In the past week, I have visited 12 DAP constituencies and one UMNO constituency in Selangor and three DAP constituencies in Negri Sembilan.
I am 82 years old. A few days ago, I fell in my house and I walk with a limp.
I am not a candidate in the six state polls on August 12 but I am as busy as any candidate, visiting the three states of Selangor, Penang and Negri Sembilan because Malaysians must not miss the opportunity to end the national decline in the past few decades and to rise again to be a great world-class nation, starting on Saturday, August 12.
At the end of this month is the 66th National Day celebration and on Sept. 16 the 60th Malaysia Day celebrations.
Let us make the 66th National Day celebrations and the 60th Malaysia Day celebrations the most meaningful in the nation’s history, because the nation has stopped national decline in the last few decades and set to rise again to become a great world-class nation.
Periktan Nasional (PN) of PAS and Bersatu want to go back 500 years and deny the other races and religions their rightful place under the Malaysian sun.
They 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 is a plural nation of many races, languages, religions and cultures.
Rukun Negara and Vision 2020 are for a plural Malaysia.
Malaysia can only succeed as a great world-class nation if there are two pre-conditions – political stability and the unity of Malaysians, regardless of race, religion or region.
PN leaders now argue that the Malaysian Constitution is not for a plural Malaysia.
They claim that a corrupt Malay Prime Minister is better than a non-corrupt non-Malay Prime Minister.
They claim that if DAP comes to power, there will be a Chinese Prime Minister.
The DAP has the most number of MPs in the Anwar unity government. Is there a Chinese Prime Minister?
I am on record as saying that I do not see a non-Malay Prime Minister during my lifetime or my children’s lifetime.
In the United States, a black man Barack Obama became the President of the United States – but this took place some 230 years after the establishment of the United States in 1776.
I hope that Malaysia would not need 230 years before a non-Malay can become Prime Minister, but whether there will be a non-Malay Prime Minister in the 22nd century from 2,100 to 2,199 or 23rd century from 2,200 to 2,299 will depend on whether the politics of identity will not continue to be so primordial and elemental as a political force in the Malaysian political landscape as today.
But the political reality is that for the next hundred years, the Prime Minister of Malaysia will be a Malay.
I can vouch that for the band of Malaysians who came together 58 years ago to form the Democratic Action Party in pursuit of a Malaysian Dream of a country where all Malaysians, regardless of race, religion or region, can feel proud of their place under the Malaysian sun.
We were in politics not because of what we can get out of political involvement, but what we can give to the country in terms of helping to make this country of ours more united, democratic, just and progressive – a shining example to a troubled and divided world as to how a plural nation of diverse races, religions, languages and cultures can build a harmonious and prosperous nation.
We are not asking the Malays, Chinese, Indians, Kadazans, Dayaks or Muslims, Buddhists, Christins, Hindus, Sikhs and Taoists to lose their ethnic or religious identity and ties, but they must treasure the common Malaysian bond, to be Malaysians first and their ethnic and religious identities second.
We want all Malaysians do dream the Malaysian Dream and let us start this Saturday on August 12, 2023.