Malaysia must never allow kleptocracy to make a come-back, whether in its old  form or in the guise of klepto-theocracy or klepto-democracy

All Malaysians should heed the call by Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah on his installation as Yang di Pertuan Agong  to refrain from inciting misunderstanding by raising matters that can undermine and destroy harmony in the country.

Klepto-theocracy which misuses Islam to support thievery, corruption, intolerance, bigotry, lies and falsehoods is one example of a campaign which is against the call by the Yang di Pertuan Agong to Malaysians to ensure that unity and harmony are the pillars and strength of the nation.

Sultan Abdullah rightly warned that “Playing with fire will burn not only oneself but also the whole village”.

Opposition parties should compete with Pakatan Harapan parties as to who have the best answer to the challenge of building Malaysia into  a top world-class nation where there is unity, freedom, justice, excellence and integrity and respected by the international community, instead of inciting suspicion, distrust and hatred among Malaysians,  pitting race against race, religion against religion and virtually regarded as an outcast by the world community.

It is most regrettable  that even  up to now, there are important personalities and opposition parties who  still do not feel contrite or remorseful  that in the past few years, Malaysia had been   the object of international ridicule and contempt for becoming a global kleptocracy, to the extent that the United States Department of Justice (DoJ) had filed the largest kleptocratic litigation to forfeit US$1.7 billion out of US$4.5  billion of 1MDB-linked assets,  a scandal which the United States Attorney-General Jeff Sessions had condemned in an international forum  as “kleptocracy at its worst”!

The Conference of Rulers had the foresight at its pre-council meeting of its  239th gathering in October 2015 to ask the government to complete the 1MDB investigations “as soon as possible” and to take “the appropriate stern action” against all found to be implicated.

For over three years, however, the  1MDB “investigations” were never completed or allowed to be completed  and not a single person implicated had “appropriate stern action” taken against them before the 14th General Election on May 9, 2018.

Instead, those who had acted in the spirit of  the call of the Conference of Rulers were prosecuted and persecuted by the authorities which was out to engineer a mega-cover-up of the global scandal and kleptocracy.

Even now,  the protagonists of the 1MDB scandal, their allies and proxies are harbouring the hope  that the political scenario could change overnight  to save them from criminal penalties awaiting them for their corruption, abuses of power and money-laundering.

The Rulers had stressed in October 2015 that all concerned should extend “real and sincere” cooperation so that the  1MDB investigation could achieve its objectives.

They said that the findings of the investigation must be reported comprehensively and in a transparent manner so that the people could be convinced of the sincerity of the Government which “shall not at all conceal facts and the truth”.

They warned that the “failure to give convincing clarification and answers” would lead to  a “crisis of confidence.”

But the Conference of Rulers’ statement in October 2015 came to nought.

The then Prime Minister and Cabinet did not even bother to comment on such an unprecedented warning by the Conference of Rulers that if the issue was not wisely handled and allowed to drag on, it could “jeopardise the country’s economy and the livelihood of the people as well as threaten public order and national security”.

For some three years, it was the country’s  sovereign shame that  we had to depend on international investigations launched in various countries like United Kingdom, Switzerland, Hong Kong, Singapore and  United States to throw more light on the 1MDB scandal.

Fortunately, Malaysians redeemed themselves to Save Malaysia when they  presented an unprecedented unity in the 14th General Election on May 9, 2018 and made the crucial and critical shift from the trajectory of a failed, rogue and kleptocratic state to head in a new direction of Malaysia as   a top world-class nation   based on  unity, freedom, justice, excellence and integrity.

Having been saved from being a global kleptocracy once, Malaysia  must never allow kleptocracy to make a come-back, whether in its old  form or in the guise of klepto-theocracy or klepto-democracy.

For the past few years, Malaysians had been haunted an hounded by the latest turns and turns of the 1MDB global scandal – as only yesterday, the US media outlet, the Hollywood Reporter, reported of the latest attempts by the lawyers working on behalf of fugitive businessperson Low Taek Jho to suppress the film, The Kleptocrats.

Jho Low’s lawyers  sent letters to a number of distributors and platforms carrying The Kleptocrats, asking for the film to be removed from their catalogues, as the documentary film which looks into the 1MDB corruption scandal, is due to be aired on Starz in the USA on August 5 and the BBC later this year.

London-based law firm Schillings accused The Kleptocrats of defaming Jho Low, by claiming he is the central figure in the scandal.

They also alleged that the production had infringed copyright in its use of video footage and was  potentially prejudicial towards ongoing legal proceedings.

It is ironic that Jho Low is exhausting   his legal antics in the US and UK with the ill-gotten gains from the 1MDB monies  while continuing to be  on the  run from the arms of the law as an international fugitive from justice,

Why didn’t Jho Low return to Malaysia to stop the film The Kleptocrats from being screened locally, as it was first launched in an exclusive screening in Kuala Lumpur in April this year and available thereafter in Malaysia on Astro on Demand.

The documentary centred on Jho Low’s  connections with the family of former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak was the the first full-length feature documentary about the 1MDB scandal.

Prominent Malaysian figures who were featured in ‘The Kleptocrats’ included Najib’s brother Nazir Razak, Damansara MP Tony Pua, Petaling Jaya MP Maria Chin Abdullah, National Human Rights Society president Ambiga Sreenevasan and cartoonist Zunar.

International journalists who pursued the 1MDB story for years, including The Wall Street Journal’s Tom Wright and Bradley Hope, as well as former New York Times journalist Louise Story, were also interviewed for the film.

The documentary examined  the effects of high-level corruption and embezzlement of taxpayers’ money and highlighted the efforts of Malaysians in pushing for accountability and change.

It concluded with events that took place directly after the 14th general election, which saw the Barisan Nasional  suffer an unprecedented defeat to Pakatan Harapan.

It is noteworthy that the filmmakers had defended themselves, asserting that the film not only had been vetted by their UK and US counsel but was  also covered by its indemnities, thus negating any risk to the distributor.

They believed  the lawyer’s letter to suppress the film was simply an attempt at intimidation to silence the film.

Let Jho Low  stop being on the run with the 1MDB billions, and return to Malaysia to face justice for his infamous role with Najib in nearly bring Malaysia to her knees with the  infamy, ignominy and iniquity of the 1MDB global kleptocracy!

(Media Statement by DAP MP for  Iskandar Puteri Lim Kit Siang in  Kuala Lumpur  on Thursday, 1st August 2019)

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 1 August 2019, 7:42 am and is filed under
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Urge Zakir Naik to act positively on Anas Zubedy’s Open Letter to leave Malaysia voluntarily

I have read Anas Zubedy’s Open Letter to Zakir Naik yesterday giving four reasons why the latter should leave Malaysia  voluntarily, and I  cannot agree more  with Anas.

Anas first praised Zakir Naik’s stand on the  problem of Sunni-Syiah divide, that there is no Sunni or Syiah divide in the Quran and the  Prophet was neither.

Anas said:
 “Your understanding of the Quran on this matter is par excellence and exemplary!

“It would be most beneficial to Muslim Unity in Malaysia if you can advise, explain and convince many of our local Ulama, even some muftis – many of whom you have shared a stage with, to stop this schism.

“For your information, it is a usual practice in many mosques all over Malaysia to paint the Syiah’s in a bad light especially during Friday sermons. If you advise them, they may listen to you. They respect you and want your approval. God-Willing they will pay heed.”

The four reasons Anas gave as to why Zakir Niak should leave Malaysia voluntarily are:

1) Zakir Naik’s presence is causing a family dispute

Using  a family analogy, Anas said Malaysia’s situation is akin to when a senior family member brings in a friend to live in a home but the other siblings are against it. It causes unhappiness and tension within the family. The senior sibling is unhappy that the other siblings do not respect his or her opinion while the latter perceives that the former is insensitive to their needs and feelings. The situation then gets more complicated. It is not nice for the family member who brought him  in to ask him to leave as that is very un-Malaysian. This  a catch 22 situation. Zakir  will need to volunteer and make it easy for the invitee.

2) Zakir Naik’s presence in Malaysia have negative impact on non-Muslims towards Islam

Anas has strong convictions that as a person who dedicates his life in the field of Da’wah, one of Zakir Naik’s  main goals is to get non-Muslims to come closer to Islam. Unfortunately, in Malaysia, his presence is doing the opposite. It is counterproductive. If he  volunteers to leave, he  will be seen as noble and magnanimous and likely to alleviate this situation.

3) Comparative religious debates do not work in Malaysia

While in many parts of the world, debates between religionists are game, but not so in Malaysia. In Malaysia, Non-Muslims are not allowed to counter when Muslim speakers give their views about their faith, let alone start a debate about Islam. It is illegal to preach to Muslims.

In simple terms, Anas said that basically in Malaysia, when Muslims debate with Non-Muslims, it is like a fight where Muslims are allowed to punch the opponent as they please but non-Miuslims  cannot punch back because their hands are tight to a tree.

Anas said Muslim religious leaders and preachers in Malaysia for the most part preach to their faithful by sharing the beauty of their religion without the need to compare or belittle the other. It has worked for sixty years. Malaysians live in peace and harmony and  are a showcase to the world par excellence. With all due respect, Anas said “we want to keep it that way”.

Anas told Zakir:
“I am not saying you must stop your debates. Do it elsewhere. Just don’t bring that culture to Malaysia, at least not till we have an equal playing field.”

4)    Zakir Naik’s  presence is slowing down Malaysia’s political revitalization

Anas said today there is not one Muslim political party in Malaysia that commands a clear leadership. Asking him to leave is sensitive. It can be used as a political fuel to attack the other. No Muslim  based political party will be willing to do that.

“We are in a conundrum”
, summed up Anas.

I fully agree with Anas and I hope that Zakir Naik will respond positively to Anas’ Open Letter.

(Media Statement by DAP MP for Iskandar Puteri Lim Kit Siang at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport before departure for a week-long visit to Chennai, Bangalore and New Delhi on Thursday, 1st August 2019 at 7 am)

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 1 August 2019, 8:07 am and is filed under
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Youths must  dare to have big dreams  to achieve greatness for the country and to right the wrongs and injustices in society

The Pakatan Harapan Government achieved a great feat in the recent meeting of Parliament when it successful amended the Malaysian Constitution to lower the voting age from 21 to 18 years, and allowed the introduction of compulsory registration of voters.

There are those who think the Pakatan Harapan Government was committing political suicide and paving the way for its defeat in the next 15th General Election sometime in 2023, as youths tend to be anti-establishment and anti-government.

This  is why  in the past six decades, the previous government had not lowered the voting age from 21 to 18 years as is the practice in most countries of the world.

In fact, I had raised this proposal in Parliament as far back as  in 1971 but we have to wait for 48 years before the Constitution is amended.

This is a case where the Pakatan Harapan government in Putrajaya is prepared to do what is right and good for the country, although there are people who say this may not be right and good for Pakatan Harapan.

But this should be taken as a challenge by Pakatan Harapan, for I do not think youths are so much anti-establishment and anti-government as they are more  idealistic and visionary as they have not yet come into contact with the ups and downs of real life.

My  advice for the youths of Malaysia – dare to have big dreams for the country and  to right the wrongs and injustices in society.

Malaysia today is confronted with two choices – either go forward to build on the historic decision of May 9, 2018 to build a New Malaysia of unity, freedom, justice excellence and integrity or to go back to the trajectory of a failed, rogue and kleptocratic state as is advocated by the proponents of the new doctrine of klepto-theocracy.

Malaysians politics will be much more healthier and sublime if the government and opposition political parties compete on who have the better  policies to make Malaysia respected and admired by the world for being a top world-class nation in every field of human endeavour instead of trying to incite distrust, suspicion and hatred among the diverse races and religions in the country, which can only result in division, disunity, stagnation and mediocrity of the country.

For instance, Pakatan Harapan wants to transform Malaysia from a global kleptocracy into a  leading nation of integrity in the world.

If we are to achieve this goal, we should be able to be included in the top bracket of 30 nations in the annual Transparency International (TI) Corruption Perception Index (CPI)  instead of oscillating between the ranking of No. 50 to 62 under the previous Prime Minister.

This was the goal of the  five-year National Integrity Plan 2003-2008, but it proved to one of the greatest flops of  Malaysian governance as the country’s TI CPI ranking plunged from No. 37 in 2003 to No. 62 in 2017!

Can we achieve our goal to transform Malaysia from a global kleptocracy to a world leading nation in integrity, as to placed in the top bracket of the 30 nations of integrity in the TI CPI?

Definitely not by the next 15th General Election in 2023 although we must be able to see significant improvement in the annual TI CPI in both the ranking and score every year henceforth.

We may need 10 years to be included in the top world  bracket of 30 nations in integrity, but do we have opposition parties who have better policies to transform Malaysia  from a global kleptocracy into a nation of integrity?

The answer is not only in the negative, if Pakatan Harapan government is defeated in the 15th General Election, then it is likely that all the kleptocrats who are now on trial for corruption, abuses of power and money-laundering would be able to escape criminal penalties and the country revert back to the path of kleptocracy.

Even now, there is no remorse or contrition of the old political parties responsible for making Malaysia into a global kleptocracy, as their leaders even deny the existence of 1MDB scandal.

I will give another example.

The OECD Economic Survey on Malaysia July 2019 made four key recommendations for educational reform in Malaysia, viz:

· Lower the school starting age to at least 5 and make secondary schooling compulsory.

· Provide incentives and implement rotation schemes to attract more qualified and experienced teachers to disadvantaged schools.

· Continue efforts to reduce teacher administrative workload so that teachers can spend more time preparing lessons or participating in mentoring or professional development activities.

· Adopt a more student-centred teaching approach and put more emphasis on developing communicational skills.

Malaysian students have performed poorly over the years  in international assessments whether in TIMSS (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study) or PISA (Programme for International Students Assessment), occupying the lower one-third of world nations in educational standards.

Can we improve to be above global average and be in top one-third of countries in educational standards?

Again, I do not think this goal could be achieved in by the 15th General Election 2023, but it must be our goal to achieve by the  17th General Election in 2033 if not by the 16th General Election in 2028?

Dare we set our sight for such world achievements for the future of Malaysia and be prepared for the hard work and sacrifices with such goals?

These are questions which the youths of today should be asking.

(Speech by DAP MP for Iskandar Puteri Lim Kit Siang to Malaysian students in Chennai  at Raintree Hotel, Chennai on Thursday 1st August 2019 at 8 pm)

                This entry was posted on Friday, 2 August 2019, 11:23 am and is filed under
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Ticked blue by leader of klepto-theocracy preferring Mahathir as PM because he isn’t easily influenced by DAP

Although in Chennai, I am tickled blue by the view  of a leader of klepto-theocracy in Malaysia  that Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad is preferred as Prime Minister of Malaysia as he is not easily influenced by the DAP.

Why did the propagandists of klepto-theocracy so easily forget that they had alleged earlier that Tun Dr. Mahathir had become my stooge?

Malaysian politics is in no-man’s land.  On the one hand, Mahathir is alleged to be my stooge, but at the other end of the political spectrum, I am alleged to be Mahathir’s stooge.;

Can these political operatives decide who is whose stooge – whether Mahathir is my stooge or I am Mahathir’s stooge?

Amnesia seems to be a special quality of the leaders, propagandists and cybertroopers of klepto-theocracy.

A few years back, a leader of klepto-theocracy said only DAP defended PAS when the Kelantan state government fell to Barisan Nasional in 1978 and PAS was very grateful.

Now all this is forgotten.

It would appear that apart from misuse of Islam to support thievery, corruption intolerance, bigotry, lies and falsehoods, the proponents of klepto-theocracy needs another quality – political amnesia!

Probably they need also another “quality” – becoming “dumb and dumber” over the years!

(Media Statement by DAP MP for Iskandar Puteri Lim Kit Siang in Chennai on Friday, 2nd August 2019)

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 3 August 2019, 12:49 am and is filed under
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Too much obsession with the Prime Minister issue when Malaysians more interested whether the PH promises of a New Malaysia of unity, freedom, justice, excellence and integrity can be fulfilled

I spent two days in Chennai, where I had the opportunity to meet Malaysians and Malaysian students in the Tamil Nadu capital.

Their concerns are also the concerns of Malaysians at home.

Firstly, there is too much obsession with the Prime Minister issue when ordinary Malaysians are more interested whether Pakatan Harapan (PH) government could fulfil the PH promises of a New Malaysia of unity, freedom, justice, excellence and integrity and for Malaysia to be respected and admired by the whole world as a top world-class nation in many fields of human endeavour, whether in good governance in the battle against corruption, far-reaching education  reforms in training the workforce for the digital age or in becoming a Tiger economy.

This must be the priority issue of the Pakatan Harapan government and there should be a minimum of diversions  from this major task of the PH government in Putrajaya.

I believe Malaysians can understand that it will not be possible to build a new Malaysia  and to undo all the wrongs and injustices of six decades in a year or two, or even  in one general election cycle, but the country must be set firmly and solidly on the trajectory of a New Malaysia!

Are we doing so?

This is why I have called for a major review of the PH Manifesto of the 14th General Election and the PH objective of a New Malaysia in view of the disappointments and disillusionment of many Malaysians that reforms and changes under the PH government had not been faster or more far-reaching.

Being outside the country has also given me an opportunity to think further of the problem of Malaysian nation-building, as there is no doubt that Malaysians have become more polarised after the 14th General Election because of an  klepto-theocratic alliance which misuses Islam to support thievery, corruption, intolerance, bigotry, lies and falsehoods, pitting race against race, religion against religion.

Malaysia seems to be trapped in an extraordinary situation which, if not addressed, will only lead to greater division and disunity, stagnation and failure to leverage on the best  values and qualities of the Islamic, Chinese, Indian and Western civilisations which meet in confluence in Malaysia to build a great Malaysian nation.

This extraordinary situation is one where the Malays feel threatened, the Chinese feel threatened, the Indians feel threatened, the Kadazans feel threatened and the Ibans feel threatened.

Every community is made to believe that its culture and ethnicity is facing  an existential threat.

But who is creating all these threats to all racial groups in the country?

Not only the various races feel threatened, Islam feels threatened and the non-Islamic religions feel threatened.

Who is the monster creature  making all the religions in the country feel threatened?

One question all Malaysians must ask: Who is the “Other” in the Malaysian context?

Is the “Other” the Chinese and Indians to a Malay Malaysian, the Malays and Indians to a Chinese Malaysian, and the Malays and Chinese to an Indian Malaysian?

If this is the answer, then we have not yet succeeded in Malaysian nation-building, for the “Other” must be a non-Malaysian, whether from Indonesia, China or India or any other part of the world.

This is food for thought for all Malaysians.

(Media Statement by DAP MP for Iskandar Puteri Lim Kit Siang in Chennai on Saturday, August 3, 2019)

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 3 August 2019, 10:00 am and is filed under
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I will not become a  second Jho Low, an international runaway from law and order and fugitive from justice

A leader of klepto-theocracy said I should leave Malaysia, and not Zakir Naik.

I thank my old friend K. Seeladass who responded with an account of  the May 13,1969 riots and how I came back to Kuala Lumpur  to certain arrest despite being advised not to do so.

I did not run away as I did not want to become a Jho Low, an international runaway from law and order and a  fugitive from justice.

Despite the lies and falsehoods of UMNO cybertroopers, I was never in Kuala Lumpur during the May 13, 1969 riots. I  was at a Kota Kinabalu public rally in aid of the election campaign of the independent parliamentary candidate when I first heard news of the May 13, 1969 riots  in Kuala Lumpur.

I was expelled from Sabah as I had criticised the then Sabah  Chief Minister, Tun Mustapha Mohamad, at the rally on May 13, 1969 and I was in Singapore for three nights as the Subang International Airport was not operational with the Klang  Valley under curfew following a declaration of emergency.

Despite advice by party leaders and family members not to return to Kuala Lumpur, as my name was on the blacklist for Internal Security Act arrest,  I took the next available flight to Subang International Airport from Singapore on May 18, 1969  when the airport was re-opened.

I had phoned my wife  who was with the four children in Paramount Garden, Petaling Jaya informing her that I was not  returning to KL so that she would not have to  worry about me  just before I left for  the Singapore Airport  to  embark on that fateful flight which started my first Internal Security Act detention.

At the Subang Airport, I was instantly taken into custody by the police personnel who were waiting for me.

I had returned to KL from Singapore then as I felt that my place was with the people who had just elected me as Member of Parliament (Bandar Melaka), and that my duty demanded that I return home to be  with the people inside the country instead of  being an international fugitive from justice – and that even if I was to be detained under ISA, I must be man enough to face the consequences.

I would never be a Jho Low or even Zakir Naik.

Another leader of klepto-theocracy had invited me, all expenses paid, to visit Kelantan to discuss  the issues with Zakir Naik.

This is most strange and extraordinary

Three days ago, I had said I supported Anas Zubedy’s open letter to Zakir Naik, who had given four reasons why Zakir Naik  should leave Malaysia voluntarily.

Now I am being  attacked as being anti-Islam for supporting Anas’ Open Letter, but no attack had been made on Anas or to  engage him on his Open Letter to Zakir Naik.  Isn’t Anas a Muslim?

Why is this the case and what is the rational for such irrational behaviour?

I had yesterday been tickled blue by another  leader of klepto-theocracy who said that Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad was preferred as Prime Minister of Malaysia as he was not easily influenced by the DAP.

Why did  the propagandists of klepto-theocracy so easily forget that they had alleged earlier that Tun Dr. Mahathir had become my stooge?

Malaysian politics is in no-man’s land.  On the one hand, Mahathir is alleged to be my stooge, but at the other end of the political spectrum, I am alleged to be Mahathir’s stooge.

Can these leaders of klepto-theocracy decide who is whose stooge – whether Mahathir is my stooge or I am Mahathir’s stooge?

A few years back, a leader of klepto-theocracy said only DAP defended PAS when the Kelantan state government fell to Barisan Nasional in 1978 and PAS was very grateful.

Now all this is forgotten.

It would appear that apart from misuse of Islam to support thievery, corruption intolerance, bigotry, lies and falsehoods, the proponents of klepto-theocracy needs another quality – political amnesia!

Probably they need also another “quality” – becoming “dumb and dumber” over the years!

(Media Statement by DAP MP for Iskandar Puteri Lim Kit Siang in Salem, Tamil Nadu on Saturday, 3rd August 2019)

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 4 August 2019, 12:44 am and is filed under
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Malaysians must develop a new self-confidence, a new “Malaysia Boleh” spirit, to exorcise the contrived or imaginary fears and demons so as  to achieve a golden age for Malaysia

Kita semua haruslah membina suatu keyakinan diri yang baharu, satu semangat Malaysia Boleh, untuk kita melawan segala momokan dan ancaman yang dibuat-buat bagi mencapai era kegemilangan untuk Malaysia

Saya telah mengadakan perjumpaan dengan rakyat dan pelajar Malaysia semasa lawatan saya ke Salem semalam.

Daripada negara orang, saya telah mengikuti perkembangan semasa di tanah air, termasuklah kontroversi mengenai pengenalan seni khat jawi kepada pelajar darjah empat melalui kurikulum pendidikan Bahasa Malaysia di Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan Cina dan Tamil.

Beberapa persoalan telah timbul dan telahpun dijawab berkenaan dengan isu ini, antaranya:

Adakah menjadi kewajipan kepada pelajar-pelajar di SJK Cina dan Tamil untuk mempelajari tulisan jawi di bawah rancangan baru ini?

Tidak, kerana Kementerian Pelajaran tidak berhasrat untuk melaksanakan ujian atau peperiksaan untuk seni khat ini.

Bilakah rancangan untuk memperkenalkan seni khat jawi ini diputuskan?

Pada tahun 2016 oleh kerajaan Barisan Nasional.

Adakah kementerian berhasrat untuk mendengar pendapat-pendapat lain mengenai perkara ini?

Pihak Kementerian Pelajaran akan meneruskan pelaksanaan rancangan ini, tetapi pandangan daripada pelbagai pihak akan terus didengari untuk memastikan terdapatnya pertimbangan yang adil.

Mungkin soalan yang lebih penting untuk ditanya adalah: Adakah seseorang yang belajar tulisan jawi itu mengkhianati bahasa dan budaya orang Cina?

Pada saya, jawapannya adalah tidak.

Semasa saya ditahan di bawah Akta Keselamatan Dalam Negeri (ISA) 1969, saya telah belajar tulisan jawi dengan sendiri di dalam tahanan. Perkara ini tidak mengurangkan identiti saya sebagai seorang Cina, malah ia telah membantu saya untuk lebih memahami erti menjadi seorang rakyat Malaysia.

Apakah bentuk pembinaan negara yang sesuai dalam konteks sebuah negara yang berbagai bahasa, kaum, budaya, dan agama — asimilasi atau integrasi?

Pada tahun 1994, Dr Mahathir dalam tahun ke-13 beliau sebagai Perdana Menteri keempat Malaysia, telah mengumumkan bahawa dasar asimilasi kerajaan Barisan Nasional yang diamalkan sebelum ini tidak bersesuaian dengan konteks negara berbilang kaum seperti di Malaysia dan integrasi budaya seharusnya menjadi asas pembinaan negara.

Tetapi, selain daripada asimilasi dan integrasi, terdapat satu cara yang ketiga yang lain, di mana komuniti-komuniti ini dibiarkan untuk hidup secara berasingan di bawah satu sistem politik yang sama.

Di mana orang Cina hidup di dalam dunianya sendiri, tanpa berinteraksi langsung dengan orang daripada kaum yang lain, dan begitu juga dengan orang Melayu dan India.

Saya tidak berjuang untuk sebuah Malaysia seperti ini.

Malaysia yang saya mahu lihat adalah satu negara di mana orang Melayu, Cina, India, Kadazan, dan Iban keluar daripada kepompong masing-masing untuk berinteraksi dengan satu sama lain, untuk belajar, menghargai, dan menerima hakikat yang Malaysia ini adalah satu negara yang berbilang kaum — di mana seorang Cina tidak dianggap mengkhianati kaum dan budayanya kerana seni halus jawi yang dipelajarinya, seorang Melayu tidak dianggap mengkhianati kaumnya kerana seni tarian Bharatanayam-nya, ataupun seorang India dianggap pengkhianat bangsa kerana kemahiran seni kaligrafi Cinanya.

Dalam kata lain, seorang rakyat Malaysia Cina bukanlah 100 peratus Cina, tetapi mempunyai dimensi tambahan yang boleh digelarkan sebagai dimensi tambahan Malaysianya, begitu juga bagi seorang Melayu dan India.

Seperti yang saya katakan di Chennai semalam, satu soalan yang penting untuk semua rakyat Malaysia: Siapakah “mereka” di dalam konteks Malaysia?

Adakah “mereka” ini orang Cina dan India kepada seorang Melayu; orang Melayu dan India kepada seorang Cina: dan orang Melayu dan Cina kepada seorang India?

Jika inilah jawapannya, jelas sekali kita belum berjaya dalam membina satu identiti negara, kerana “mereka” itu sepatutnya bukan seorang rakyat Malaysia, biarpun sama ada daripada Indonesia, China, India, atau mana-mana pun pelusuk dunia sekalipun.

Menteri Pendidikan, Maszlee Malik telah mengatakan yang pengenalan seni khat jawi untuk pelajar tahun 4 bukanlah bertujuan untuk mengIslamkan para pelajar di SJK Cina dan Tamil.

Beliau berkata, kita tidak boleh melihat pengenalan jawi sebagai satu bentuk asimilasi budaya kerana usaha ini bertujuan untuk membolehkan para pelajar untuk mengenali budaya dan warisan seni di negara ini.

Sebagai contoh, terdapat tulisan jawi di mata wang ringgit Malaysia, di Jata Negara, dan jata-jata negeri.

Saya mengaku, sebelum ini saya tidak menyedari kewujudan tulisan jawi di mata wang ringgit ini. Selepas menyedari perkara ini, saya melihat kepada mata wang Rupee India dan menyedari terdapatnya bukan sahaja skrip rasmi tulisan Hindi, tetapi juga bahasa-bahasa daerah seperti Tamil, Telugu, Marathi, Urdu, Malayanam, Gujarati, Bengali, Punjadi, dan Kannada.

Pada masa yang sama, saya setuju dengan pandangan yang menekankan kepentingan reformasi pendidikan bagi membolehkan para pelajar daripada Malaysia untuk mendapatkan keputusan atas purata dan dikelaskan dengan satu pertiga teratas dunia.

Malaysia kelihatan seperti terperangkap di dalam satu situasi yang luar biasa yang jika tidak ditangani, hanya akan membawa kita semua ke kancah perpecahan, kemunduran, dan kegagalan untuk memanfaatkan nilai dan kualiti terbaik daripada pelbagai tamadun yang bertumpu di Malaysia untuk membina sebuah bangsa Malaysia yang dihormati di mata dunia.

Situasi ini adalah apabila di mana orang Melayu, Cina, India, Kadazan, dan Iban berasa terancam dengan satu sama lain.

Semua komuniti berasa seakan-akan budayanya akan dihapuskan.

Tetapi siapakah yang menimbulkan perasaan ini?

Bukan sahaja pelbagai kaum ini merasakan ancaman terhadap kewujudannya, Islam juga berasakan terancam dan pada masa yang sama agama bukan Islam juga berasa terancam.

Oleh itu, rakyat Malaysia mestilah membangunkan satu kesedaran diri baharu untuk mencapai cita-cita kita semua, satu semangat Malaysia Boleh, untuk kita melawan segala momokan dan ancaman yang dibuat-buat bagi membolehkan kita dan negara ini maju dalam semua bidang yang diceburi manusia dan mencapai satu era kegemilangan Malaysia.

(Kenyataan Media Ahli Parlimen DAP Iskandar Puteri Lim Kit Siang di Salem, Tamil Nadu pada hari Ahad, 4 Ogos 2019)

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

I met Malaysians and Malaysian students during my trip to Salem yesterday.

From afar, I have been following developments back home, including the controversy over plans to introduce “khat” or Jawi calligraphy in the Year 4 Bahasa Malaysia curriculum for Chinese and Tamil primary schools.

The following Q&A appears to  be the  position of the  Jawi controversy so far:

1.
Q.
 Is it going to be compulsory for students in Chinese and Tamil primary schools to learn the Jawi script under the new plan?

A.
 The answer is no as the Education Ministry has assured that pupils would not be assessed on their mastery of the art.

2.
Q.
 When were  plans to introduce khat as part of a revision of the curriculum decided?

A.
In 2016 under the Barisan Nasional government.

3.
Q.
Is the Education  Ministry prepared to entertain further views on the matter?

A.
“Although the plan to introduce khat in schools will proceed, the ministry will still accept the views of various parties to ensure that there is fair consideration,” the Educaiton Ministry has said in a statement on Friday.

May be another question that should be asked is whether a person who learns Jawi is betraying the Chinese  race, language and culture.

To me, the answer is in the negative.

When I was first detained under the Internal Security Act in 1969, I taught myself Jawi in detention.  It did not make me any less of a Chinese, and  may have helped in making me more of a Malaysian.

What form of nation-building should be pursued in multi-racial, multi-lingual, multi-cultural and multi-religious Malaysia – assimilation or integration?

In 1994, Dr. Mahathir Mohamad in his 13th year as the fourth Prime Minister of Malaysia,  publicly announced  that the Barisan Nasional government had given up  its nation-building  policy of assimilation as it had realised that this was  unsuitable for a plural society like Malaysia and that integration and not assimilation should be the basis of the nation-building process in the country.

But apart from assimilation and integration, there is a third alternative of nation-building: no assimilation and no integration but  where different communities live side by side but separately under  the same political system.

I have always advocated integration – not assimilation nor a nation building which is neither assimilation nor integration, but merely to let the separate communities to live by side although under the same political system.

There are Chinese who live completely in the Chinese universe of their own, without inter-acting with other races; just as there are Malays and Indians who live completely within their  own respective Malay or Indian universes.

This is not the Malaysia that I strive for.

The Malaysia I want to see  is one where the Malays, Chinese, Indians, Kadazans and Ibans come out of their own universes to interact with other communities; to learn, appreciate and accept that Malaysia is not to be identified with any one community but with all the different communities who have made the land their mother country – where a Chinese has not betrayed race and culture for his exquisite Jawi skill, a Malay has not betrayed race and culture because of his Bharatanatyam repertoire, or an Indian betrayed race and culture because of his mastery of Chinese calligraphy.

In other words, a Malaysian is a Chinese who is not 100 per cent Chinese but has an extra dimension which could be described as Malaysia-plus; a Malay who is not 100 per cent Malay but with a Malaysia-plus dimension; and an Indian who is not 100 per cent Indian but with a Malaysia-plus dimension.

As I said in Chennai yesterday, one question all Malaysians must ask: Who is the “Other” in the Malaysian context?

Is the “Other” the Chinese and Indians to a Malay Malaysian, the Malays and Indians to a Chinese Malaysian, and the Malays and Chinese to an Indian Malaysian?

If this is the answer, then we have not yet succeeded in Malaysian nation-building, for the “Other” must be a non-Malaysian, whether from Indonesia, China or India or any other part of the world.

Education Minister Maszlee Malik said the ministry’s move to introduce khat writing for Year 4 Malay students was not aimed at “establishing Islamisation” in Chinese and Tamil primary schools.

He said people should not look at Jawi’s introduction as cultural assimilation as the  introduction of khat writing was an effort for school students to recognise the country’s heritage and identity.

The Jawi script, for example, is in the ringgit note, the coat of arms for Malaysia and in the emblem of the various states.

I must admit that I had not realised that Jawi is in the ringgit note.  This made me look at the Indian rupee note, and there is not only  the Hindi official script, but of other regional official languages as well like Tamil, Telegu, Marathi, Urdu, Malayanam, Gujarati, Bengali, Punjabi and Kannada.

But I agree that the pressing importance in Malaysia with regard to education is to introduce reforms so that Malaysian students  in international assessments can attain above global average results and be ranked in the top one-third of world countries instead of being placed in the lowest one-third bracket as is the position today.

Malaysia seems to be trapped in an extraordinary situation which, if not addressed, will only lead to greater division and disunity, stagnation and failure to leverage on the best values and qualities of the Islamic, Chinese, Indian and Western civilisations which meet in confluence in Malaysia to build a great Malaysian nation.

This extraordinary situation is one where the Malays feel threatened, the Chinese feel threatened, the Indians feel threatened, the Kadazans feel threatened and the Ibans feel threatened.

Every community is made to believe that its culture and ethnicity is facing an existential threat.

But who is creating all these threats to all racial groups in the country?

Not only the various races feel threatened, Islam feels threatened and the non-Islamic religions feel threatened.

Malaysians must develop a new self-confidence of “reaching for the stars”, a new “Malaysia Boleh” spirit, to exorcise the various contrived or imaginary fears and demons  for Malaysia to excel itself in various fields of human endeavour so as  to achieve a golden age for Malaysia.

(Media Statement by DAP MP for Iskandar Puteri Lim Kit Siang in Salem, Tamil Nadu on  Sunday, August 4, 2019)

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Bapa borek, anak rintik – if Kelantan PAS Youth had understood my statement which was in simple language why I supported Anas Zubedy’s Open Letter to Zakir Naik to voluntarily leave Malaysia, it  would not have made the invitation

I have just arrived in New Delhi from Bangalore and saw news report of Kelantan PAS Youth invitation to a Friday ceramah by Zakir Naik in Kota Bharu.

I can only think of the saying “Bapa borek, Anak rintik”.

If Kelantan PAS Youth had understood my statement which was in quite simple language why I supported Anas Zubeidy’s Open Letter to Zakir Naik to voluntarily leave Malaysia, it would not have made the invitation.

(Media Comment by DAP MP for lskandar Puteri Lim Kit Siang in New Delhi on Monday, 5th August 2019)

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I have never said that one must learn Jawi to be a Malaysian – all I said was learning Jawi did not “make me any less of a Chinese, and may have helped in making me more of a Malaysian”

A friend has sent me a newspaper headline which quoted me as saying:
“Learn Jawi To  Be More Malaysian”.

I have never said one must learn Jawi to be a Malaysian – all I said in my statement from Salem, Tamil Nadu yesterday was learning Jawi while I was serving my first detention in Muar in 1969 did not “make me any less of a Chinese, and may have helped in making me more of a Malaysian”.

Malaysia is a multi-racial, multi-lingual,  multi-cultural and multi-religious nation and we should leverage on our unique position where the great Islamic, Chinese, Indian and Western civilisations meet in confluence in Malaysia to build a great Malaysian nation.

We must be careful not to fall into the trap of conspirators who want to pit race against race, religion against religion to arouse suspicion, distrust and hatred in our plural society to regain political power and work against the flowering of the best of our multi-racial, multi-lingual, multi-cultural and multi-religious nation.

Just as a Malay who can speak and write in Chinese does not make him or her less of a Malay in Malaysia, a Chinese who knows Jawi does not make him or her  less of a Malaysian Chinese. Probably, the additional acquisition of another language make him or her a better Malaysian – but there must be no compulsion in the learning of another tongue!

In Chennai and Salem, I had referred to the  OECD Economic Survey on Malaysia July 2019 which made four key recommendations for educational reform in Malaysia, viz:

· Lower the school starting age to at least 5 and make secondary schooling compulsory.

· Provide incentives and implement rotation schemes to attract more qualified and experienced teachers to disadvantaged schools.

· Continue efforts to reduce teacher administrative workload so that teachers can spend more time preparing lessons or participating in mentoring or professional development activities.

· Adopt a more student-centred teaching approach and put more emphasis on developing communicational skills.

I said that “the pressing importance in Malaysia with regard to education” is to introduce reforms so that Malaysian students  in international assessments, whether in TIMSS (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study) or PISA (Programme for International Students Assessment) can attain above global average results and be ranked in the top one-third of world countries instead of being placed in the lower one-third bracket as is the position today.

We  should be discussing  educational reform proposals to make Malaysia a top world-class nation in education.

(Media Statement by DAP MP for Iskandar Puteri Lim Kit Siang in Bangalore on Monday, 5th August 2019)

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Why did MSC fail but Bangalore succeed in becoming a second Silicon Valley?

When I visited  Bangalore or Bengaluru, the thought that struck me was: Why did Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) fail but Bangalore succeed in becoming a second Silicon Valley when both set out to be a second Silicon Valley over two decades ago?

This is a question Malaysians should focus on if we want to build a New Malaysia of a top world-class nation of unity, freedom, justice, excellence and integrity which is respected and admired by the  international community.

 One explanation is that Bangalore became India’s  Silicon Valley because of the following factors:

a) Large pool of techies. The city has the highest number of engineering colleges than any other city in the world.

Karnataka is a prime centre of learning, with 16 universities,133 medical training institutions, 134 engineering colleges, and 712 general colleges.

b) Research based platform: It is the ‘science centre’ of India with over 100 R&D centres.

c) Hub for Startup culture

d) Bangalore has become the outsourcing capital of the world.

With over two decades’ of experience in outsourcing, Bangalore is the only city in the world that offers global technology companies a unique combination of talented resources, large network of vendors and partnership opportunities.

The city of Bangalore is the backbone of India’s US$60.5 billion outsourcing industry and has carved a name for itself as the “technology hub of the East”.

One can outsource top-notch quality work at 60 per cent lower cost from Bangalore.

e) Bangalore’s cosmopolitan environment.

The outsourcing industry has transformed Bangalore from an Indian to a cosmopolitan city with several IT parks, international schools and quality housing facilities.

f) Pleasant climate.

Malaysians should learn from  Bangalore’s success but MSC’s failure to become a second Silicon Valley!

(Media Statement by DAP MP for Iskandar Puteri Lim Kit Siang in New Delhi on Tuesday, 6th August 2019)

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Malaysian must buckle down to deal with economic and educational problems which have hampered the country’s growth potential

My visit to Chennai, Salem, Bangalore and New Delhi has reinforced me in my  belief that Malaysians must buckle down to deal with the economic and educational problems which have hampered the country’s growth potential.

As former Finance Minister and Council of Eminent Persons (CEP) chairman, Tuan Daim Zainuddin said early this week, Malaysia must fix the education system and move ahead to ensure that the New Economic Policy was implemented on a needs-basis rather than race-basis.

He said that the NEP has polarised sections of society and it would be to Malaysia’s peril to disregard this.

He warned that there were groups who had managed to sabotage the NEP with race, religious and linguistic rhetoric.

Daim’s advice should be heeded by all Malaysians.

Daim said:
“While we look forward, it is also imperative that we look back. Are we getting our basics right? Are our fundamentals solid?

“Let us not be under any illusions. We are still far from being out of the woods.

“We are far from being ready for the changes happening around us. We are far from being a united people. We are far from being able to compete at the global level.

“We are far from being able to embrace differences and changes. And underpinning all of this unpreparedness is education.

“If we do not first get education right, all these other challenges will suddenly become insurmountable.”

As Daim rightly pointed out that while Malaysians bicker about English or Malay for Science and Mathematics in schools, the world was learning coding, which was in neither language.

Daim’s speech is in line with the statement by the PKR President, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim at the recent Malaysian Economic Symposium in Parliament on the need to accelerate the transition of NEP from a race-based affirmative economic plan to one that is needs-based.

My Indian visit bore out these sentiments and strengthened my belief that a good start  would be the  review of  the New Malaysia objective of the  Pakatan Harapan Manifesto in the 14th General Election.

We set out together with Bangalore  to be the  second Silicon Valley with the launching of the Multi-Media Super Corridor (MSC) more than two decades ago. We failed but Bangalore succeeded.  Why?

The rapid economic growth and developmental strides of India in the last five years had been described as “transformational” and the country is all set to emerge as a US$5 trillion economy in the next five years.

Malaysia had not been so successful in the past decade, apart from the international infamy of becoming a global kleptocracy, which we are trying to shake off.

Based on available data dating back to 1980, the size of Singapore’s economy had exceeded that of Malaysia in five out of 38 years. Three of the five years occurred from 2015 to 2017.

The time is indeed long overdue for Malaysians to unite and move purposefully to make the country a top world-class nation in as many fields of human endeavour as possible.

(Media Statement by DAP MP for Iskandar Puteri Lim Kit Siang in New Delhi on Wednesday, 7th August 2019)

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DAP will be defeated in Iskandar Puteri parliamentary seat and would lose 30 to 40 per cent of our votes in the country if election is held now, and we need time for the people to realise that the DAP has not betrayed them or that we have not given up on our objective of a New Malaysia of  unity, freedom, justice, excellence and integrity

DAP akan kehilangan kerusi Parlimen Iskandar Puteri dan mungkin kehilangan sejumlah 30 ke 40 peratus undi jika pilihanraya umum diadakan sekarang, kita perlukan masa untuk rakyat menyedari yang DAP tidak pernah mengkhianati mereka mahupun melupakan matlamat bersama Malaysia Baharu yang berteraskan perpaduan, keadilan, kebebasan, dan integrity

DAP akan kalah di kawasan parlimen Iskandar Puteri dan kehilangan antara 30 hingga 40 peratus undi di seluruh negara jika piliharanraya umum diadakan sekarang.

Inilah tahap salah faham penyokong DAP yang terhadap DAP yang kini berada di dalam kerajaan Pakatan Harapan.

Kami memerlukan masa bagi menjelaskan kepada penyokong kami dan rakyat Malaysia yang DAP tidak mengkhianati dan kami masih belum melupakan matlamat bersama Malaysia Baharu.

Jika benarlah DAP telah mengkhianati perjuangan kami selama ini, adalah mustahil untuk kami mendapatkan semula sokongan rakyat, walaupun selama mana pun masa yang diberi. Malah, sokongan kepada kami hanya akan menjadi lebih teruk.

Setelah berjuang dan berkorban selama berdekad lamanya, DAP tidak akan sama sekali mengkhianati rakyat Malaysia, prinsip-prinsip kami, dan matlamat kami untuk membina sebuah Malaysia yang baharu yang berteraskan perpaduan, kebebasan, keadilan, dan integriti. Oleh itu, para pemimpin DAP haruslah berdaya tahan, bersabar, dan terus komited kepada agenda Malaysia Baharu.

Saya mengikuti perkembangan kontroversi isu tulisan jawi ini daripada Salem di Tamil Nadu sejak hari Ahad yang lepas dan saya perhatikan terdapat tiga perkembangan utama:

Pembelajaran tulisan jawi tidaklah diwajibkan untuk para pelajar di SJK Cina dan Tamil dan pihak kementerian tidak akan memaksa pengajaran ataupun mengadakan peperiksaan untuk tulisan jawi.

Rancangan untuk menyertakan elemen pengenalan tulisan jawi dalam kurikulum Darjah 4 pada tahun 2020 telah diputuskan oleh kerajaan Barisan Nasional di antara tahun 2014-2016.

Kenyataan Kementerian Pendidikan yang berbunyi “Walaupun pengenalan seni khat akan diteruskan, pihak Kementerian sentiasa terbuka untuk menerima pendapat daripada pelbagai pihak bagi memastikan terdapat satu keputusan yang adil untuk semua” menunjukkan kesudian pihak Kementerian untuk mendengar pendapat semua pihak yang terlibat.

Proses pembinaan negara berada dalam satu keadaan yang tidak menentu dalam 15 bulan yang mendatang sejak daripada Pilihanraya Umum yang ke-14 yang lalu.

Mungkin kita boleh memberikan pujian kepada sesetengah pihak yang telah dengan jayanya, memerangkap rakyat Malaysia dalam suatu keadaan di mana orang Melayu berasa terancam, orang Cina berasa terancam, dan begitu juga dengan orang India, Kadazan, dan Iban.

Semua komuniti kini merasakan seakan-akan kewujudan budaya dan etnik mereka diancam.

Namun begitu, siapakah yang menimbulkan perasaan ini?

Saya tidak pernah terbayang untuk mencapai status yang belum pernah dicapai oleh mana-mana rakyat Malaysia sebelum ini — ditakuti dan dikeji oleh orang Melayu kerana dituduh menjadi ancaman terhadap hak-hak istimewa orang Melayu, dan pada yang sama dituduh sebagai pengkhianat bahasa, pendidikan, dan budaya orang Cina demi kepentingan orang Melayu.

Adakah mungkin untuk seseorang itu untuk menjalankan peranan berikut secara serentak — berusaha menghapuskan hak-hak orang Melayu demi kepentingan orang Cina dan pada yang sama mengkhianati budaya dan bahasa orang Cina demi kepentingan orang Melayu?

Saya telah dituduh dengan pelbagai agenda untuk menghapuskan budaya dan hak-hak orang Melayu, antaranya;

– Menjadikan Malaysia sebuah republik

– Islam bukan lagi agama rasmi

– Menghapuskan sistem raja berperlembagaan

– Mengharamkan Azan

– Membubarkan Regimen Askar Melayu

– Membubarkan Majlis Agama Islam Negeri

– Membubarkan Mahkamah Syariah

– Menggunakan wang zakat untuk bukan Islam

Kepalsuan perkara ini tidaklah penting lagi memandang tukang propaganda dan laskar siber yang menyebarkan fitnah-fitnah ini secara terus-menerus menipu demi menimbulkan syakwasangka, kebencian, dan ketakutan antara satu sama lain.

Sekarang saya pula dituduh sebagai mengkhianati hak-hak dan kepentingan orang Cina.

Saya dituduh sebagai seorang yang mengawal segala tingkah laku Perdana Menteri Tun Dr Mahathir dan dalam masa yang sama dituduh sebagai seorang pak turut Mahathir.

Semua tuduhan ini sememangnya tidak berasas sama sekali, dan saya yakin rakyat semua akan menyedari keanehan tuduhan ini apabila mereka kembali kepada realiti yang rasional.

Saya baru menerima satu gambar di media sosial yang menunjukkan gambar saya dengan tulisan “KIT SIANG DIHALAU PENDUDUK KAWASAN — ANDA HANYA AKAN MATI SEBAGAI HERO ATAUPUN HIDUP CUKUP LAMA UNTUK MELIHAT DIRI SENDIRI BERUBAH MENJADI ORANG JAHAT”.

Saya bukanlah orang jahat, dan saya juga tidak berhasrat untuk menjadi hero. Saya hanya mahu menjadi seorang rakyat Malaysia yang patriotik yang berhasrat untuk melihat Malaysia menjadi negara yang lebih baik untuk semua rakyatnya tanpa mengira kaum, agama, mahupun kawasan.

Saya percaya terhadap satu Malaysia yang Baharu yang akan menjadi sebuah negara yang terulung di persada dunia dalam semua bidang yang diceburi manusia dengan pertembungan pelbagai budaya dan ketamadunan yang hebat di Malaysia.

Terdapat laporan media yang menuduh saya sebagai seorang penyokong kuat untuk mengenalkan tulisan jawi ataupun seni khat di SJK Cina dan Tamil.

Perkara ini tidak benar sama sekali, memandangkan perkara ini telah datang secara mengejut kepada semua seorang sebagai satu legasi peninggalan kerajaan sebelum ini.

Saya masih berpegang kepada apa yang saya katakan pada tahun 1984, supaya tiada paksaan dalam pengajaran tulisan jawi.

Lawatan saya ke India baru-baru ini telah menguatkan harapan saya untuk rakyat Malaysia membangunkan satu keyakinan diri yang baharu bagi melawan momokan yang menarik kita ke belakang, bagi membolehkan Malaysia untuk berjaya dalam pelbagai bidang.

Satu semakan semula terhadap Manifesto PRU14 Pakatan Harapan boleh dijalankan sebagai satu langkah permulaan terhadap cita-cita ini.

Kita mestilah berganding tenaga untuk membersihkan nama negara tercinta ini daripada reputasi sebagai sebuah kleptokrasi global dan pada yang sama berusaha untuk menjadi sebuah negara terulung, bermula dengan reformasi pendidikan dan institusi bagi memastikan Dasar Ekonomi Baharu dilaksanakan berasaskan dasar mengikut keperluan dan bukanlah semata-mata mengikut kaum, seperti yang dipersetujui oleh tokoh-tokoh negara seperti Tun Daim Zainuddin, Tan Sri Rafidah Aziz, dan Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

(Ucapan Ahli Parlimen DAP Iskandar Puteri Lim Kit Siang di Sesi Taklimat berkenaan perkara Tulisan Jawi di dalam buku teks Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan Cina/Tamil di Skudai pada hari Sabtu, 10 Ogos 2019)

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

DAP will be defeated in Iskandar Puteri parliamentary seat and would lose 30 to 40 per cent of our votes in the country if an election is held now.

This is the extent of the misperception and misunderstanding  about the DAP in the Pakatan Harapan government  which our long-standing supporters have about us.

We need time for our supporters and the people to realise that the DAP has not betrayed them  and that we have not given up on our hopes and objectives of a New Malaysia of unity, freedom, justice, excellence and integrity.

If the DAP had in fact betrayed the people and the hopes and objective of a New Malaysia of unity, freedom, justice, excellence and integrity, then there is no way that DAP can recover or recapture the support of the voters with the passage of time. In fact, the outcome can only be worse.

With our decades of struggle and sacrifice, DAP will never betray the people, our principles and our hopes and objective of a New Malaysia of unity, freedom, justice, excellence and integrity, but DAP leaders must have the stamina, perseverance and commitment to stay the course for a  New Malaysia.

When I was in Salem in Tamil Nadu last Sunday, following from afar the controversy over Jawi in the Year 4 Bahasa Malaysia curriculum for Chinese and Tamil primary schools, I noted three developments:

Jawi is not compulsory but optional  for students in Chinese and Tamil primary schools, and that there will be no compulsion, learning or examination of  Jawi.

Plans  to revise  the curriculum to include Jawi in Std. 4 Bahasa Malaysia textbook in 2020 was decided by the Barisan Nasional government in 2014-2016.

The statement from the Education Ministry that  “Although the plan to introduce khat in schools will proceed, the ministry will still accept the views of various parties to ensure that there is fair consideration” indicates that the Education Ministry is still open to views and consultation from all groups and parties concerned.

Malaysian nation-building is in a quandary in the last 15 months after the 14th General Election.

We must commend political conspirators for trapping Malaysia in  an extraordinary situation where the Malays feel threatened, the Chinese feel threatened, the Indians feel threatened, the Kadazans feel threatened and the Ibans feel threatened.

Every community is made to believe that its culture and ethnicity is facing an existential threat.

But who is creating all these threats to all racial groups in the country?

I never thought I would achieve a status unheard of for any Malaysian – feared and condemned by some Malays for being a Chinese threat to Malay rights and ethnicity as well as feared and condemned by some Chinese for betraying Chinese rights, language and culture.

Is it possible for any one person to assume such multiple and contradictory roles – on the one hand, out to eradicate Malay rights, culture and ethnicity on behalf of the Chinese, and on the other hand, out to betray Chinese language, education and culture allegedly at the behest of Malay interests.

I am accused of long list of agenda to wipe out Malay rights and ethnicity, including:

Malaysia becoming a republic.

Islam no more official religion.

Eradicate Constitutional monarchy.

Ban Azan.

Dissolve the Royal Malay Regiment.

Dissolve all State Islamic Religious Councils.

Dissolve Syariah Courts.

Use for Zakat for non-Muslims.

It does not matter that all these are not true, as the propagandists and cybertroopers who peddle these lies continue to incite doubt, suspicion, hatred and fear with these falsehoods, which become particularly divisive and destructive in the era of the Internet.

Now I am accused of betraying the rights and interests of the Malaysian Chinese.

I am on the one hand, accused of being the puppet master who pulls the strings on the Prime Minister, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad and on the other hand, as a “lap dog” and stooge of Mahathir.

All these are baseless allegations, which the people will realise  when emotions do not run so high.

I received just now on the social media a graphic of my photograph with the caption: “KIT SIANG’S CONSTITUENTS HECKLE HIM – YOU EITHER DIE A HERO OR LIVE LONG ENOUGH TO SEE YOURSELF BECOME THE VILLAIN”.

I am not a villain. I do not want to be a hero.  I just want to be a patriotic Malaysian to make Malaysia a better nation for all our citizens, regardless of race, religion or region.

I believe in a New Malaysia that can become a top world-class nation in various fields of human endeavour as four great civilisations – Islamic, Chinese, Indian and Western –  meet in confluence in Malaysia.

But we must come out of our ethnic shells, interact and appreciate the virtues and best values of each other’s ethnicity and not to fall victim to evil conspirators who only want to engender and incite suspicion, distrust, fear and hatred – pitting race against race and religion against religion.

There is a media report that had referred to me as a “proponent” of the introduction of khat or jawi script in Chinese/Tamil primary schools.

Nothing could be further from the truth as the issue had caught everyone, including myself, by surprise as it is a legacy of the previous government.

I stand by what I said in 1984 that there should be no compulsory teaching of Jawi.

My recent visit to India has strengthened my belief  that Malaysians must develop a new self-confidence of “reaching for the stars”, a new “Malaysia Boleh” spirit, to exorcise the various fears and demons –  contrived,  imaginary  or otherwise –  for Malaysia to excel itself in various fields of human endeavour so as to achieve a golden age for Malaysia.

A good start could be made with wide-ranging review of the New Malaysia objective of the Pakatan Harapan Manifesto in the 14th General Election.

We must not only shake off the  international infamy of a global kleptocracy, we must graduate to become world top-class nation with a tiger economy, starting with far-reaching educational and institutional reforms to ensure that the New Economic Policy is implemented on a needs-basis rather race-basis, as agreed by eminent Malaysians like Tun Daim Zainuddin, Tan Sri Rafidah Aziz and Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

(Speech by DAP MP for Iskandar Puteri Lim Kit Siang at a DAP briefing on Jawi in Chinese/Tamil primary school textbooks in Skudai on Saturday, 10th August 2019 at 9 pm)

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 11 August 2019, 11:50 am and is filed under
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Malaysian authorities should not allow foreigners to abuse their privileges of becoming a Permanent Resident to create inter-racial and inter-religious tension and conflict in the country

The Malaysian authorities should not allow foreigners to abuse their privileges of becoming a Permanent Resident to create inter-racial and inter-religious tension and conflict  in the country.

It is most regrettable that Islamic preacher Zakir Naik had created mischief in his recent speech in Kota Bharu when he compared the Hindus in Malaysia to the Muslims in India and said that the former enjoyed more than 100% rights in Malaysia compared to Muslims in India.

He further said that it was unfortunate that Hindus in Malaysia, despite the benefits, are more loyal to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi than to Mahathir.

Zakir Naik had cast baseless aspersion on the Malaysian Indian community who have made great sacrifices and  contributions to the building of present-day Malaysia and   made  a  most mischievous and deplorable attempt to create inter-racial and inter-religious tension, misunderstanding and conflict in Malaysia.

The Malaysian authorities should act on the  most mischievous and irresponsible statement  by Zakir Naik.

(Media Statement by DAP MP for Iskandar Puteri Lim Kit Siang in Kuala Lumpur on Monday, 12th August 2019)

                This entry was posted on Monday, 12 August 2019, 12:00 pm and is filed under
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Mahathir wrong to brand Dong Zong as “racist” but Dong Zong was  not right to claim that Jawi lesson for Chinese/Tamil primary school Std. 4 Bahasa Malaysia subject from 2020  was beginning of Islamisation

Perdana Menteri, Dr Mahathir Mohammad salah melabel Dong Zong sebagai “rasis”, tetapi Dong Zong juga tidak betul apabila mendakwa pembelajaran tulisan Jawi bagi mata pelajaran Bahasa Malaysia Tahun Empat di sekolah rendah Cina/Tamil  bermula tahun 2020 sebagai permulaan Islamisasi

Perdana Menteri Dr Mahathir Mohammad salah melabel Dong Zong sebagai “rasis”, tetapi Dong Zong juga tidak betul apabila mendakwa pembelajaran tulisan Jawi bagi mata pelajaran Bahasa Malaysia Tahun Empat di sekolah rendah Cina/Tamil bermula tahun 2020 sebagai permulaan Islamisasi.

Kedua-dua insiden ini mengambarkan betapa berat salah faham yang timbul berkenaan tulisan Jawi di sekolah rendah Cina dan Tamil.

Saya berada di Chennai, Salem, Bangalore dan New Dehli ketika kontroversi subjek tulisan Jawi meledak dan taklimat oleh Timbalan Menteri Pendidikan, Teo Nie Ching dalam perjumpaan untuk ahli-ahli DAP Melaka semalam merupakan kali pertama saya mengetahui tentang punca sebenar kontroversi berkenaan.

Terdapat teori-teori konspirasi bahawa kontroversi tulisan Jawi ini didalangi oleh sama ada Menteri Pendidikan, Maszlee Malek atau Perdana Menteri Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad demi tujuan politik.

Pun begitu, hakikatnya, kontroversi subjek itu adalah warisan daripada kerajaan terdahulu kerana keputusan muktamad mengenai buku teks baru untuk sekolah rendah Cina dan Tamil untuk memperkenalkan subjek tulisan Jawi untuk murid-murid Tahun Empat pada tahun 2020 telah dibuat oleh Jawatankuasa Kurikulum Kementerian Pendidikan yang dipengerusikan oleh menteri pendidikan dan dua timbalan menteri pendidikan dalam satu mesyuarat pada 30 September 2015.

Timbalan Menteri Pendidikan, Teo Nie Ching, hanya menyedari tentang perkara itu setelah kontroversi itu meledak bulan lalu.

Seperti yang saya katakan di Skudai minggu lalu, jika tidak berlaku pertukaran kerajaan dalam Pilihan Raya Umum ke-14 pada 9 Mei 2018, pelaksanaan keputusan Kementerian Pendidikan berhubung kokurikulum baharu pada September 2015 itu mungkin akan menghasilkan “Tiga Kehendak” dalam buku teks terbaharu untuk Tahun Empat sekolah rendah Cina dan Tamil – iaitu wajib, ada peperiksaan dan perlu untuk murid belajar Jawi.

Berikutan interversi DAP dalam Kabinet, “Tiga Kehendak” telah menjadi “Tiga Penafian” – Tidak wajib, tidak perlu peperiksaan dan tidak perlu mempelajari/menulis jawi tetapi hanya sekadar pengenalan.

Terdapat cadangan untuk subjek itu dibatalkan di sekolah rendah Cina dan Tamil, meskipun telah diajar selama bertahun-tahun dalam buku teks murid Tahun Lima sekolah rendah Cina dan Tamil.

Semasa saya berada di Salem, India pada minggu lalu, saya perhatikan kenyataan Kementerian Pendidikan bahawa ia masih “menerima pandangan pelbagai pihak untuk memastikan terdapat pertimbangan yang wajar” sebagai menunjukkan Kementerian Pendidikan masih terbuka untuk pandangan dan rundingan dari semua kumpulan dan pihak yang berkenaan dengan subjek tersebut.

Keterbukaan ini harus digunakan sepenuhnya untuk pertimbangan baharu tentang subjek tulisan Jawi di sekolah rendah Cina dan Tamil.

(Kenyataan Media oleh Ahli Parlimen Iskandar Puteri, Lim Kit Siang di Kuala Lumpur pada Selasa, 13 Ogos 2019)

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

The Prime Minister, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohammad was wrong to brand Dong Zong as “racist” but Dong Zong was not right  to claim that the Jawi lesson for Chinese/Tamil primary school Std. 4 Bahasa Malaysia subject from 2020 was beginning of Islamisation.

Both these incidents illustrates the gravity  of the misperception that engulfs the subject of Jawi in Chinese and Tamil primary schools.

I was in Chennai, Salem, Bangalore and New Delhi when the Jawi subject controversy blew up and the briefing by the Deputy Education Minister, Teo Nie Chin at the gathering for Malacca DAP members yesterday was the first time I learned about the origins of the Jawi subject controversy.

There were conspiracy theories that the Jawi controversy invented either  Education Minister, Mazlee Malek or the Prime Minister, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamed to serve their political purposes.

In actual fact, however, the Jawi subject controversy was a legacy of the former government, as the final decision on the new textbooks for Chinese/Tamil primary schools to introduce the Jawi subject for Std. 4 pupils in 2020 was made by Education Ministry Curriculum Committee chaired by the then Education Minister and the then two Deputy Education Ministers in a meeting of Sept. 30, 2015.

The Deputy Education Minister, Teo Nie Chin, only  knew about the matter when the controversy blew up last month.

As I said in Skudai over last weekend, if there had been no change of government in the 14th General Election on May 9, 2018, the  implementation of the Education Ministry decision on new curriculum in Sept. 2015  would probably result in “Three Wants” in the new textbooks for Chinese/Tamil Std. 4 primary school pupils – Want to be compulsory, Want to have examination and Want students to learn Jawi.

As a result of DAP intervention in Cabinet, the “Three Wants” had become “Three Nos” — No Compulsion, No Examination and No learning/writing of Jawi but only introduction.

There is the proposal that the Jawi subject be scrapped for Chinese/Tamil primary schools, although it  has already appeared for many years in the current Std. V textbook for Chinese and Tamil primary schools.

When I was in Salem, India  last week, I noted the statement of the Education Ministry that it “still accept the views of various parties to ensure that there is fair consideration” as indicative that the Education Ministry is still open to views and consultation from all groups and parties concerned on the subject.

This is an opening that should be fully used for a new consideration of the subject of Jawi in Chinese and Tamil primary schools.

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

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 13 August 2019, 12:08 pm and is filed under
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Let all Malaysians celebrate the 62nd National Day with resolve, confidence  and commitment to build a New Malaysia of unity, freedom, justice, excellence and integrity to make Malaysia a top world-class nation

Semua rakyat Malaysia wajar merayakan Hari Kebangsaan ke-62 dengan penuh keazaman, keyakinan dan komitmen untuk membina Malaysia Baru yang bercirikan perpaduan, kebebasan, keadilan, kecemerlangan dan integriti demi menjadikan Malaysia sebuah negara bertaraf dunia

Saya menyeru kepada semua rakyat Malaysia untuk merayakan Hari Kebangsaan ke-62 dengan penuh keazaman, keyakinan dan komitmen untuk membina Malaysia Baru yang bercirikan perpaduan, kebebasan, keadilan, kecemerlangan dan integriti demi menjadikan Malaysia sebuah negara bertaraf dunia.

Rakyat Malaysia mengambil keputusan bersejarah pada 15 bulan yang lalu dalam Pilihan Raya Umum ke-14 pada 9 Mei 2018 untuk memindahkan kuasa secara aman dan demokratik di Putrajaya setelah enam dekad berlalu, suatu peristiwa yang mengejutkan bukan sahaja rakyat Malaysia tetapi dunia, dan kini kita memikul tugas yang sangat mencabar dalam membina sebuah Malaysia Baharu melalui jalan demokrasi dan bukan dengan cara revolusioner.

Ini adalah misi kebangsaan yang memerlukan lebih daripada satu pusingan pilihan raya umum untuk dicapai kerana Malaysia Baharu tidak mampu terbina dalam tempoh yang singkat.

Baru-baru ini, puak fahaman pemisah dan perpecahan seolah-olah telah menguasai perkembangan di negara ini sehingga melahirkan kekecewaan, perbezaan dan perpecahan di kalangan rakyat.

Di ambang perayaan Hari Kebangsaan ke-62, rakyat Malaysia perlu mengambil alih misi yang besar ini untuk membina Malaysia Baru yang bercirikan perpaduan, kebebasan, keadilan, kecemerlangan dan integriti demi melonjakkan nama Malaysia sebagai sebuah negara bertaraf dunia.

Kita harus mengingati semula lima janji utama Pakatan Harapan dalam Manifesto Pilihan Raya Umum ke-14, iaitu:

1. Meringankan beban rakyat;

2. Reformasi institusi dan politik;

3. Menjana pembangunan yang mampan dan saksama;

4. Pemulihan taraf Sabah dan Sarawak seperti mana yang diperuntukan dalam Perjanjian Malaysia 1963, dan;

5. Mencipta Malaysia Baharu yang inklusif, moderat, dan dipandang tinggi di mata dunia.

Semoga lima janji utama ini menjadi prinsip pengangan kita untuk membina sebuah Malaysia Baharu pada Bulan Hari Kebangsaan ke-62 bermula dari 16 Ogos hingga 16 September, yang menandakan sambutan Hari Malaysia ke-56.

(Kenyataan Media oleh Ahli Parlimen Iskandar Puteri, Lim Kit Siang di Kuala Lumpur pada Rabu, 14 Ogos 2019)

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

I call on Malaysians to celebrate the 62nd National Day with resolve, confidence and commitment to build a New Malaysia of unity, freedom, justice, excellence and integrity to make Malaysia a top world-class nation.

Malaysians took a historic decision 15 months ago in the 14th General Election on May 9, 2018 to peacefully and democratically transfer power in Putrajaya after six decades, which surprised and shocked not only Malaysians but the world, and now we are in the very challenging task of building a New Malaysia through democratic and not  by revolutionary means.

This is a national mission which will take more one general election cycle to complete as a  New Malaysia cannot be established overnight.

Recently, fissiparous and centrifugal forces seem to have dominated developments in the country causing dismay, division and disunity.

On the eve of 62nd National Day celebrations, let Malaysians take ownership of the great mission to build a New Malaysia of unity, freedom, justice, excellence and integrity to  catapult Malaysia to the ranking of a top world-class nation.

Let us be reminded and refreshed by  the five pillar-promises of the Pakatan Harapan in the 14th General Elections Manifesto, viz:

· Reduce the people’s burden.

· Institutional and political reforms.

· Spur sustainable and equitable economic growth.

· Restore Sabah and Sarawak to the status accorded in Malaysia Agreement 1963.

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

Let these five pillar-promises be our lodestar to build a New Malaysia in the 62nd National Day Month from August 16 to Sept. 16, which marks   the 56th Malaysia Day  celebrations.

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

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Zakir Naik has compounded his abuse of  Malaysia’s hospitality by  attacking the  Chinese Malaysians as “old guests” after attacking the loyalty of the Indian Malaysians

Islamic preacher Zakir Naik has compounded his abuse of Malaysian hospitality by attacking the Chinese Malaysians as “old guests” after attacking the loyalty of the Indian Malaysians.

As reported by Malaysiakini today, Zakir Naik made his offensive remarks about Chinese Malaysians while talking about how Islam had spread peacefully in the region through traders.

Zakir Naik referred to himself as “new guest” and the Chinese Malaysians as “old guests”, declaring  that “if you want the new guest to go first, ask the old guests to go back”.

Zakir Naik said the Chinese Malaysians “aren’t born here, most of them. May be the new generations, yes”.

Zakir Naik has trespassed  into a territory he knows nothing about to make a totally unsolicited offence.

I do not have the exact statistics but I reckon that  the number of  Chinese Malaysians born in  China today is less than one per cent or totally inconsequential, and that over 99 per cent of Chinese Malaysians are local born and loyal to Malaysia!

May be Zakir Naik had fallen for the lie and falsehood  spread in the cyberspace and social media by  cyberliars that I had swam from China to Malaya when I was 17 years old, when in fact,  I was born locally and went to school in Batu Pahat  from Std. One onwards.

The more important point is Malaysia can have no place for a foreigner who abuses the country’s hospitality and privileges, sowing trouble in a plural society and creating inter-racial and inter-religious misunderstanding, tension and conflict while running away from his native India for  criminal charges of money-laundering.

(Media Comment by DAP MP for Iskandar Puteri Lim Kit Siang in  Kuiala Lumpur on Wednesday, 14th August 2019)

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Call on Malaysians to rise above the fissiparous and centrifugal forces threatening to tear Malaysia apart and reunite to build a New Malaysia which is  a top world-class nation  of unity, freedom, justice, excellence and integrity

Meminta seluruh rakyat Malaysia supaya mengatasi puak pemisah dan perpecahan yang mahu mengganggu-gugat keharmonian Malaysia dan bersatu padu membina sebuah Malaysia Baharu yang bertaraf antarabangsa dengan ciri-ciri perpaduan, kebebasan, keadilan, kecemerlangan dan integriti

Dua minggu lagi kita akan meraikan Hari Kebangsaan ke-62 pada tanggal 31 Ogos dan sebulan lagi kita akan merayakan pula Hari Malaysia ke-56 pada 16 September.

Dengan itu, mari kita mulakan Bulan Malaysia Baharu bermula esok sehingga 16 September, bagi mengatasi puak pemisah dan perpecahan yang mahu mengganggu-gugat keharmonian Malaysia dan bersatu padu membina sebuah Malaysia Baharu yang bertaraf antarabangsa dengan ciri-ciri perpaduan, kebebasan, keadilan, kecemerlangan dan integriti.

Jika kita lakukan ini, Bulan Malaysia Baharu 2019 akan menjadi sebuah lembaran penting dalam usaha kita untuk membina Malaysia Baharu, yang bertitik awal daripada kemenangan Pilihan Raya Umum ke-14 (PRU14) pada 9 Mei, 2018.

Seperti yang sering saya ulangi, misi nasional ini akan mengambil tempoh lebih dari satu kitaran pilihan raya untuk dicapai, kerana Malaysia Baharu tidak mampu terbina dalam tempoh yang singkat.

Rakyat Malaysia perlu mengambil alih misi yang besar ini untuk membina Malaysia Baru yang bercirikan perpaduan, kebebasan, keadilan, kecemerlangan dan integriti demi melonjakkan nama Malaysia sebagai sebuah negara bertaraf dunia, berdasarkan lima janji utama Pakatan Harapan dalam Manifesto PRU14, iaitu:

1. Meringankan beban rakyat;

2. Reformasi institusi dan politik;

3. Menjana pembangunan yang mampan dan saksama;

4. Pemulihan taraf Sabah dan Sarawak seperti mana dalam Perjanjian Malaysia 1963, dan;

5. Mencipta Malaysia Baharu yang inklusif, moderat, dan dipandang tinggi di mata dunia.

Ada yang tidak menyangka bahawa kerajaan Pakatan Harapan di Putrajaya – gabungan empat parti dengan perbezaan sejarah, ideologi dan hala tuju – mampu bertahan sehingga kini, namun, terbukti mereka salah – gabungan ini tetap teguh dan bersatu untuk memandu negara, meskipun menghadapi pelbagai cabaran, ke arah sebuah Malaysia Baharu, iaitu sebuah misi nasional yang akan mengambil tempoh lebih dari satu kitaran pilihan raya umum untuk dicapai.

Kerajaan Pakatan Harapan di Putrajaya mampu mengharungi pelbagai cabaran sejak 15 bulan lalu dalam misinya untuk membina sebuah Malaysia Baharu. Namun ini hanya ujian kecil, kerana ada ujian yang lebih besar iaitu untuk kekal tabah, bersatu dan setia terhadap misi nasional untuk membina sebuah Malaysia Baharu dengan memenangi bukan sahaja PRU14, malah PRU15 bagi memastikan tugas nasional itu selesai dengan jayanya.

Kerajaan Pakatan Harapan tidak boleh tersasar daripada objektif untuk membina sebuah negara bertaraf dunia yang bercirikan perpaduan, keamanan, keadilan, kecemerlangan dan integriti.

Bolehkan Malaysia, sebelum PRU16, mencapai objektif tersebut?

Ini impian saya dan saya mencabar seluruh rakyat Malaysia untuk memasang impian yang lebih luhur untuk Malaysia, dan apa yang lebih penting, menyerahkan segala jiwa dan raga untuk mencapai impian itu.

Pemimpin politik yang mempunyai impian yang luhur untuk Malaysia harus bersedia untuk berkorban, meskipun dipandang serong kerana melakukan perkara yang tepat, adil dan murni.

Saya dimomokkan oleh sesetengah orang Melayu sebagai “Syaitan Besar” yang kononnya mahu menghapuskan hak dan masa depan orang Melayu, dan dituduh kononnya memegang kuasa yang begitu besar sehinggakan Perdana Menteri Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad kononnya tunduk sebagai pak turut saya.

Tetapi, dalam masa yang sama, saya dimomokkan oleh sesetengah orang bukan Melayu bahawa kononnya saya mengkhinati orang Cina dan hak orang India malah kononnya menjadi “anjing suruhan” Mahathir!

Bagaimana mungkin seorang individu boleh memegang watak yang begitu bercanggah? Mungkin ini sesuatu yang tidak pernah difikirkan mereka yang berterusan menyebarkan penipuan, pembohongan, berita palsu, ketakutan dan kebencian, melaga-lagakan kaum dengan kaum, agama dengan agama.

Serangan demi serangan itu tidak mempunyai asas, tidak kira dari sesetengah orang Melayu ataupun bukan Melayu.

Sekarang, saya dituduh pula sebagai hipokrit dan cauvinis gara-gara mengkritik pendakwah Zakir Naik yang menyalahgunakan kebaikan yang diberikan Malaysia dengan menyasarkan serangan terhadap rakyat Malaysia berbangsa Cina dengan melabel mereka sebagai “tetamu lama”, selepas mempersoalkan kesetiaan masyarakat India di Malaysia.

Saya dituduh kononnya hanya mengkritik Zakir Naik selepas beliau melabel orang Cina di Malaysia sebagai “pendatang” dan kononnya saya tidak buka mulut sewaktu rakan India kita menjadi sasarannya.

Penuduh tidak bertanggungjawab seperti ini malas menyemak fakta, saya sebelum ini pernah mengkritik Zakir Naik atas serangan tidak berasasnya terhadap masyarakat India di negara ini, atau lebih awal dari itu, saya telah menyatakan sokongan terhadap surat terbuka yang dikarang Anas Zubedy yang antara lain memuatkan empat sebab mengapa Zakir Naik perlu meninggalkan negara ini dengan rela hati.

Pelbagai tuduhan juga direka dengan membangkitkan persoalan mengapa isu Zakir Naik hanya dibiarkan untuk ditangani oleh dua “Menteri India”, Gobind Singh dan M. Kulasegaran, sedangkan ia tidak benar sama sekali.

Pertamanya, Gobind dan Kula dalam Kabinet bukan sebagai “Menteri India” tetapi Menteri Malaysia.

Kedua, isu Zakir Naik bukan hanya kebimbangan Gobind dan Kula, sebaliknya turut menjadi kebimbangan enam Menteri DAP, yang dipimpin Setiausaha Agung DAP merangkap Menteri Kewangan, Lim Guan Eng, untuk dibincangkan dan dipersetujui sebelum dibawa ke Kabinet, semalam.

Ketiga, Kabinet tidak memutuskan kebimbangannya hanya kerana serangan Zakir terhadap orang Cina, kerana laporan Malaysiakini berhubung serangan Zakir itu hanya diterbitkan selepas mesyuarat Kabinet.

Saya memuji Menteri Belia dan Sukan, Syed Saddiq Abdul Rahman atas contoh baik yang ditunjukkan beliau sebagai seorang rakyat Malaysia Baharu, dengan menyokong gesaan supaya Zakir Naik diusir atas kenyataannya terhadap orang India dan Cina di negara ini.

Seperti yang ditegaskan Syed Saddiq, orang Cina di negara ini bukan “tetamu” tetapi warganegara Malaysia yang cintakan negara dan kesetiaan mereka terhadap tanah air ini tidak harus dipersoalkan.

Saya juga memuji kenyataan Syed Saddiq: “Saya tahu ramai orang Cina dan India yang sanggup mati demi negara yang mereka cintai ini. Tidak masuk akal untuk menganggap rakyat Malaysia itu adalah tetamu saya. Mereka adalah keluarga saya. Cukup-cukuplah.”

Enam menteri dan tujuh timbalan menteri DAP berusaha untuk menangani pelbagai isu yang berbangkit di negara ini, sama ada tentang Zakir Naik, Jawi atau Lynas.

Menteri dan timbalan menteri DAP memegang jawatan bukan kerana mahukan habuan atau keistimewaan tetapi kerana ia menyediakan mereka satu peluang untuk memenuhi matlamat nasional Malaysia Baharu.

Saya gembira dan bangga kerana menteri dan timbalan menteri DAP memperlihatkan kebolehan mereka dengan baik, dan mereka tidak pernah alpa bahawa mereka memegang jawatan tersebut semata-mata demi berkhidmat untuk rakyat, bukan untuk diri mereka sendiri.

(Kenyataan Media oleh Ahli Parlimen Iskandar Puteri, Lim Kit Siang di Kuala Lumpur pada Khamis, 15 Ogos, 2019)

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

The 62nd National Day on August 31 is about two weeks away while  the 56th Malaysia Day  falls on September 16 in  about a month’s time.

Let us embark on a New Malaysia Month from tomorrow till September 16 to rise above the fissisparous and centrifugal forces threatening to tear Malaysia apart and reunite to build a New Malaysia which is a top world-class nation of unity, freedom, justice, excellence and integrity.

If we do this, the 2019 New Malaysia Month will be an important chapter in the Long March from the trajectory of a failed, rogue and kleptocratic state to a top world-class nation of unity, freedom, justice, excellence and integrity, which started in the 14th General Election on May 9, 2018.

As I had said many a time, this  is a national mission which will take more one general election cycle to complete as a New Malaysia cannot be established overnight.

Let Malaysians  take ownership of this  great mission to build a New Malaysia which is a top world-class nation of unity, freedom, justice, excellence and integrity, based on  the five pillar-promises of the Pakatan Harapan in the 14th General Elections Manifesto, viz:

Reduce the people’s burden.

Institutional and political reforms.

Spur sustainable and equitable economic growth.

Restore Sabah and Sarawak to the status accorded in Malaysia Agreement 1963.

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

There are those who do not expect the Pakatan Harapan government in Putrajaya, a coalition of four political parties with different histories, ideologies and trajectories, to last more than a few months, but it has proved the prophets of doom wrong – as the coalition is developing a resilience and an united ethos to chart the country through the troubled waters towards a New Malaysia, a  national mission which will take more than one general election cycle to complete.

The Pakatan Harapan government in Putrajaya has survived for 15 months the various stress and strain, contradictions and controversies,  of building a New Malaysia, but these are comparatively minor tests, as it must be able to persevere and be united and steadfast with greater challenges in  the national mission to build a New Malaysia by winning the 15th  and even 16th General Elections for the great national work to be done.

The Pakatan Harapan government must never lose sight of the objective to build a world top-class nation of unity, freedom, justice, excellence and integrity.

Can Malaysia, by the 16th General Election in 2018, be perched for the consummation of the objective to become a top world-class nation, recognised as being ranked among the top 30 nations in the world in important fields of human endeavour?

This is my dream and I challenge Malaysians to dare to have great dreams for Malaysia, and even more important, to dedicate themselves to the fulfilment of these dreams.

Political leaders with great dreams for Malaysia must be prepared for great sacrifices, even to be wronged for doing what is right, just and good.

I am demonized by some extremist Malay forces  as the Great Devil  who wants to eradicate the rights and future of the Malays, and who have become so powerful as to make  the Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad as my stooge.

But at the same time, I am demonized by certain irrational non-Malay forces as wanting to betray Chinese and Indian rights and having become the “running dog” of Mahathir!

How it is possible for a person to perform these contradictory roles is not something which worries these pedlars of lies, falsehoods, fake news,  fear and hate, pitting race against race, religion against religion.

There is no basis in all these attacks, whether from the extremist Malay forces or the irrational non-Malay forces.

Currently, I am accused of hypocrisy and being a Chinese chauvinist because of  my statement yesterday criticising Islamic preacher Zakir Naik for abusing Malaysia’s hospitality by attacking the Chinese Malaysia as “old guests” after attacking the loyalty of the Indian Malaysians.

I am accused of speaking up against Zakir Naik only after he attacked the Chinese Malaysians as “pendatang” and that I was unconcerned when the Indian Malaysians were his targets.

Such irresponsible accusers do not bother to check the facts, that I had previously criticised Zakir Naik for his baseless  attack on the Indian Malaysians, or that every much earlier, I had expressed support for the Open Letter by Anas Zubedy giving four reasons why Zakir Naik should leave Malaysia voluntarily.

Accusations had also been made as to why the Zakir Naik issue was left to the two “Indian Ministers”, Gobind Singh and M. Kulasegaran, when this was not true at all.

Firstly, Gobind and Kula are in Cabinet not as “Indian Ministers” but as Malaysian Ministers.

Secondly, the Zakir Naik issue was not left to Gobind and Kula to raise, but had been the concern of the six DAP Ministers who had, under the leadership of the DAP Secretary-General and Finance Minister, Lim Guan Eng, discussed and  concurred on the issue before the Cabinet yesterday.

Thirdly, the Cabinet did not decide its concern because of Zakir’s attack on the Chinese Malaysians, as the  Malaysiakini report  on Zakir’s unsolicited attack on the Chinese Malaysians  came out only after the Cabinet meeting.

I commend  the Minister for Youth and Sports, Syed Saddiq Abdul Rahman for showing a fine example of a New Malaysian, backing calls for Zakir Naik’s deportation as Zakir’s statement about the Indians  and Chinese in the country was an attack on all Malaysians.

As Syed Saddiq rightly said,  Chinese Malaysians are  not “guests” but Malaysian citizens who loved the country and their loyalty to Malaysia should not be questioned.

I applaud Syed Saddiq for the following statement: “I know many Chinese and Indians who are willing to die for this country that they love. It is ridiculous to even think that my fellow Malaysians are my guests.

“They are my family for god’s sake. Enough is enough.”

The six DAP Ministers and seven Deputy Ministers work closely on the  burning issues facing the country, whether on  Zakir Naik, Jawi or  Lynas.

DAP Ministers and Deputy Ministers are in office not because of the perks and privileges but because it provides them with an opportunity to achieve the  national goal of a New Malaysia.

I am happy and proud that the  DAP Ministers and Deputy Ministers have acquitted themselves well, and they have not forgotten that they are in office to serve the people and not to serve themselves.

(Media Statement by DAP MP for Iskandar Puteri Lim Kit Siang in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday, August 15, 2019)

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 15 August 2019, 11:09 am and is filed under
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Malaysia will fail as a New Malaysia which is   a top world-class nation of unity, freedom, justice, excellence and integrity if we replace a  “win-win” formula of nation-building with a zero-sum mentality

With the Cabinet decision yesterday on the Jawi controversy, there are totally contradictory reactions.

One reaction at one end  of the spectrum is best represented by the UMNO Vice President, Khaled Nordin who said that the latest Cabinet decision on the Jawi controversy shows that DAP is the true power behind the Pakatan Harapan government.

At the other end of the spectrum, the DAP is regarded as “having gone from hero to zero in the eyes of the Chinese base” and having betrayed the voters and I have become a “running dog” betraying the rights and future of Chinese Malaysians.

Which version is right?

It is not possible for both allegations  to be  right although both allegations could be wrong – and there is no doubt that in this case, both such allegations are wrong.

Malaysia will fail as a New Malaysia which is a  top world-class nation of unity, freedom, justice, excellence and integrity if we replace a  “win-win” formula of nation-building with a zero-sum mentality.

A question that is  frequently asked in the past three weeks of the Jawi controversy  is why the DAP could agree to something which MCA and Gerakan claim that they never agreed, and they are now the  loudest in condemning the DAP in this Jawi controversy.

A social media message on the issue is most pertinent, viz:

“2011 – BN started to implement Kurikulum Standard Sekolah Rendah (KSSR) – with plan to introduce lesson on Jawi in Standard 5 –  MCA/Gerakan kept quiet.

“2013 – SRJK standard 5  curriculum (with lesson on Jawi) was finalised. MCA/Gerakan kept quiet.

“2015 – SRJK standard 5 started to learn about Jawi. MCA/Gerakan kept quiet.

“2016 – KSSR (Semakan) started to be formulated, with more lesson on Jawi included.  MCA/Gerakan kept quiet.

“2017 – KSSR (Semakan) started to be introduced in SRJK.  MCA/Gerakan kept quiet.

“2018 (April)  – KSSR (Semakan) on learning of Jawi (6 pages) being finalised. MCA/Gerakan kept quiet.

“2019 – PH agreed to a compromise by adjusting the curriculum and reduced the learning of Jawi from 6 pages to 3 pages, making the lessons optional and allowing parents to decide whether it should be taught, and the lessons will not the tested in examination. Yet MCA/Gerakan make noise over this.

“From 2011-2018,  MCA/Gerakan never opposed the inclusion of learning of Jawi in SRJK, never opposed to the so called ‘opening of floodgate’, and Chinese education remained the same, SRJK never changed its character.”

May be the MCA and Gerakan leaders who were in Government until the historic May 9, 2018 decision of the 14th General Election which peacefully and democratically changed the government in Putrajaya the first time in six decades can respond to  this social message – the rights and wrongs of it.

What, however, is incontrovertible is that the policy decision on  Jawi in Std. IV, V and VI Chinese and Tamil primary school Bahasa Malaysia textbooks were decided at a meeting of the Jawatankuasa Perancang Pendikan on 21st Sept. 2015, which was chaired by the then Education Minister, Datuk Seri Mahdzir Khalid and attended by the two Deputy Education Ministers, Datuk Chong Sin Woon (MCA) and P. Kamalanathan (MIC).

After the policy decision on Jawi for Std. 4, 5 and 6 Chinese and Tamil primary school Bahasa Malaysia text book was made on Sept. 21, 2015, it became an administrative matter to be implemented by the Education Ministry officials.

This is probably the reason that why  when the Jawi controversy blew up last month, the Pakatan Harapan political leaders only came to know of it for the first time.

As I admitted  in Malacca  two  days ago, I only learnt about the origins of the Jawi subject controversy after my return from a  week-long visit to India.

There were conspiracy theories that the Jawi controversy was  invented either by the Education Minister, Mazlee Malek or the Prime Minister, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamed to serve their political purposes.

In actual fact, however, the Jawi subject controversy was a legacy of the former government, as the final policy decision on the new textbooks for Chinese/Tamil primary schools to introduce the Jawi subject for Std. 4 pupils in 2020 was made by Education Ministry Curriculum Committee chaired by the then Education Minister and the then two Deputy Education Ministers in a meeting of Sept. 21, 2015, and it subsequently became an administrative matter to be implemented by the Education Ministry officials in the subsequent years until it  blew up as a burning controversy.

As I said in Skudai over the  weekend, if there had been no change of government in the 14th General Election on May 9, 2018, the implementation of the Education Ministry decision on new curriculum in Sept. 2015 would probably result in “Three Wants” in the new textbooks for Chinese/Tamil Std. 4, 5 and 6  primary school pupils – Want to be compulsory, Want to have examination and Want students to learn and read Jawi.

The  Cabinet has decided that  the “Three Wants”  become “Three Nos” — No Compulsion, No Examination and No learning/writing of Jawi but only an introduction.

I do not know whether the   final decision taken by the Cabinet yesterday on the Jawi controversy will be acceptable to those who had  proposed that the Jawi subject be scrapped for Chinese/Tamil primary schools altogether, although Jawi has already appeared  in the  current Std. V textbook in Bahasa Malaysia for Chinese and Tamil primary schools in the past few  years

There is no doubt that DAP and Pakatan Harapan are facing a crisis which can break the first-ever and probably the only experiment at political change in a multi-racial, multi-lingual, multi-religious and multi-cultural nation.

We must do our utmost to ensure that the Pakatan Harapan Government can succeed in the arduous challenge  to build a New Malaysia for future generations.

If Pakatan Harapan Government fails, I do not see a second chance, and things can only get from bad to worse.

We owe it to ourselves, our children, our  children’s children, and most of all,  our nation to do our utmost to make the Pakatan Harapan Government and New Malaysia objective work and succeed.

(Speech by DAP MP for Iskandar Puteri Lim Kit Siang at the briefing for DAP Federal Territory/Selangor branch leaders at DAP Hqrs on Thursday, August  15, 2019 at 9 pm)

                This entry was posted on Friday, 16 August 2019, 3:30 pm and is filed under
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