidates from MCA, Gerakan and Pejuang all losing their deposits.
I was not a candidate in the 15th General Election but I have been to eight states and clocked some 15,000 kilometres in the two weeks of the election campaign, and everywhere I went, I did not come across any anti-Malay, anti-Chinese, anti-Indian, anti-Dayak, anti-Kadazan or anti-Muslim, anti-Buddhist, anti-Hindu, anti-Christianity sentiment on the ground, confirming that Malaysians are the most tolerant and sensitive of people.
But during the 15th general election, there were political parties and personalities who wanted Malaysians to believe that the Malays and Islam were under threat and faced extinction.
Why was this so? Who wanted to threaten the Malays or wipe out Islam?
Penang had been under a DAP-led government for 14 years from 2008 to 2022.
I invite Malaysians from Perlis to Johore, as well as in Sabah and Sarawak, to cite an instance of ant-Malay or anti-Islam act of the DAP-led Penang State Government from 2,008 to 2,022 to put it right?
I await the answer for I also want to know what were the anti-Malay or anti-Islam acts of the DAP-led Penang State Government in the 14 years from 2008 to 2022.