Can the Malay Dignity Congress lead the way for a Malaysian campaign to achieve a Golden Age for Malaysia  as a top world-class nation of unity, justice, freedom, excellence and integrity

Dapatkah Kongres Maruah Melayu menjadi perintis kepada sebuah kempen untuk mencapai Era Kegemilangan untuk Malaysia sebagai sebuah negara terunggul di mata dunia yang berteraskan perpaduan, keadilan, kebebasan, kecemerlangan, dan integriti

Saya telah ditanya: “Kenapa takut Melayu Bersatu?”

Saya tidak takut kepada Melayu Bersatu, jika perkara ini boleh menjadi perintis kepada satu kempen yang melingkumi semua rakyat Malaysia untuk mencapai satu Era Kegemilangan untuk Malaysia.

Sama ada Melayu Bersatu, Cina Bersatu, India Bersatu, Kadazan Bersatu, Dayak Bersatu, ataupun Orang Asli Bersatu sekalipun, saya akan berasa risau jika ia diasaskan kepada berita palsu dan ucapan kebencian yang bertujuan untuk menghasut polarisasi perkauman dan keagamaan atau lebih buruk lagi, keganasan perkauman. Terutamanya apabila terdapat sesetengah pihak yang cuba mengambil kesempatan politik yang dengan secara terbukanya menyatakan kenyataan seperti “Rindu 13 Mei! Rindu darah!”.

Semua rakyat Malaysia, tanpa mengira kaum atau agama, sepatutnya berasa bimbang dengan peningkatan berita palsu dan ucapan kebencian sehingga terdapat satu artikel diterbitkan yang bertajuk: “Remembering Nik Aziz as nation drowns in polemics of race and religion”

Salah satu tugas terpenting dalam pembinaan negara adalah menyelamatkan Malaysia daripada ditenggelamkan di dalam polemik perkauman dan keagamaan, dan seperti yang diperkatakan oleh Presiden PKR, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim semalam di Persidangan Perlembagaan dan Kedaulatan Undang-undang LawAsia, pemimpin politik perlu cuba untuk mengubah topik percakapan negara daripada kerangka perkauman dan keagamaan kepada satu fokus terhadap kebajikan rakyat terpinggir.

Bersama dengan ahli akademik dan profesional, Anwar menjelaskan yang perkara ini adalah satu cara untuk menuntut semula naratif daripada “pentaksub”.

Kerana inilah, kita semua patut merenung semula kenyataan bekas presiden Majlis Perundingan Agama Buddha, Kristian, Hindu, Sikh dan Tao Malaysia, A Vaithilingam yang mengatakan bahawa arwah Nik Aziz Nik Mat pastinya akan terkejut dengan penyebaran kata-kata yang bersifat rasis dan anti-agama yang kini tersebar luas di ruang siber di Malaysia.

Kerana inilah kita semua sebagai rakyat Malaysia tidak boleh membenarkan pihak oportunis ini berjaya kerana mereka hanya mahukan situasi dalam dunia sebenar kita menjadi seperti yang digambarkan melalui berita palsu dan ucapan kebencian yang disebarkan di media sosial.

Vaithilingam juga berkata bahawa Nik Aziz tidak akan bersetuju dengan kerjasama PAS bersama Umno kerana beliau adalah pemimpin Islamik yang berpandangan jauh yang sedar akan realiti masyarakat majmuk Malaysia.

Negara ini seakan-akan kehilangan arah.

Lima hari yang lepas, Republik Rakyat China telah menyambut ulang-tahunnya yang ke-70.

Empat puluh tahun yang lepas, apabila orang Cina Malaysia melawat China, dia dapat merasakan yang dia datang daripada sebuah negara yang maju ke sebuah negara yang miskin dan terkebelakang. Hari ini, perkara sebaliknya yang berlaku — kerana lawatan daripada Malaysia ke China kelihatan seperti satu lawatan ke sebuah negara yang lebih membangun, maju, dan makmur.

Dalam tempoh reformasi ekonominya selama 40 tahun, Bank Dunia melaporkan yang China telah berjaya mengeluarkan 850 juta rakyatnya daripada kepompong kemiskinan sementara KDNKnya meningkat sebanyak 24 kali.

Bagaimana Malaysia apabila dibandingkan dengan China, yang tidak mempunyai Dasar Ekonomi Baharu?

KDNK per kapita Malaysia telah meningkat sebanyak 8 kali ganda dalam tempoh empat dekad yang lepas, sementara itu, Pelapor Khas Kemiskinan Ekstrem dan Hak Asasi Manusia PBB, Profesor Philip Alston menyatakan baru-baru ini yang Malaysia telah mengurangkira jumlah rakyatnya yang berada di bawah paras kemiskinan. Di mana kadar 0.4% ataupun 27000 isi rumah berada di bawah pendapatan garis kemiskinan adalah satu anggaran yang terlalu rendah.

Minggu lepas, terdapat laporan yang mengatakan Malaysia ketinggalan di belakang Vietnam, yang KDNK per kapita-nya meningkat 20 kali ganda dalam tempoh empat dekad yang lalu.

Kita tidak boleh terus menerus dibelenggu oleh isu-isu palsu yang ditimbulkan melalui berita palsu dan ucapan kebencian. Kita harus mara dengan berani ke arah satu Malaysia Baharu, yang berdaya saing dengan seluruh dunia dan bukannya terus menerus bergaduh sesama sendiri dan sekaligus membuktikan kepada dunia yang Malaysia adalah satu kejayaan pertemuan empat peradaban terhebat dunia — Melayu/Islam, Cina, India, dan Barat — dan bukanlah satu kegagalan konflik peradaban.

Dapatkah Kongres Maruah Melayu menjadi perintis kepada sebuah kempen untuk mencapai Era Kegemilangan untuk Malaysia sebagai sebuah negara terunggul di mata dunia yang berteraskan perpaduan, keadilan, kebebasan, kecemerlangan, dan integriti.

(Kenyataan Media Ahli Parlimen DAP Iskandar Puteri di Gelang Patah pada hari Sabtu 5 Oktober 2019)

==================================

I was asked:
 “Kenapa takut Melayu Bersatu?”

I am not afraid of Melayu Bersatu, if this is to lead the way for a Malaysian campaign for achieve a Golden Age for Malaysia as a top world-class nation of unity, justice, freedom, excellence and integrity.

Whether it is Melayu Bersatu, Chinese Bersatu, Indians Bersatu, Kadazan Bersatu, Dayak  Bersatu or Orang Asli Bersatu, I would be afraid if it is based on fake news and hate speech to incite inter-racial and inter-religious polarisation and even conflagration, especially with desperados and opportunists who could openly exclaim with impunity racist and irresponsible statements like  “Rindu May 13! Rindu  Darah!”

All Malaysians, regardless of race or religion, should be concerned at the recent upsurge of fake news and hate speech to incite  inter-racial and inter-religions polarisation, to the extent that there was a headline in an electronic media yesterday:
“Remembering Nik Aziz as nation drowns in polemics of race and religion”

One of the most urgent tasks of nation-building today is to save Malaysia from being drowned in the polemics of race and religion, and as PKR President Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said at the regional lawyer association Lawasia’s Constitution and Rule of Law conference yesterday, political leaders should try to shift the national conversation away from race and religion to one focused on addressing the welfare of the poor.

Working alongside academics and professionals, Anwar said this could be a way to redeem the narrative from “
bigots
”.

This is why what the former Malaysian Consultative Council of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism and Taoism president A Vaithilingam said about the late Nik Aziz Nik Mat would have been horrified at the proliferation of racist and anti-religious remarks that are now commonplace in the Malaysian cybersphere bears pondering by all Malaysians.

All the more why Malaysians should not allow the desperados and opportunists to succeed as they want the real life  in Malaysia to emulate the chaos, licence  and anarchy in the cyberspace as a result of untrammelled dissemination of  fake news and hate speech to incite inter-racial and inter-religious polarisation.

Vaithilingam also said that Nik Aziz would not have approved of PAS’ alliance with Umno as he was a far-sighted Islamic leader keenly aware of Malaysia’s multi-cultural composition.

The nation seems to have lost its way.

Five days ago, The People’s Republic of China celebrated its 70th anniversary.

Forty years ago, when Malaysian Chinese visited China, it was a from a rich country to a poor and backward nation. Today, the reverse is taking place – as a visit from Malaysia to China is to a more developed, advanced  and more prosperous nation.

In 40 years of its economic reforms, the World Bank reported that China has brought 850 million people out of poverty while its per GDP had increased 24 times.

How does Malaysia compare with China, which does not have a New Economic Policy (NEP)?

Malaysia’s per capita GDP increased by some eight times in the past four decades, while the United Nations special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, Professor Philip Alston, said recently that Malaysia had undercounted the number of poor, that the reported 0.4 per cent of households or approximately 27,000 households below the poverty line income (PLI) is a gross underestimation.

Last week, there were reports that Malaysia is even losing out to Vietnam which increased its per capita GDP by over 20 times in the past four decades.

We should not continue to be bogged down by false issues  created by the upsurge of  fake news and hate speech but to strike out courageously in the direction of a New Malaysia, compete with the rest of the world instead of fighting among ourselves on fictitious issues, and prove to the world that Malaysia is a success from the confluence of the four great civilisations in the world – Malay/Islamic, Chinese, Indian and Western – instead of a basket-case of a failure from the Clash of Civilisations.

Can the Malay Dignity Congress tomorrow  lead the way for a Malaysian campaign to achieve a Golden Age for Malaysia  as a top world-class nation of unity, justice, freedom, excellence and integrity?

(Media Statement by DAP MP for Iskandar Puteri Lim Kit Siang in Gelang Patah on Saturday, October 5, 2019)

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Table the Reports of the Council of Eminent Persons (CEP) and the Institutional Reform Committee (IRC) as a White Paper in Parliament and  refer it to the Caucus on Institutional Reform and Governance which should submit recommendations to  Parliament within six weeks  on actions which should be taken  on the  CEP  and IRC Reports

When the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom ruled last month that the British Prime Minister’s suspension of Parliament for five weeks was unlawful, many Malaysians must have asked when the Malaysian judiciary would demonstrate similar independence to uphold the constitutional doctrine of the separation of powers in Malaysia.

As the Chief Justice, Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat said at the Lawasia Constitutional & Rule of Law Conference 2019 on the theme “Constitutional Government: The Importance of Constitutional Structures and Institutions”, any attempt to undermine the strict separation of powers is an affront to democracy specifically and to constitutionalism generally.

Although she declared that  “
No particular branch in this country is superior to one another. Only the Federal Constitution reigns supreme
”, Malaysians needs to be convinced that institutional reforms are in place to uphold this important constitutional principle.

This is why it is timely that the Reports of the Council of Eminent Persons (CEP) and the Institutional Reform Committee (IRC) should be tabled as a White Paper in Parliament and  the Reports should be referred to the Caucus on Institutional Reform and Governance chaired by PKR President and MP for Port Dickson Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim which should submit recommendations to Parliament within six weeks on the actions which should be taken on the  CEP and IRC Reports.

This is to ensure that the Parliamentary meeting starting tomorrow will be able to debate proposals for institutional and political  reforms which is one of the five pillar-promises in the  Pakatan Harapan 2018 General Election manifesto before it adjourns on December 5, 2019.

(Media Statement by DAP MP for Iskandar Puteri Lim Kit Siang in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday, 6th October 2019)

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Lets nip in the bud all conspiracy theories of Pakatan Harapan Government cracking up during the 2020  budget parliamentary meeting from October to December as Pakatan Harapan government intends to last the full term

Hentikan teori konspirasi yang mendakwa kononnya Kerajaan Pakatan Harapan akan berpecah semasa pembentangan dan perbahasan Belanjawan 2020 di Parlimen yang akan berlangsung dari Oktober hingga Disember ini kerana Pakatan Harapan memenuhi mandat penggal ini

Tiga sidang Parlimen sebelum ini iaitu pada Oktober tahun lalu dan pada Mac serta Julai tahun ini dibayangi dengan laporan media yang bersifat spekulatif berkenaan khabar angin yang mengatakan Perdana Menteri, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad bakal berdepan dengan penyingkiran menerusi undi tidak percaya di Parlimen, yang didakwa akan melibatkan sekumpulan ahli Parlimen Pakatan Harapan.

Sesi Persidangan Parlimen yang berlangsung selama 36 hari bermula hari ini sehingga Disember terlepas daripada gangguan “usul tidak percaya” terhadap Mahathir seperti yang digambarkan dalam laporan media bersifat spekulif berkenaan, bukan kerana tidak ada mereka yang “gatal-gatal” mahu merancang atau mereka-reka teori konspirasi berkenaan, tetapi kerana teori konspirasi “usul undi tidak percaya” khayalan ini telah gagal dibuktikan sepanjang tiga sidang Parlimen yang lepas, membuatkan pihak yang menyebarkannya kelihatan mengarut dan bodoh.

Ini tidak bermakna bahawa Pembangkang tidak berharap untuk melihat kerajaan Pakatan Harapan di Putrajaya berpecah, dan melakukan bermacam-macam cara untuk merealisasikan impian mereka itu.

Melihat kerajaan Pakatan Harapan di Putrajaya menjadi lemah dan berpecah selepas hanya beberapa bulan adalah perkara yang sentiasa diimpikan oleh UMNO dan PAS selepas Pilihan Raya Umum ke-14 pada 9 Mei 2019, namun ia tidak berlaku dan kerajaan gabungan DAP, PKR, Bersatu dan Amanah tidak berpecah, Pembangkang terus mencari-cari keretakan dan kelemahan Kerajaan Pakatan Harapan, malah membesar-besarkan keretakan dan kelemahan yang sebenarnya tidak wujud dalam kerajaan gabungan ini.

Pun begitu, empat parti gabungan Pakatan Harapan bukan sahaja telah terselamat daripada pelbagai serangan sepanjang beberapa bulan pertama mentadbir Putrajaya. Dua hari daripada hari ini, kerajaan PH akan menandakan 17 bulan kejayaan mentadbir secara lancar dan PH berhasrat untuk memenuhi mandatnya sehingga ke akhir penggal ini selama lima tahun sebelum Pilihan Raya Umum ke-15 pada 2023.

Apabila rancangan keji untuk mencetuskan perpecahan dalam kerajaan Pakatan Harapan gagal, parti-parti pembangkang akhirnya menerima hakikat bahawa kerajaan Pakatan Harapan akan mentadbir sehingga habis penggal ini, — di mana mereka sepatutnya  mempersiapkan diri untuk menghadapi Pilihan Raya Umum ke-15 — mereka kembali menyusun gerak dengan harapan dapat menyaksikan perpecahan kerajaan Pakatan Harapan sebelum Pilihan Raya Umum ke-15 dan kembali berkuasa di Putrajaya.

Perkara ini mencetuskan penyebaran secara berleluasa ucapan kebencian dan berita palsu sejak beberapa bulan lalu untuk mencetuskan perpecahan antara kaum dan agama dengan mempergunakan isu yang membabitkan 3R secara maksimum — dengan politik toksik yang cuba menciptakan ilusi bahawa kerajaan Pakatan Harapan kononnya di ambang perpecahan.

Pemukiman Pakatan Harapan selama dua hari di Shah Alam menjelang perbahasan belanjawan di Parlimen telah menjadikan Pakatan Harapan lebih kuat, lebih bersatu dan lebih padu sehingga sukar untuk Pembangkang melaga-lagakan parti-parti dalam Pakatan Harapan sama ada di luar atau di dalam Parlimen.

Oleh itu, hentikanlah semua teori konspirasi bahawa kerajaan Pakatan Harapan akan berpecah semasa perbahasan Belanjawan 2020 dari Oktober hingga Disember kerana Pakatan Harapan berazam untuk kekal sebagai kerajaan sehingga tamat penggal ini.

Ada antara mereka yang berharap Kongres Maruah Melayu semalam akan menjadi pemangkin kemusnahan perpaduan Pakatan Harapan, namun perkara yang sebaliknya pula yang berlaku.

Menjadi sesuatu yang teramatlah pelik, apabila Kongres Maruah Melayu yang membincangkan permasalahan tentang politik, ekonomi, agama dan pendidikan ini, gagal untuk membincangkan masalah paling besar — maruah Malaysia yang tercalar ekoran digelar sebagai sebuah kleptokrasi global selama hampir sedekad dan penyebaran berleluasa ucapan kebencian dan berita palsu bertujuan untuk mewujudkan perpecahan dan konflik antara kaum dan agama.

Kejadian di mana Malaysia digelarkan sebagai sebuah kleptokrasi global ini adalah satu faktor terbesar yang menjatuhkan maruah orang Melayu dan Malaysia, namun ia tidak sekelumit pun dibangkitkan dalam kongres berkenaan.

Saya berharap Kongres Maruah Melayu ini mampu merintis jalan untuk menjadi sebuah kempen yang melibatkan semua rakyat Malaysia bagi mencapai Zaman Kegemilangan Malaysia sebagai sebuah negara bertaraf antarabangsa berteraskan perpaduan, keadilan, kebebasan, kecemerlangan dan integriti dan membuktikan kepada dunia bahawa Malaysia adalah kisah kejayaan daripada pertemuan empat tamadun hebat di dunia — Melayu/Islam, Cina, India dan Barat — dan bukannya gagal ekoran konflik peradaban.

Kita tidak patut terus diheret dengan isu khayalan yang diciptakan oleh pihak yang mereka-reka dan menyebarkan berita palsu dan ucapan kebencian, sebaliknya terus maju ke hadapan ke arah sebuah Malaysia Baharu, bersaing dengan negara-negara lain dan mengelak daripada terus-menerus bercakaran sesama sendiri tentang isu-isu yang direka-reka.

Namun, persoalan-persoalan ini masih belum dijawab dengan tuntas.

Bagaimanapun, terdapat satu perkara yang pasti. Mereka yang berharap bahawa Kongres Maruah Melayu akan membantu memusnahkan kerajaan Pakatan Harapan sedang berasa teramat kecewa, kerana rakyat Malaysia, tanpa mengira kaum, agama, atau wilayah perlu terus bersatu, setia dengan prinsip-prinsip Perlembagaan dan Rukun Negara, bersifat patriotik, matang, mempunyai visi untuk menjadikan Malaysia sebuah negara bertaraf antarabangsa dan tidak berputus asa untuk menetapkan semula dasar pembinaan negara bagi mencapai impian Malaysia Baharu.

(Kenyataan Media oleh Ahli Parlimen DAP Iskandar Puteri Lim Kit Siang di Kuala Lumpur pada Isnin, 7 Oktober 2019)

==================================

The three previous parliamentary meetings in October last year and in  March and July this year were preceded by speculative media stories that the Prime Minister, Tun Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, faced ouster and removal by a vote of no confidence in Parliament  which would involve a section of Pakatan Harapan Members of Parliament.

The 36-day budget Parliamentary meeting beginning today and which would go on till early December had been spared such speculative media stories of impending “no confidence motion” against Mahathir, not because there is no “itchy” plotter or spinner of such conspiracy theories, but because the public exposure of such fictitious “no confidence motion” conspiracy theories which never materialised in the three previous parliamentary meetings had made the spinning of another “impending no confidence motion in Parliament against Mahathir as Prime Minister” looked downright ludicrous and stupid.

This does not mean that the Opposition is not hoping for the Pakatan Harapan Government in Putrajaya to crack-up and disintegrate any time soon, and no  stone is left unturn to create such a result.

The hope that the Pakatan Harapan Government in Putrajaya was fragile and would implode in a matter of months was what  sustained UMNO and PAS immediately after the 14th General Election on May 9, 2018 , but when this did not materialise and the coalition government of DAP, PKR, Bersatu and Amanah did not disintegrate, the Opposition continued to search for chinks and cracks in the Pakatan Harapan Government and even to magnifiy non-existing chinks and cracks based on the incompatibility of parties and personalities in  the coalition government.

But the four-party coalition has not only survived intact through the first few months, it has gone on to mark its 17th month in office short of two days and is set to complete its full five-year term before the 15th General Election in 2023.

When the nefarious designs to cause the disintegration of the Pakatan Harapan Government failed and the opposition parties were beginning to be resigned to the fact that the Pakatan Harapan government would last a full-term and they must prepare for the 15th General Election, hope sprang eternal that it was still possible to cause the crack-up of the Pakatan Harapan government well before the 15th General Election so that they could either return or have access to power in Putrajaya.

This resulted in the upsurge of fake news and hate speech in recent months to incite inter-racial and inter-religious polarisation by exploiting the politics of 3Rs which reached a climax  – toxic politics creating the illusion that the Pakatan Harapan government was on the verge of disintegration and collapse.

The two-day Pakatan Harapan retreat in Shah Alam on the eve of the budget parliamentary meeting has made the Pakatan Harapan stronger, more united and more cohesive which will make it impossible for the Opposition to play one Pakatan Harapan party against another whether inside or outside Parliament.

Lets nip in the bud all conspiracy theories of Pakatan Harapan Government cracking up during the 2020  budget parliamentary meeting from October to December as the  Pakatan Harapan government intends to last the full term.

There were those who hoped that the Malay  Dignity Congress yesterday would play the important role to torpedo the unity, cohesion and purpose of Pakatan Harapan but the opposite has taken place.

It is a “wonder of wonders” that in the deliberations of the Malay Dignity Congress on politics, economy, religion and education, the elephants in the room were ignored altogether – the infamy, ignominy and iniquity of Malaysia as a global kleptocracy for almost a decade and the upsurge of fake news and hate speech to incite inter-racial and inter-religious polarisation and conflict.

Malaysia becoming a global kleptocracy is in fact the single factor which had caused the dignity of both the Malays and Malaysia to reached the lowest ebb in history, yet there is no mention whatsoever about it.

I had hoped that the Malay Dignity Congress could lead the way for a Malaysian campaign to achieve a Golden Age for Malaysia as a top world-class nation of unity, justice, freedom, excellence and integrity and prove to the world that Malaysia is a success story  from the confluence of the four great civilisations in the world – Malay/Islamic, Chinese, Indian and Western – instead of a basket-case of a failure from the Clash of Civilisations.

We should not continue to be bogged down by false issues created by the upsurge of fake news and hate speech but to strike out courageously in the direction of a New Malaysia, compete with the rest of the world instead of fighting among ourselves on fictitious issues.

But these questions remain to be answered.

One thing however is certain. Those who had had hoped that the Malay Dignity Congress would help to destroy the Pakatan Harapan government are most disappointed, and Malaysians, regardless of race, religion or region, must continue to be united,  loyal to the principles of the Constitution and Rukunegara, patriotic, mature,  visionary about Malaysia becoming a top world-class nation and never lose hope in resetting nation-building policies to achieve a New Malaysia.

(Media Statement by DAP MP for Iskandar Puteri Lim Kit Siang in Kuala Lumpur on Monday, 7th October 2019)

                This entry was posted on Monday, 7 October 2019, 9:43 am and is filed under
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Asyraf’s lies and hate speeches are the real threats to Malay and Malaysian dignity and the reasons why strong corrective action are  necessary and imperative to prevent fake news and hate speech to incite inter-racial and inter-religious polarisation from destroying Malaysia

Pembohongan dan ucapan kebencian daripada Asyraf adalah satu ancaman terhadap maruah orang Melayu dan rakyat Malaysia dan menjadi satu sebab perlunya untuk satu tindakan yang tegas untuk mengekang berita palsu dan ucapan kebencian — yang menghasut polarisasi antara kaum dan agama — daripada terus memusnahkan Malaysia

Bekas Presiden Majlis Peguam Malaysia, Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan telah mendedahkan bahawa kenyataan Ketua Pemuda UMNO berkenaan “10 alasan kenapa Perdana Menteri Dr Mahathir wajar singkirkan DAP dan PKR” gagal untuk melepasi ujian fakta kerana tidak dapat disokong dengan sebarang bukti sokongan. Namun begitu, perkara ini tidak menghentikan penyebaran berterusan berita palsu dan ucapan kebencian yang bertujuan untuk menghasut polarisasi antara kaum dan agama dalam Malaysia pasca PRU-14.

Ambiga berkata beliau mempunyai 50 alasan mengapa UMNO tidak perlu kembali berkuasa. Kini alasan itu bertambah kepada 51.

Penyebaran penipuan, berita palsu dan ucapan kebencian untuk menghasut polarisasi dan konflik antara kaum dan agama kelihatan seperti sudah menjadi satu-satunya strategi pihak Pembangkang untuk melawan usaha Pakatan Harapan untuk dalam menjayakan sebuah Malaysia Baharu yang menjadi negara terulung berteraskan perpaduan, keadilan, kebebasan, kecemerlangan dan integriti.

Saya pernah berharap Kongres Maruah Melayu dapat menjadi perintis untuk satu kempen yang melibatkan semua rakyat Malaysia untuk mencapai Zaman Kegemilangan Malaysia sebagai negara terulung berteraskan perpaduan, keadilan, kebebasan, kecemerlangan dan integriti serta membuktikan kepada dunia bahawa Malaysia adalah kisah kejayaan pertemuan empat tamadun besar dunia – Melayu / Islam, Cina, India dan Barat – bukannya menjadi gagal kerana Konflik Peradaban.

Harapan ini ternyata silap.

Pun begitu, mereka yang berharap bahawa Kongres Maruah Melayu akan membantu memusnahkan kerajaan Pakatan Harapan pasti berasa kecewa, dan rakyat Malaysia, tanpa mengira kaum, agama atau wilayah, mesti terus bersatu, setia kepada prinsip Perlembagaan dan Rukun Negara, patriotik, matang, berwawasan terhadap sebuah Malaysia menjadi negara terulung dan tidak pernah putus harapan dalam menetapkan semula dasar pembangunan negara untuk mencapai Malaysia Baharu.

Satu contoh yang baik adalah cadangan oleh Timbalan Presiden Umno Datuk Mohamad Hasan kepada Mahathir untuk membawa Bersatu keluar daripada Pakatan Harapan dan bekerjasama dengan Umno dan PAS demi perpaduan Melayu selepas Kongres Maruah Melayu dan penolakan segera Mahathir terhadap cadangan itu.

Kenyataan Dr Mahathir yang mengatakan bahawa Malaysia adalah negara berbilang kaum dan tidak sesuai untuk kerajaan terdiri daripada ahli-ahli satu kaum sahaja sangat tepat sekali.

Beliau menambah: “Kami tidak berminat untuk membentuk kerajaan baru. Malaysia adalah negara berbilang kaum dan sejak merdeka kita mempunyai kerajaan dengan semua kaum di dalamnya.

“Ini adalah realiti negara ini dan semua kaum mempunyai hak di negara kita.”

Amat malang dan menyedihkan apabila Kongres Maruah Melayu ini telah mengeluarkan resolusi sepertimana “10 Alasan” Asyraf, yang tidak berpandukan fakta dan kebenaran.

Bagaimana maruah sesuatu kaum atau bangsa boleh dipulihkan jika agendanya didasari dengan pembohongan, berita palsu dan ucapan kebencian?

Rakyat Malaysia, tanpa mengira kaum atau agama, harus merenung cabaran masa depan dan bukannya disesatkan oleh gambaran masa lepas yang mengelirukan diasaskan berita palsu dan ucapan kebencian.

Berikut adalah ulasan Bank Dunia mengenai pembangunan ekonomi China sempena ulang tahun ke-70 Republik Rakyat China:

“Sejak memulakan pembaharuan pasaran pada tahun 1978, China telah beralih dari satu perancangan ke arah ekonomi yang lebih berpusatkan pasaran dan telah mengalami perkembangan ekonomi dan sosial yang pesat. Pertumbuhan purata KDNK adalah sekitar 10% setahun — pengembangan yang paling pesat oleh ekonomi utama dalam sejarah — dan lebih daripada 850 juta orang telah berjaya dikeluarkan daripada kemiskinan. China mencapai semua Matlamat Pembangunan Milenium (MDGs) menjelang 2015 dan memberi sumbangan besar kepada pencapaian MDGs di seluruh dunia. Walaupun pertumbuhan KDNK China secara beransur-ansur perlahan sejak 2012, seperti yang diperlukan untuk peralihan kepada pertumbuhan yang lebih seimbang dan mampan, ia masih agak tinggi berdasarkan piawaian global semasa.

Dengan populasi seramai 1.4 bilion, China adalah kuasa ekonomi kedua terbesar di dunia. Ia telah menyumbang sekitar 30% pertumbuhan global dalam lapan tahun yang lalu.

“Walaupun China telah mengalami pembangunan ekonomi dan sosial yang mengagumkan, pembaharuan pasarannya tidak lengkap, dan pendapatan per kapitanya kekal seperti negara sedang membangun dan hanya kira-kira satu perempat daripada purata untuk negara berpendapatan tinggi. Negara ini berada di landasan untuk menghapuskan kemiskinan mutlak menjelang 2020 mengikut piawai kemiskinan semasa China (pendapatan isi rumah luar bandar per kapita bersih RMB 2,300 per tahun setakat 2010). Pun begitu, masih terdapat kira-kira 372.8 juta orang berada di bawah pendapatan garis kemiskinan “menengah keatas” antarabangsa $5.50 sehari.

“Kemajuan ekonomi yang pesat juga membawa banyak cabaran, termasuk kesenjangan yang tinggi (terutamanya di antara kawasan luar bandar dan bandar), cabaran terhadap kelestarian alam sekitar, dan ketidakseimbangan luar. China juga menghadapi tekanan demografi yang berkaitan dengan populasi yang semakin tua dan penghijrahan buruh dalaman.

“Pertumbuhan ekonomi China berkembang pesat melebihi kadar pembangunan institusi, dan terdapat jurang antara institusi penting dan pembaharuan yang perlu ditangani bagi memastikan laluan pertumbuhan yang mampan. Pelarasan dasar yang ketara diperlukan untuk pertumbuhan China yang mampan. Menguruskan pembaharuan struktur dan risiko yang berkaitan tidak akan memberi kesan langsung berikutan kekompleksan, saiz, dan kepentingan ekonomi global China.”

Empat puluh tahun yang lalu pada tahun 1978, KDNK per kapita Malaysia adalah lebih sepuluh kali ganda daripada China. Kini, China hampir memintas KDNK per kapita Malaysia – seperti yang dinyatakan dalam kedudukan negara-negara berasaskan KDNK per kapita (IMF) 2018, China diletakkan di kedudukan ke-67 daripada 156 negara dengan KDNK per kapita US$9,608 berbanding dengan kedudukan ke-63 bagi Malaysia dengan KDNK per kapita US$10,942.

Bukankah ini sepatutnya menjadi salah satu agenda utama Kongres Maruah Melayu tentang mengapa Malaysia tewas dalam persaingan pembangunan ekonomi, tewas bukan hanya kepada China, tetapi kepada negara-negara lain termasuk India, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, malahan Singapura, Hong Kong, Korea Selatan dan Taiwan – dan apakah rupa bentuk masa depan Malaysia jika rakyat Malaysia sendiri tidak bersedia untuk membantu diri sendiri tanpa mengharapkan bantuan luar untuk berjaya?

Harapan untuk mengembalikan maruah Melayu tersasar, sebaliknya, Kongres Maruah Melayu telah membawa penghinaan, keaiban dan malu yang lebih besar kepada orang Melayu dan Malaysia apabila tidak ada seorang pun dalam kongres berkenaan membangkitkan tentang keabaiban besar yang dialami Malaysia selama berdekad lamanya ekoran digelar sebagai kleptokrasi global.

Pembohongan, kepalsuan, berita palsu dan ucapan kebencian tidak boleh mengembalikan maruah mana-mana kaum.

“10 Sebab” yang diberikan Asyraf telah membenihkan berita palsu dan ucapanan kebencian yang baru yang direka untuk menghasut polarisasi dan konflik antara kaum dan agama – menyalahkan DAP tentang isu ICERD dan Statute Rom, ketika para pemimpin DAP sendiri terkejut dengan perkembangan kedua-dua isu berkenaan.

Pembohongan Asyraf, berita palsu dan ucapan kebencian adalah ancaman nyata terhadap maruah Melayu dan Malaysia serta menjadi sebab mengapa tindakan pembetulan yang tegas diperlukan dan penting bagi mengelakkan berita palsu dan ucapan kebencian — yang menghasut polarisasi antara kaum dan agama — daripada terus memusnahkan Malaysia.

(Kenyataan Media oleh Ahli Parlimen DAP Iskandar Puteri, Lim Kit Siang di Parlimen pada Selasa, 8 Oktober 2019)

=================================

Former Malaysian Bar President, Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan’s expose that UMNO youth Chief Asyraf Wajdi Dusuku’s “10 reasons for Prime Minister Dr. Mahathir Mohamad to remove DAP and PKR from power” failed the  fact-check test which produced no evidence to support them will not discourage the continued  dissemination of lies, fake news and hate speech and more lies, more fake news and more hate speech to incite inter-racial and inter-religious polarisation and conflict in post-14 GE Malaysia.

Ambiga said she had 50 reasons why UMNO should never come back to power. Now she had 51.

The spread of lies, fake news and hate speech to incite inter-racial and inter-religious polarisation and conflict seemed to be the only strategy of the Opposition to counter the promises of Pakatan Harapan for a New Malaysia to become a top world-class nation of unity, justice, freedom, excellence and integrity.

I had hoped that the Malay Dignity Congress could lead the way for a Malaysian campaign to achieve a Golden Age for Malaysia as a top world-class nation of unity, justice, freedom, excellence and integrity and prove to the world that Malaysia is a success story  from the confluence of the four great civilisations in the world – Malay/Islamic, Chinese, Indian and Western – instead of a basket-case of a failure from the Clash of Civilisations.

These hopes were misplaced.

But those  who had had hoped that the Malay Dignity Congress would help to destroy the Pakatan Harapan government had been disappointed, and Malaysians, regardless of race, religion or region, must  continue to be united,  loyal to the principles of the Constitution and Rukunegara, patriotic, mature,  visionary about Malaysia becoming a top world-class nation and never lose hope in resetting nation-building policies to achieve a New Malaysia.

A good example is the proposal by the Umno deputy president Datuk Mohamad Hasan to  Mahathir to pull Bersatu out of Pakatan Harapan and team up with Umno and PAS for the sake of Malay unity in the aftermath of the Malay Dignity Congress and Mahathir’s immediate dismissal of the proposal.

Mahathir rightly said that  Malaysia is a multi-racial country and it will not be right for the government to consist of members of one race.

He added:
 “We are not interested in forming a new government. Malaysia is a multi-racial country and since independence we have had government with all races in it.

“This is a reality of this country and all the races have rights in our country.”

It is most unfortunate and depressing that the Malay Dignity Congress has come out with resolutions which llke Asyraf’s “10 Reasons” do not stand up to any fact-check or scrutiny.

How can any restoration of dignity or any race or nation  be based on lies, fake news and hate speech?

Malaysians, regardless of race or religion, must  look into the challenges of the future instead of being  misled by a misleading  image of a past based on fake news and hate speeches.

This is the World Bank’s commentary on China’s economic development on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the Chinese People’s Republic:

“Since initiating market reforms in 1978, China has shifted from a centrally-planned to a more market-based economy and has experienced rapid economic and social development. GDP growth has averaged nearly 10% a year—the fastest sustained expansion by a major economy in history—and more than 850 million people have lifted themselves out of poverty. China reached all the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015 and made a major contribution to the achievement of the MDGs globally. Although China’s GDP growth has gradually slowed since 2012, as needed for a transition to more balanced and sustainable growth, it is still relatively high by current global standards.

“With a population of 1.4 billion, China is the world’s second largest economy. It has contributed around 30% of global growth in the past eight years.

“Although China has made impressive economic and social development gains, its market reforms are incomplete, and its per capita income remains that of a developing country and only about a quarter of the average for high-income countries. The country is on track to eliminate absolute poverty by 2020 according to China’s current poverty standard (per capita rural net income of RMB 2,300 per year in 2010 constant prices). However, there are still an estimated 372.8 million people below the “upper middle income” international poverty line of $5.50 a day.

“Rapid economic ascendance has brought on many challenges as well, including high inequality (especially between rural and urban areas), challenges to environmental sustainability, and external imbalances. China also faces demographic pressures related to an aging population and internal labor migration.

“China’s rapid economic growth exceeded the pace of institutional development, and there are important institutional and reform gaps that it needs to address to ensure a sustainable growth path. Significant policy adjustments are required for China’s growth to be sustainable. Managing structural reforms and related risks will not be straightforward given the complexity, size, and global importance of China’s economy.”

Forty years ago in 1978, Malaysia’s per capita GDP was more than ten times that of China. Today, China has nearly caught up with Malaysia’s per capita GDP – as  in the 2018 International Monetary Fund (IMF) ranking of nations based on per capita GDP, China is placed  No.  No.67 out of 156 nations with a per capita GDP of US$9,608, as compared to the 63rd placing for Malaysia with a per capita GDP of US$10,942.

Should’nt this be  one of the top agendas of  the Malay Dignity Congress as to why Malaysia had lost out in the race for economic development, losing out not only to China, but to other countries including India, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, not to mention Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea and Taiwan – and what future is in store for Malaysia if Malaysians are not prepared to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps?

Instead of restoring the dignity of the Malays, the Malay Dignity Congress has brought greater indignity, dishonour and shame to Malays and Malaysia when there was not a word of reference to the great infamy for close to a decade when Malaysia became a global kleptocracy.

Lies, falsehoods, fake news and  hate speech cannot restore the dignity of any race or nation.

Asyraf’s “10 Reasons” have invented a new fake news and hate speech designed to incite inter-racial and inter-religious polarisation and conflict – blaming the DAP for ICERD and the Rome Statute, when DAP leaders were themselves caught by surprise by these two developments.

Asyraf’s lies, fake news and hate speeches are the real threats to Malay and Malaysian dignity and the reasons why strong corrective action are  necessary and imperative to prevent fake news and hate speech to incite inter-racial and inter-religious polarisation from destroying Malaysia.

(Media Statement by DAP MP for Iskandar Puteri Lim Kit Siang in Parliament on Tuesday, October 8, 2019)

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Fake News can not only destroy Malaysia, it can destroy  the world as it has been described as the third existential threat to humanity apart from nuclear warfare and climate change

A few days ago, Sunday Observer of the United Kingdom carried a report entitled
“Will fake news wreck the coming general election?”
 which shows the ubiquity of the problem of fake news in the world.

In fact, in the past two years, one nation after another has been wrestling with the problem and danger  posed by fake news.

Indonesia ’s riots in May served as a warning to all democracies with polarised electorates, high social media penetration and institutions labouring under the strain of populist politics.

Indonesia’s unrest was the first time in a democracy that social media-fuelled fake news and disinformation led to election riots.

But what made fake news particularly incendiary and combustible in Malaysia is the country’s diversity of races, languages, religions and cultures resulting in fake news and hate speech designed to incite inter-racial and inter-religious polarisation and conflict doubly explosive and destructive.

Fake news and hate speech can not only destroy plural  Malaysia, they can destroy the world.

This is why fake news has been identified as the third existential threat to humanity apart from nuclear warfare and climate change.

The  Doomsday Clock in 2019 is currently set at two minutes to midnight, the closest it’s been to midnight since 1953 during the Cold War.

The clock is a metaphor that visualizes the threat humanity faces from unchecked scientific and technological advances, according to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists — a group of experts in nuclear weapons, biological weapons and climate change.

Last year, the clock was advanced 30 seconds due to a higher threat of nuclear war. The clock was updated during tense relations between North Korea and the U.S., which have since cooled.

On the Doomsday Clock 2019, officials of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists said while world tensions have eased, fake news and misinformation pose a higher threat and are contributing factors in why the clock has remained the same as last year.

They explained that cyber-enabled information warfare exploits humans’ thinking, and undermines our ability to deal constructively with the perils facing the world.

The clock did not budge from last year, but that “
should not be taken as a sign of stability
,” said Rachel Bronson, president and CEO of the group of scholars and international experts in security, nuclear, environmental and science fields.

“It is a state as worrisome as the most dangerous times of the Cold War,”
 said Bronson, describing the current climate as
 “The New Abnormal.”

“The velocity of information has increased by orders of magnitude, allowing information warfare and fake news to flourish,”
she said.

“It generates rage and polarization across the globe at a time when we need calm and unity to solve the globe’s greatest problems.”

This “New Abnormal” is “a state that features an unpredictable and shifting landscape of simmering disputes that multiply the chances for major conflict to erupt,” she added.

“We appear to be normalizing a very dangerous world in terms of the risks of nuclear warfare and climate change.”

These are among the reasons  why all  Malaysians  must be aware of the existential threat posed to the nation by untrammelled spread of fake news and hate speech to incite inter-racial and inter-religious polarisation and conflict, and why firm measures must be taken against such untrammelled spread of fake news and hate speech without undermining freedom of expression, press freedom  and legitimate dissent.

In  December last year, a group of parliamentarians from various countries  met in London and affirmed that “representative democracy is too important and too hard-won to be left undefended from online harms”  like the  “co-ordinated activity of fake accounts using data-targeting methods to try manipulate the information that people see on social media”.

The international Parliamentarians, in the interests of accountability. transparency and representative democracy,  called for “a system of global internet governance that can serve to protect the fundamental rights and freedoms of generations to come, based on established codes of conduct for agencies working for nation states, and govern the major international tech platforms which have created the systems that serve online content to billions of users around the world”.

If there had not been a change of government on May 9, 2018, Malaysia would stand out as the only country in the world  using Ant-Fake News Act to protect fake news!

The whole world except Malaysians would know about the 1MDB scandal and Malaysia as a global kleptocacy, and any Malaysian who tries to breach this clampdown and censorship on news about the 1MDB scandal would be guilty of an offence under the Anti-Fake News Act and liable to be jailed or six months or fined RM500,000 or both.

Anti-fake news legislation, like the Anti-Fake News Act passed by the previous government, must not be enacted to supress corruption like the 1MDB scandal and violate fundamental rights to freedom of expression and legitimate dissent or  to curtail press freedom.

Malaysia should play a leading role to curb the abuses and dangers of  fake news,  hate speech, disinformation and malinformation, not only in the country but in the international community, to ensure that they do not destroy humanity and civilizations.

(Media Statement by DAP MP for Iskandar Puteri Lim Kit Siang in Parliament on Wednesday, 9th October 2019)

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Dewan Rakyat’s second Repeal of Anti-Fake News Act –  a fake anti-fake news act as it was really a “Protect Najib’s 1MDB Scandal Act” –  paves the way for the nation to fully address the grave problem of fake news and hate speech from destroying plural Malaysia

Dewan Rakyat’s second repeal of the Anti-Fake News Act – a fake anti-fake news act as it was really a “Protect Najib’s 1MDB Scandal Act” – paves the way for the nation to fully address the grave problem of fake news and hate speech from destroying plural Malaysia.

This is what Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2018 has to say about the Anti-Fake News Act which was passed on the eve of the 14th General Election and repealed for the second time by the Dewan Rakyat without having to get any more approval by the Dewan Negara:

“No one was under any illusions – not even the then government – that the reason for the law wasn’t essentially political.

“As media academic Gayathry Venkiteswaran has put it: ‘ For most observers, the obvious reason behind this rushed law is to keep the scandalous 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) wealth fund and other financial misappropriations out of the electorate’s focus. This is a punitive law that fails to provide any clarity on the meaning or parameters of ‘fake news’, but criminalises a wide array of speech online and offline’.”

With the fake anti-fake news legislation out of the way, the country should now fully focus on the dangers not only to democracy but the existential threat to plural Malaysia posed by fake news and hate speech specially those designed to incite inter-racial and inter-religious polarisation and conflict, even conflagration.

It has been asked why the apocalyptic scenario when fake news and hate speech was not a recent problem.

One answer of the seriousness of the problem is that fake news has been rated as third factor after nuclear risk and climate change  why the Doomsday Clock 2019 is positioned as two minutes to midnight – which is the closest it’s been to midnight since 1953 during the Cold War.

The  Doomsday Clock represents the hypothetical global catastrophe as “midnight” and the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists’ opinion on how close the world is to a global catastrophe as a number of “minutes” to midnight as a result of unchecked scientific and technical advances.

The Clock’s original setting in 1947 was seven minutes to midnight. It has been set backward and forward 23 times since then, the smallest-ever number of minutes to midnight being two (in 1953 and 2018) and the largest seventeen (in 1991).

The Doomsday Clock  was left unchanged in 2019, as apart from the twin threats of nuclear weapons and climate change, the problem of those threats had been  “exacerbated this past year by the increased use of information warfare to undermine democracy around the world, amplifying risk from these and other threats and putting the future of civilization in extraordinary danger.”

The Doomsday Clock’s origin can be traced to the international group of researchers called the Chicago Atomic Scientists, who had participated in the Manhattan Project, who published what later became the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists on how  close to midnight is  humanity from self-destruction after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Malaysia should learn from other countries how they are fighting fake news and hate speech by building up the resilience of their citizens to disinformation, misinformation and malinformation.

Finland has been cited as a country which has been quite successful in fighting fake news with a systematic and nationwide campaign since 2014 to educate its students, starting from kindergarten, on how to identify fake news – but Finnish conditions are different from those in Malaysia, and it may not be possible to adopt the full Finnish system in  fighting fake news.

Policymakers around the globe have voiced the need to combat fake news and back in 2013, the World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report warned that “digital wildfires” could spread false information rapidly.

Germany has already put a law in place to fine tech platforms that fail to remove “obviously illegal” hate speech, while France passed a law last year that bans fake news on the internet during election campaigns. However, some critics have argued that both pieces of legislation jeopardize free speech.

Fake news and hate speech are doubly explosive and destructive in plural societies like Malaysia, with a diversity of races, languages, religions, cultures and civilisations.

This is why it is urgent and imperative that  Malaysians give top priority to ensure that Malaysia does not face an existential threat from fake news and hate speech, and why the  different models of fighting fake news and hate speech  in various parts of the world   must be studied so that a Malaysian strategy can be immediately formulated to save Malaysia from being destroyed by fake news and hate speech.

(Media Statement by DAP MP for Iskandar Puteri Lim Kit Siang in Parliament on Thursday, 10th October 2019)

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Call for the immediate release of Gunasekaran and Saminathan and the other five detained for suspected attempt to revive the LTTE or they should be charged in court to afford them a chance to defend themselves

Seruan untuk pembebasan segera Gunasekaran dan Saminathan serta lima yang lain yang ditahan kerana disyaki cuba untuk menghidupkan semula LTTE harus dibebaskan segera atau didakwa di mahkamah supaya mereka mempunyai peluang untuk membela diri

Seperti yang ditegaskan oleh 16 Ahli Parlimen dan ADUN  dari Pakatan Harapan dalam satu kenyataan bersama semalam berhubung penahanan dua ADUN DAP dan lima yang lain oleh pihak polis atas dakwaan mereka mempunyai kaitan dengan LTTE adalah di luar pemahaman, kerana LTTE sebagai sebuah gerakan pembebasan Tamil telahpun terhapus di Sri Lanka selepas berakhirnya perang saudara yang berlarutan selama 26 tahun pada tahun 2009, di mana ketua LTTE Vellupillai Prabhakaran terbunuh.

Lebih daripada 10 tahun sudah berlalu dan amatlah tidak masuk akal untuk membayangkan kebangkitan semula LTTE dari Malaysia, apatah lagi membabitkan pemimpin-pemimpin DAP.

Selama 53 tahun, DAP komited terhadap perjuangan politik yang aman dan demokratik dalam membawa perubahan, sekaligus menolak sebarang bentuk keganasan – apatah lagi terorisme.

Saya sendiri pernah ditahan mengikut Akta Keselamatan Dalam Negeri (ISA) yang sudah dihapuskan atas dakwaan menganggu-gugat keselamatan negara, dan amatlah penting, terutamanya sejak perubahan kerajaan pada 9 Mei 2018 yang lalu, untuk strategi dan pemikiran polis berhubung soal perbezaan pendapat yang sah dan apa yang dimaksudkan sebagai ancaman kepada keselamatan negara, perlu melalui berubah dengan sewajarnya.

Ini antara sebab mengapa Pakatan Harapan berjanji dalam Manifesto Pilihan Raya Umum ke-14 lalu untuk menghapuskan akta-akta yang menindas, terutamanya peruntukan yang bersifat drakonian dalam Akta SOSMA 2012.

Selagi perkara ini belum dilaksanakan, perlu wujud satu mekanisme semak dan imbang yang berkesan bagi memastikan semangat janji Pakatan Harapan untuk melahirkan sebuah Malaysia Baharu dihormati dan tidak berlaku penyalahgunaan kuasa menggunakan peruntukan bersifat drakonian dalam akta-akta yang menindas yang masih berkuat kuasa ini.

Justeru itu, P. Gunasekaran, Adun DAP Seremban Jaya; G. Saminathan, EXCO Melaka dan Adun Gadek dan lima yang lain yang ditahan kerana disyaki cuba untuk menghidupakan semula LTTE harus dibebaskan segera atau didakwa di mahkamah supaya mereka mempunyai peluang untuk membela diri.

Parlimen telah membentuk Jawatankuasa Pilihan Khas Pertahanan dan Hal Ehwal Dalam Negeri.

Pihak polis harus hadir di hadapan Jawatankuasa Pilihan Khas ini bagi menjelaskan, secara umum, bagaimana polis akan menjalankan tugasnya di bawah Kerajaan Pakatan Harapan selari dengan komitmen PH yang mahu mentadbir secara telus dan bertanggungjawab, khususnya dengan penahanan terbaharu ini, serta bagaimana pihak polis akan mematuhi komitmen PH untuk tidak menyalahgunakan kuasa mengikut peruntukan drakonian dalam akta-akta yang menindas sehingga ia dimansuhkan.

Saya yakin bahawa Gunasekaran dan Saminathan komited terhadap prinsip DAP yang berteraskan perjuangan demokratik, menolak sebarang bentuk keganasan atau terorisme.

Saya akan melawat keluarga Gunasekaran dan Saminathan di Seremban dan Melaka pada hari Ahad ini.

(Kenyataan Media Ahli Parlimen DAP Iskandar Puteri, Lim Kit Siang di Kuala Lumpur pada Jumaat, 11 Oktober 2019)

================================

As stated  by the 16 Indian MPs and State Assembly representatives of Pakatan Harapan in a joint statement yesterday, the arrest of the two DAP State Assemblymen and five others for alleged links of LTTE by the police were  beyond comprehension, as the LTTE as a Tamil liberation force was decimated in Sri Lanka with  the end of the 26-year civil war in 2009, where   the head of LTTE Vellupillai Prabhakaran was killed.

More than 10 years have elapsed and it is most ridiculous to envisage a revival of the LTTE from Malaysia, and involving DAP leaders.

For 53 years, the DAP has committed itself to a peaceful  and non-violent democratic form of political struggle to bring about  change, eschewing any violent form of struggle – let alone terrorism,.

I have myself twice been detained under the former Internal Security Act as a threat to national security   and it is important that with the change of government on May 9, 2018, police mentality and strategy with regard to legitimate  dissent and what constitutes threat to national security must accordingly undergo the necessary changes.

This is reason for the Pakatan Harapan pledge in its 14th General Election Manifesto for a repeal of repressive laws, in particular the  draconian provisions in the SOSMA Act 2012.

Until this is done, there must be effective check and balance to ensure that the spirit of the Pakatan Harapan pledge of a New Malaysia is honoured and that there are no abuses of power when the draconian provisions in repressive laws are still in place.

For this reason, there should be  immediate release of P. Gunasekaran, DAP Negri Sembilan State Assemblyman for Seremban Jaya; G. Saminathan, Malacca State Executive Councillor and Malacca State Assemblyman for Gadek and five others  detained for suspected attempt to revive the LTTE or they should be charged in court to afford them a chance to defend themselves.

Parliament has set up a Select Committee on Defence and Home Affairs.

The Police should appear before this Select Committee  to explain, in general,  how the Police  are to  carry out its duties under the Pakatan Harapan Government with the PH  commitment of an accountable and transparent administration and in particular on the current arrests and  how the police will comply with the PH commitment not to abuse its powers under  the draconian measures in repressive laws until they are repealed.

I believe that Gunasekaran and Saminathan are fully committed to the DAP principle of a peaceful democratic struggle, abhorring all forms of violence and terrorism.

I will visit the families of Gunasekaran and Saminathan in Seremban and Malacca respectively on Sunday.

(Media Statement by DAP MP for Iskandar Puteri Lim Kit Siang in Kuala Lumpur on Friday, 11th October 2019)

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DAP condemns terrorism in any form but wants the police to honour the spirit of an “accountable and transparent government” and not to have any  “Deep State” mentality reflecting the past kleptocratic government

DAP mengutuk keras sebarang bentuk keganasan dan pada masa yang sama mahu melihat pihak Polis menghormati semangat “kerajaan yang bertanggungjawab dan telus” dan tidak mewarisi mentaliti lama pemerintahan lepas

Saya baharu sahaja melawat keluarga dua ADUN DAP — ADUN Seremban Jaya P Gunasekaran dan ADUN Gadek G Saminathan yang juga merupakan seorang Exco — yang ditahan untuk siasatan pada hari Khamis lepas dibawah SOSMA atas dakwaan kaitan dengan Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) di Seremban dan Durian Tunggal pagi ini.

DAP mengutuk keras sebarang bentuk keganasan dan pada masa yang sama mahu melihat pihak Polis menghormati semangat “kerajaan yang bertanggungjawab dan telus” seperti yang ditekankan oleh Kerajaan Pakatan Harapan selepas keputusan bersejarah 9 Mei 2018 dan tidak mewarisi mentaliti lama pemerintahan kleptokratik yang lepas.

Di bawah pemerintahan yang lepas, definisi ancaman kepada keselamatan negara bermaksud sebarang ancaman terhadap Perdana Menteri semasa atau pun parti politik yang sedang berkuasa yang tidak berkaitan sama sekali dengan keselamatan dalam negara, seperti cubaan untuk memulihkan nama baik dan maruah negara dengan pendedahan skandal 1MDB yang telah mencemarkan nama negara di peringkat dunia sebagai sebuah kleptokrasi global.

Kerana inilah bekas Timbalan Pengerusi UMNO Batu Kawan, Khairuddin Abu Hassan ditahan di bawah SOSMA pada tahun 2015 dan SOSMA digunakan pada tahun 2016 untuk menahan 15 orang pemimpin pembangkang dan aktivis sivil di masa itu — termasuklah Maria Chin Abdullah yang merupakan Pengerusi Bersih ketika itu dan kini Ahli Parlimen untuk Petaling Jaya — atas hubungan himpunan Bersih 5 pada 19 November 2016.

Era di mana isu keselamatan dalam negara menjadi tanggungjawab mutlak pihak Polis sudah pun tamat, kini, isu keselamatan dalam negara sepatutnya menjadi tanggungjawab bersama semua rakyat Malaysia yang patriotik.

Walaupun pihak Polis mempunyai tanggungjawab profesional dan khusus untuk melindungi keselamatan dalam negara, mereka tidak boleh bertindak seperti di bawah pemerintahan yang lepas di mana frasa “keselamatan negara” disalah guna bukan untuk melindungi keselamatan dalam negara, tetapi untuk tujuan yang lain.

Oleh itu, pihak Polis mestilah bertindak telus dan bertanggungjawab.

Gunasekaran dan Saminathan adalah merupakan ahli veteran DAP yang telah terdidik dengan prinsip asas parti untuk mewujudkan perubahan politik melalui cara yang aman, tidak berasaskan keganasan, dan demokratik, dan menolak sebarang bentuk keganasan atau terorisme.

Gunasekaran sudah menjadi ahli parti selama 37 tahun dan sentiasa menyokong komitmen 53 tahun parti untuk membawa perubahan dengan cara yang aman dan demokratik dan menolak keganasan dalam sebarang bentuk sekalipun.

Malahan, Gunasekaran sudah bertanding dalam enam pilihan raya dan menang sebanyak tiga kali.

Saya percaya yang kedua Gunasekaran dan Saminathan tidak bersalah keatas sebarang pertuduhan berkaitan keganasan. Jika pihak Polis mempunyai bukti yang sebaliknya, mereka haruslah didakwa di mahkamah bagi memberikan ruang untuk kedua mereka untuk membela diri mereka.

Pihak Polis haruslah sentiasa sedar akan latar belakang janji Manifesto PRU14 Pakatan Harapan untuk memansuhkan undang-undang yang menindas, terutamanya peruntukan zalim di dalam Akta SOSMA 2012.

Sehingga peruntukan seperti ini dimansuhkan, perlulah ada satu mekanisma semakan untuk memastikan semangat janji Malaysia Baharu Pakatan Harapan dihormati dan untuk memastikan tidak ada sebarang penyalahgunaan kuasa di bawah peruntukan zalim SOSMA.

Perkara ini bukan sahaja menjadi tanggungjawab Kerajaan Pakatan Harapan, tetapi juga tanggungjawab pihak Polis juga.

(Kenyataan Media Ahli Parlimen DAP Iskandar Puteri Lim Kit Siang di Kuala Lumpur pada hari Ahad 13 Oktober 2019)

====================================

I visited the families of the two State Assemblymen arrested on Thursday under SOSMA for investigation into terrorist activities in connection with LTTE – Negri Sembilan State Assemblyman for Seremban Jaya, P. Gunasekaran and Malacca State Assemblyman for Gadek G. Saminathan, who is also Malacca State Executive Councillor in Seremban and Durian Tunggal respectively this morning.

DAP condemns terrorism in any form but wants the police to honour the spirit of an “accountable and transparent government” as highlighted by the Pakatan Harapan Government after the historic decision of the 14th General Election on May 9, 2018 and not to have any “Deep State” mentality reflecting the past kleptocratic government.

Under the previous administration, the definition of a threat to the security of the nation could mean any threat to the security of the incumbent Prime Minister or political  party in power which had nothing to do with the security of the nation, like the  attempt to restore the good name and dignity of the country as in the expose of the 1MDB scandal which was giving the nation the bad name of a global kleptocracy.

This was why former Batu Kawan UMNO deputy chief Khairuddin Abu Hassan was arrested under SOSMA in 2015 and why SOSMA was used in 2016 to arrest 15 Opposition leaders and prominent civil rights activists, including Maria Chin Abdullah, then Bersih Chairperson and now Member of Parliament for Petaling Jaya in connection with the Bersih 5 rally on November 19, 2016.

The era when national security is the sole concern of the Police is over as national security should be the concern of all patriotic Malaysians.

While the police has the professional and specific  duty to safeguard the national security of the nation, it should not act as in the past when the phrase “national security”  was abused  not to protect national security, but for other motives and purposes.

This is why the Police must act in a transparent and accountable fashion.

Both Gunasekaren and Saminathan are long-time DAP members and would have imbibed the DAP’s core commitment to effect political change though peaceful, non-violent and democratic means and to eschew any resort to any violence or any form of terrorism.

Gunasekaren has been in the party for 37 years and always supported the party’s 53-year commitment to carry out  peaceful, non-violent and democratic change and to eschew violence of any form.

In fact, Gunasekaren  has stood in six elections and has been victorious on three occasions.

I believe Gunasekaren  and Saminathan are innocent of the terrorism charges. If the police have evidence otherwise, then charge them in court which will give them the opportunity to defend themselves.

The Police must be mindful of the background  for the Pakatan Harapan pledge in its 14th General Election Manifesto for the repeal of repressive laws, in particular the draconian provisions in the SOSMA Act 2012.

Until the draconian provisions in SOSMA Act are repealed, there must be effective check and balance to ensure that the spirit of the Pakatan Harapan pledge of a New Malaysia is honoured and that there are no abuses of power concerning the draconian provisions in the SOSMA Act.

This is not only the responsibility  of the Pakatan Harapan Government but also of the Police as well.

(Media Statement by DAP MP for Iskandar Puteri Lim Kit Siang in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday, October 13, 2019)

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 13 October 2019, 3:55 pm and is filed under
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DAP supports PAS proposal for a White Paper on LTTE and suggests that the White Paper should cover the entire spectrum of the problem of terrorism faced by Malaysia

DAP supports PAS proposal for a White Paper on LTTE in Parliament and suggests that that the White Paper should cover the entire spectrum of the problem of terrorism faced by Malaysia.

It was been reported that the four Gulf states, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain,  dubbed the “anti-terror quarter”, had added the International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS) on their terror lists.

As the leader of a Malaysian opposition party is a vice president of IUMS, this is also a matter which should  be addressed by the White Paper on Terrrorism.

(Media Statement by DAP MP for Iskandar Puteri Lim Kit Siang in Parliament on Monday, Oct. 14, 2019)

                This entry was posted on Monday, 14 October 2019, 11:22 am and is filed under
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Former IGP provides light but shocking relief to a dark and sombre subject of the upsurge of lies, fake news and hate speech to destroy Malaysia by polarising inter-racial and inter-religious relations and conflict

Former Inspector General of Police Tan Sri Musa Hassan has provided light but shocking relief to a dark and sombre subject of the upsurge of lies, fake news and hate speech to destroy Malaysia by polarising inter-racial and inter-religious relations and conflict.

Yesterday, Malaysians on the cyberspace were tickled no end  by the episode of the former IGP trying to defend the impossible when Musa  tried to justify sharing and believing  an article from a satirical news website on terrorist Osama Bin Laden and the United States’ Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), entitiled  “CIA Issues Posthumous Apology After New Evidence Clears Osama Bin Laden Of Involvement In 9/11 Attacks”.

Despite repeated attempts by Twitter users to point out the farcical nature of the article by the websiteThe Onion, which said the CIA made a posthumous apology to Bin Laden in light of new evidence which cleared him of involvement in the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Centre in New York City, Musa remained adamant.

Musa said in an early response:
 “If the news is not true, the US government must deny it.”

When others began to mock or chastise him for believing in the article which could damage the police’s reputation, Musa replied that it had nothing to do with the Malaysian police.

“If it was not broadcasted then no one would spread it around? Is it a freedom to spread false news or slander? If the answer is yes, it is an illogical freedom.”

He added:
“No wonder the world is in such chaos, for allowing such false news.”

As more and more Twitter users criticised the former inspector-general, he went on a lengthy rant about ‘
irresponsible journalism’.

“It is still slander even if one meant to be humourous or joking by saying something untrue.”

There are six reasons why such a boo-boo or snafu is most embarrassing and disturbing.

First, it was made by a former Inspector-General of Police.

Second, clearly the former IGP did not understand the meaning of “satire”.

Thirdly,  Musa is now a lecturer at the Centre of Media and Information Warfare Studies at the Universiti Teknology MARA (UiTM), raising questions about the quality of the UiTM’s Centre of Media and Information Warfare Studies when its most star-studded  lecturer who was a former IGP does not know that the Onion.com is an American satirical digital media company that publishes articles on international, national, and local news, both real and fictional, satirising the tone and format of traditional news organisations with stories using a traditional news website layout.

As a result, the Malaysian satirical website, The Tapir Times, which  confessed it is a “
silly work of satire and fiction
”, carried  the latest report of “
Ex-IGP Musa Hassan removed from CIA Watchlist”
 purportedly quoting from a  CIA source  that “
Once it was revealed the former Malaysian police chief didn’t know all you need is a pulse and a website to produce silly online news, he was no longer considered a potential mastermind behind any ongoing CIA and FBI investigations”.

Fourthly, that the Onion satire was not a new item, but dated ten months ago January 9, 2019!

This following is the satirical story:

“LANGLEY, VA—Admitting that the organization had erroneously rushed to judgment in response to an unimaginable tragedy, CIA director Gina Haspel issued a posthumous apology Wednesday to the family of Osama bin Laden in light of new evidence which conclusively clears the former Al Qaeda leader of any involvement whatsoever in the 9/11 attacks.

“’The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency extends its most sincere and heartfelt apologies not only to Mr. bin Laden, but also to his grieving family and the many friends who stood by his side,’ said an emotional Haspel, acknowledging for the first time that the CIA had based its entire 9/11 investigation on the testimony of a single, questionably reliable eyewitness who later recanted.

“’Our organization acted in haste and without full knowledge, and in doing so, took the life of a loving husband, father, businessman, and highly effective community organizer. We understand there is nothing we can do or say will bring Osama back, but we hope the bin Laden family will accept restitution of $18 million in recognition of their pain and suffering. No one deserves to endure what you have been through.’

“Haspel further confirmed that the agency was now operating under the assumption that Zacarias Moussaoui acted alone in perpetrating the events of 9/11.”

Fifthly, Malaysia became the butt of jokes on Twitter because the nation’s former IGP became the butt of jokes on cyberspace for sharing and believing a 10 month-old satirical article about the CIA in all seriousness and refused to back down – equating a satirical site on the same status as leading journals like New York Times or Washington Post.

This does not speak well either for the calibre and quality of Malaysia’s top public officers or university education.

Sixthly, Musa’s blooper illustrates how difficult it is going to be for Malaysia to declare war on the upsurge of lies, fake news and hate speech to incite inter-racial and inter-religious polarisation and conflict in Malaysia, which must be regarded as one of existential threats of Malaysia.

The UiTM’s Centre of Media and Information Warfare Studies should be one of the media schools and agencies which should play a leading role to promote national media literacy from the kindergarten level to universities, as is happening in Finland and other countries concerned about the danger of fake news.

But how can they play such a role when they are ignorant about the character of Onion.com or The Tapir Times?

Lies, fake news and hate speech is not just a Malaysian problem, but a worldwide  phenomenon, which is why the Doomsday Clock 2019 is currently set at two minutes to midnight, the closest it’s been to midnight since 1953 during the Cold war, because fake news is now recognised  as the third existential threat to humanity apart from nuclear warfare and climate change.

But are Malaysians sufficiently aware of the dangers to the nation of the untrammelled spread of lies, fake news and hate speech, with another upsurge of lies, fake news and hate speech after the presentation of the 2020 Budget by the Finance Minister on Friday?

The answer cannot be positive from the shocking episode of former IGP Musa Hassan and Onion.com.

(Media Statement by DAP MP for Iskandar Puteri Lim Kit Siang in Kuala Lumpur on Monday, 14th October 2019)

                This entry was posted on Monday, 14 October 2019, 8:40 am and is filed under
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Parliament must play its role to achieve the Pakatan Harapan promise  to reset nation-building policies  in keeping with the Merdeka Proclamation that Malaysia “shall be forever a sovereign democratic and independent state founded upon the principles of liberty and justice and ever seeking the welfare and happiness of its people”

Parliament must play its role to achieve the Pakatan Harapan promise to reset nation-building policies in keeping with the Merdeka Proclamation that Malaysia “shall be forever a sovereign democratic and independent state founded upon the principles of liberty and justice and ever seeking the welfare and happiness of its people”.

Let me read excerpts from Buku Harapan:

“We promise hope for all citizens, regardless of race and religion. We will stop the rot in key national institutions and we will return the rule of law by ensuring the independence and integrity of important government agencies.

“We will cleanse Malaysia from corruption, malfeasance and kleptocracy, and at the same time drive a sustainable economic growth so that the benefits can be shared by all, not just by a few people in power.

“We offer leaders who are clean and committed to cleaning up this country from the rot, and leaders who are committed to helping people of all backgrounds.”

The Buku Harapan highlights the five pillar-promises, viz:

– Reduce the people’s burden;

– Institutional and political reforms;

– Spur sustainable and equitable economic growth;

– Return Sabah and Sarawak to the status accorded in Malaysia Agreement 1963; and

– Create a Malaysia that is inclusive, moderate and respected globally.

In the agenda on institutional and political reforms, the Buku Harapan stressed that “the check and balance mechanism created by our forefathers no longer function effectively” and pledged to restore confidence in the country’s institutions and redeem the dignity of the administration in a series of institutional and political reforms.

High on this list of institutional and political reforms is the restoration of the dignity of Parliament by upholding the doctrine of separation of powers.

Apart from the Parliamentary Caucus on Reform and Governance, we have set up six bipartisan parliamentary select committees to carry out institutional and political reforms, namely on the budget, state and federal relations, the consideration of bills, defence and home affairs, major public appointments and finally, rights and gender equality.

We must ensure that these six Select Committee can function in a meaningful and effective manner, as they are  the first step to wide-ranging parliamentary reforms which envisaged a Dewan Rakyat Select Committee for every Ministry, with the power to call Ministers and senior officials to testify.

Recently, the country had been convulsed with several arrests in connection with terrorism activities in connection with LTTE, including two elected state Assemblymen from the DAP.

We have a Select Committee on Defence and Home Affairs to ensure that there is no police  abuse of power has happened in the previous administration, when the doctrine of separation of powers was abused and Parliament could not fully perform its constitutional function, with a full clampdown for instance on debate on the 1MDB scandal when the whole world was accusing Malaysia of being a global kleptocracy.

I want to make it very clear that DAP had never proposed police investigation into the LTTE should stop because two DAP State Assemblyman, P. Gunasekaran of Negri Sembilan and G. Saminathan of Malacca are suspected to be involved.

The era when national security is the sole concern of the Police is over as national security should be the concern of all patriotic Malaysians and Members of Parliament.

While the police has the professional and specific  duty to safeguard the national security of the nation, it should not act as in the past when the phrase “national security”  was abused  not to protect national security, but for other motives and purposes.

This is why the Police must act in a transparent and accountable fashion.

This is also why we have a Select Committee on Defence and Home Affairs, as national security is the responsibility of all Malaysians.

The Police must be mindful of the background  for the Pakatan Harapan pledge in its 14th General Election Manifesto for the repeal of repressive laws, in particular the draconian provisions in the SOSMA Act 2012.

Until the draconian provisions in SOSMA Act are repealed, there must be effective check and balance to ensure that the spirit of the Pakatan Harapan pledge of a New Malaysia is honoured and that there are no abuses of power concerning the draconian provisions in the SOSMA Act.

(Speech by DAP MP for Iskandar Puteri Lim Kit Siang at the Caucus of Reform and Governance meeting in Parliament on Monday, Oct. 14, 2019)

                This entry was posted on Monday, 14 October 2019, 3:11 pm and is filed under
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Patriotic Malaysians must reject the post-14GE  Siren Song which can only end up in Malaysia becoming a failed, rogue and kleptocratic state but which is becoming stronger and more brazen because of desperation

The Siren Song sung after the historic May 9, 2018 decision in the 14th General Election is becoming louder and more brazen because of desperation.

Patriotic Malaysians must reject this Siren Song for it can only end up in Malaysia becoming a failed, rogue and kleptocratic state.

The whole purpose of this Siren Song is not to compete with Pakatan Harapan government to make Malaysia a top world-class nation of unity, justice, freedom, excellence and integrity and to  show the world that Malaysia is a success story from the Alliance of Civilisations and not a basket-case of a failure from the Clash of Civilisations, but to destroy the Pakatan Harapan Government, even if the price is to usher in an era of division and instability and to  destroy the Malaysian nation altogether.

Immediately after the 14th General Election, these conspirators had hoped that Pakatan Harapan Government would disintegrate and implode from internal contradictions because it was an untested coalition of four political parties – DAP, PKR, Bersatu and Amanah.

When this did not take place, the decision was taken to  launch an untrammelled campaign of lies, fake news and hate speech to destabilise the country and  incite inter-racial and inter-religious polarisation and conflict, and this is why Malaysia has suddenly become a major   test-case in the world as to whether a multi-racial, multi-lingual, multi-religious and multi-cultural nation like Malaysia can survive the existential threat posed by fake news and hate speech.

The Doomsday Clock 2019 is positioned at  two minutes to midnight –closest it’s been to midnight since 1953 during the Cold War – because fake news has been recognised as a third factor after nuclear risk and climate change which poste an existential threat to humanity.

The untrammelled spread of lies, fake news and hate speech have achieved it  first result  – every ethnic community feels that its position, rights and future are  facing an existential threat.

One culmination of this campaign of untrammelled spread of lies, fake news and hate speech is the PAS-UMNO Himpunan Penyatuan Ummah spreading the concomitant belief that the future can only be assured with the unity of the Malays,  reckless whether it will  drive other communities to push for “Chinese Unity”. “Indian Unity”, “Kadazan Unity”, “Dayak Unity” or “Orang Asli Unity” gatherings.

Some thirty years ago in his speech “The Way Forward” in February 1990 where Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad first announced Vision 2020 of Malaysia  becoming a fully developed nation in the year 2020, Mahathir referred to 19 countries that were generally regarded as “developed countries”.

We have not only failed to become a “fully developed nation” in 2020, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) ranked Malaysia at No. 63 in its list of countries by GDP per capita 2018.

In the past three decades, not only have Malaysia been overtaken by many countries, many ASEAN countries are closing the economic gap between them and Malaysia.

In 1990, Malaysia had a per capita GDP of US$2,550, as compared to US$349 for China, US$1,571 for Thailand, US$806 for Philippines, US$771 for Indonesia, US$100 for Cambodia, US$98 for Vietnam and  US$426 for Laos.

In 2018, Malaysia had a per capita GDP of US$10,942, as compared to US$9,608 for China, US$7.187 for Thailand, US$3,104 for Philippines, US$3,871 for Indonesia, US$1,509 for Cambodia, US$2,551 for Vietnam and US$2,720 for Laos.

Forty years ago, when Malaysian Chinese visited China, it was a from a rich country to a poor and backward nation. Today, the reverse is taking place – as a visit from Malaysia to China now  is to a more developed, advanced and more prosperous nation.

In 40 years of its economic reforms, the World Bank reported that China has brought 850 million people out of poverty while its per GDP had increased 24 times.

Malaysia’s per capita GDP increased by some eight times in the past four decades, while the United Nations special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, Professor Philip Alston, said recently that Malaysia had undercounted the number of poor, that the reported 0.4 per cent of households or approximately 27,000 households below the poverty line income (PLI) is a gross underestimation.

Last week, there were reports that Malaysia is even losing out to Vietnam.

This, and the infamy of Malaysia being regarded for  close to a decade as a global kleptocracy, should be the issues Malaysians should be focussing on when we talk about Malaysia’s  loss of dignity and honour in the international community of nations.

Instead, there is a systematic and orchestrated attempt to destabilise the country by the untrammelled spread of lies, false news and hate speech to incite inter-racial and inter-religious polarisastion and to cause the disintegration and collapse of the Pakatan Harapan Government.

The conspirators see the transition of power from the seventh Prime Minister to the eighth Prime Minister as the last opportunity for them to engineer a collapse of the Pakatan Harapan government or they would have to settle for the Pakatan Harapan government in Putrajaya serving its full term until the 15th General Election by  2023.

Hence the desperation of the conspirators and the fever pitch of the Siren Song – the hatching of plot after plot to destabilise the Pakatan Harapan government, the perennial rumours about “no confidence motion” on Mahathir except in  this budget Parliament because the public had been foreewarned, the combination and permutation of a new government based on the game of  political numbers to secure a majority of MPs in Parliament – including the latest plot  of a new Federal Government in Putrajaya without the participation of DAP and Parti Amanah.

But such plots and conspiracies are not for  Malaysia to achieve its aspiration to become a top world-class nation, but to fulfil the dreams of kleptocrats (which are the nightmares of ordinary Malaysians) either to avoid deserved convictions and sentences for their kleptocracy or to avert being hauled to court for their corruption and abuses of power.

(Media Statement by DAP MP for Iskandar Puteri Lim Kit Siang in Parliament on Wednesday,  16th October 2019)

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 16 October 2019, 6:04 pm and is filed under
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Call on UM Vice Chancellor to withdraw the university’s police report and to stop targeting student activists for their protests but to address them

The University of Malaya Vice Chancellor Datuk Abdul Rahim Hashim should withdraw the University’s police report and stop targeting student activists for their protests but to address them.

The Prime Minister, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad has upheld the right of students to demonstrate, but disagree that a convocation ceremony was the right time and place to carry out the action. He further declared that the government had no intention of interfering in the matter.

It is in this spirit that the protest at the university’s graduation ceremony and other related  matters should be addressed – not in a high-handed and vengeful light which would put the University of Malaya in more adverse light.

The Universiti Malaya Academic Staff Association (PKAUM), in its statement on the “unfortunate circumstance” in which engineering graduate Wong Ya Ke had protested at the university convocation  and the “outright unfair targeting” of Edan Kon Hua En who was denied the right to attend his own convocation ceremony,  has linked  protests by student activists to  existing dissatisfaction over various alleged “misacts” by the vice-chancellor Abdul Rahim Hasim.

“The protest itself is likely to be driven by an already unhappy student community due to the many misdemeanours and misactions of the UM vice-chancellor,”
 the association secretary Noraishah Mydin Haji Abdul Aziz said in a statement.

PKAUM however stated that while it supported Wong’s right to express himself, it disagreed with Wong choice of platform as it marred the convocation ceremony for his fellow graduates and their families.

Abdul Rahim’s failure to promote racial tolerance and unity among the many diverse ethnic groups in UM by engaging in the organisation of the Malay Dignity Congress is a major blemish on his leadership of the university.

(Media Statement by DAP MP for Iskandar Puteri Lim Kit Siang in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday, 17th October 2019)

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 17 October 2019, 10:31 am and is filed under
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Is Malaysia prepared against the threat of South-east Asia becoming the second front of IS (Islamic State)?

Is Malaysia prepared against the threat of South-east Asia becoming the second front of IS (Islamic State)?

A visitor from Mars would not think so, as Malaysians seem to be distracted in the past week by the hitherto  unheard-of issue of LTTE revival, with the  arrest of Malaysians for involvement in suspected revival of  the LTTE, as  old photographs and videos –  some of which dating back  a decade ago –  are  being recycled on the Internet to create a “siege” mentality and  to provide so-called proof of the revival of the defunct LTTE.

In 2012, the then former Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, contributed US$1 million to Sri Lanka Tamils for relief as a result of their displacement. Is this now to be construed as support for the Tamil Tigers?

Worldwide, attention is focussing on what is going to happen in the Syrian prisons since the Islamic State’s self-declared caliphate collapsed earlier this year.

The Syrian  jails are packed with about 12,000 jihadist fighters, with about 65 from Malaysia and “several hundred” from Indonesia, which do not include their displaced wives and children.

Will these jihadists return home undetected and will they recruit new members and launch attacks?

We must heed the warning of experts of international terrorism, two of whom recently warned:

“Southeast Asia may be the newest breeding ground for militant Islam.

“Deeply interconnected but hard to rule, the island-studded region lends itself to unconventional warfare.

“And since at least 2018, when it became increasingly difficult to travel to Iraq and Syria, foreign fighters from the region and farther abroad have flocked to the Philippines, Indonesia, and Malaysia because of these countries’ growing reputation as emerging fronts for global jihad.

“The violence perpetrated by pro-ISIS groups in this region has been episodic and uncoordinated, but the underlying trend is clear—ISIS has shifted away from its initial concern with sovereignty over land and people, moving, in the process, toward a decentralized, global insurgency model.”

Malaysia must not be caught unguarded.

(Media Statement by DAP MP for Iskandar Puteri Lim Kit Siang in Kuala Lumpur on Friday, October 18, 2019)

                This entry was posted on Friday, 18 October 2019, 5:54 pm and is filed under
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Malaysia is pioneering a mutation of fake news and hate speech by using  unrelated old photos, videos, messages and lies to create a new false narrative – for instance that DAP supported LTTE, part of an evil but non-existing  LTTE-DAP-Israel-America quartet and that Lee Kuan Yew and  Chin Peng were my cousins

Malaysia is pioneering a mutation of fake news and hate speech by using unrelated old photos, videos, messages and lies to create a new false narrative in the social media  – for instance, that DAP supported LTTE, that DAP was part of an evil but non-existing LTTE-DAP-Israel-American quartet, that the  former Singapore Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew and former Malayan Communist Party (MCP) leader Chin Peng were my cousins and a  whole host of  other bare-faced lies.

Until the recent arrests last week, DAP had never been accused in the past 43 years of having supported  the LTTE whether  since its formation in 1976, or during the 26-year civil war in Sri Lanka  from 1983-2009, or in the last 10 years  since LTTE’s  military defeat and the killing of the LTTE leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran in 2009.

Why is the DAP suddenly accused of supporting the revival of LTTE and the publication of the monstrous lie in the PAS publication, Harakah, of an evil but non-existing LTTE-DAP-Israel-American quartet?

PAS was with DAP for seven years in Pakatan Rakyat from 2008 to 2015. When did they discover that DAP had supported the LTTE and that there was an evil  LTTE-DAP-Israel-America axis.

Did they perform their patriotic duty of reporting to the Special Branch and when was this done? Let the PAS leaders speak up!

This is why when the PAS Secretary-General proposed a White Paper on LTTE in Parliament, I readily agreed.

But I suggested that the White Paper should cover the entire spectrum of the problem of the terrorism faced by Malaysia, including the report that the four Gulf states, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, dubbed the “anti-terror quarter”, had designated the International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS) as a terrorist organisation. The President of PAS was at the time a Vice President of IUMS.

DAP does not disseminate lies, fake news or hate speech, and we have never accused PAS of any involvement in terrorist activities, despite the designation of the four Gulf States of IUMS as a terrorist organisation.

The PAS President has denied in Parliament this week that IUMS was a terrorist organisation but a White Paper on Terrorism in Malaysia would be a proper place to deal with this designation by the four Gulf States, as there is no  information that these four Gulf States have removed such a designation.

Among the old charts, lies, fake news and hate speech which were regurgitated recently and which had come to my notice were those which accused me as cousins of former Singapore Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew and Malayan Communist Party (MCP) leader Chin Peng as my cousins – which were downright lies as I have no kinship with either of them whatsoever.

In fact, the list of my alleged  kinship was so wide that it included political leaders all over the country including Teresa Kok, Ngeh Koo Ham, Ng Kor Ming, Anthony Loke, Tony Pua and Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin.

But this is not the only lies I had faced in my 53 years in politics. Among the chief pedlars of  lies against me was none other than the former Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

I had been accused of being a communist; responsible for the May 13, 1969 riots, leading the street demonstrations in Kuala Lumpur shouting anti-Malay and anti-Islam slogans although I was never in Kuala Lumpur after the May 10, 1969 General Election; painted as quite a devil, a puaka, even jembalang; that I am anti-Malay, anti-Islam and at various times even anti-Indian, anti-Chinese educated Chinese , anti-English-educated Chinese; an agent of KGB, CIA, MI6 and even Australian Intelligence.

Before the 14th General Election, such toxic politics alleged that I would  be the Prime Minister of Malaysia if Pakatan Harapan won  the polls. When such lies and falsehoods were proved wrong after May 9, 2018 new lies and falsehoods were manufactured to allege that I am the real power in the Pakatan Harapan government in Putrajaya and that Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, Anwar Ibrahim, Wan Azizah Wan Ismail and Mohamad Sabu were merely my stooges and puppets.

And yet among the Chinese, I am accused of being a “running dog” who had sold out the rights and future of the Malaysian Chinese.

If all the lies told about me were true, I must be among the richest, the most powerful and most remarkable persons in human history.

Are the PAS MPs and leaders going to take over all these lies and falsehoods about DAP leaders and me?

Was the PAS President, Datuk Seri Hadi Awang telling a lie when he said in the Teluk Intan by-election in May 2014 that it was DAP who defended PAS in 1978 when the Kelantan government fell to Barisan Nasional, causing chaos within the state?

Hadi  said Barisan Nasional , which was working with PAS then, did nothing to help them.

Hadi had said:
“Only DAP defended us that time and we are grateful to them.

“Even with our differences over alcohol, pork, hudud and halal matters, we have something in common, which is to stand up against corruption, injustice and to fight for fairness for all.”

But now, PAS has become quite a supporter of kleptocracy!

This is what I said in Parliament on 8th November 1978 which debated the Bill to enable to Barisan Nasional Federal Government to take over the PAS Kelantan State Government – a debate which went on to the early hours of the morning:

“If parliamentary democracy and the Federal-state system is to survive, it is paramount that those in power realise and  understand that whatever the political differences or however intense the party rivalries, democratic principles and the fundamental safeguards in the Constitution for a democratic society should not be sacrificed in the furtherance of partisan political interests.”

Will Hadi and the PAS leaders endorse this fundamental principle which I enunciated in Parliament 41 years ago?

If so, would they agree that some of the resolutions adopted by the Malay Dignity Congress violate the Constitution and the Rukunegara?

With the toxic nature of lies, fake news and hate speech in the Internet age, and their mutation into more toxic forms on the ubiquitous social media, Malaysians can now better understand why the Doomsday Clock 2019 is positioned at two minutes to midnight – closest it’s been to midnight since 1953 during the Cold War – because fake news has been recognised as a third factor after nuclear risk and climate change which posed  an existential threat to humanity.

(Media Statement by DAP MP for Iskandar Puteri Lim Kit Siang in Gelang Patah on Saturday, 19th October 2019)

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 19 October 2019, 9:40 am and is filed under
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