Parliamentary Caucus of Institutional Reform and Good Governance should pioneer new thinking on vital national issues – how to ensure affirmative measures are need-based and not race-based; how Malaysia can be a leading nation of integrity and a showcase to the world of the success of Alliance of Civilisations instead of a failure because of a Clash of Civilisations

Kaukus Reformasi Institusi dan Tadbir Urus Parlimen patut menjadi perintis pemikiran baharu isu-isu penting negara — bagaimana untuk memastikan langkah tindakan afirmatif berasaskan kepada keperluan dan bukan berasaskan kaum; untuk menjadikan Malaysia negara berintegriti terulung dan menjadi contoh kejayaan Perikatan Peradaban kepada dunia

Saya ucapkan terima kasih kepada Dato’ Seri Anwar Ibrahim kerana menganjurkan seminar ini dalam kapasiti beliau sebagai Pengerusi Kaukus Reformasi Institusi dan Tadbir Urus Parlimen. Penubuhan kaukus ini merupakan salah satu elemen terpenting dalam proses reformasi parlimen sejak kerajaan Pakatan Harapan dibentuk selepas Pilihan Raya ke-14 yang bersejarah. Selain daripada pembentukan kaukus ini, enam jawatankuasa khas parlimen juga telah ditubuhkan bagi memberikan lebih banyak ruang kepada backbenchers di Parlimen untuk memastikan kerajaan tindakan kerajaan disemak oleh Parlimen.

Kewujudan struktur dan proses akauntabiliti baharu ini tidak mungkin berlaku di bawah pentadbiran yang lepas di mana parlimen dilihat sebagai sebuah cop (“rubber stamp”) yang digunakan oleh kerajaan untuk memaksa kelulusan keputusan secara tidak demokratik seperti yang dapat kita lihat dalam pembentangan Rang Undang-undang Akta Berita Tidak Benar yang bertujuan untuk menutup keburukan berkenaan skandal 1MDB.

Acara hari ini adalah contoh yang kuat di mana Ahli Parlimen, melalui kaukus ini yang terdiri daripada semua parti yang diwakili di Parlimen, dapat memberikan input mengenai isu-isu penting polisi untuk dipertimbangkan secara serius oleh pihak eksekutif.

Isu yang dibincangkan hari ini — pemahaman kita mengenai bagaimana kemiskinan didefiniskan dan ditangani melalui polisi kerajaan — telah diperkatakan dalam berita di kebelakangan ini setelah satu laporan dikeluarkan oleh Pelapor Khas PBB berkenaan Kemiskinan Ekstrem dan Hak Asasi Manusia Profesor Philip Alston, pada 23 Ogos 2019 yang menyatakan Malaysia mengurangkira (“undercounts”) jumlah rakyat miskinnya.

Ramai individu telah menyeru supaya pihak kerajaan memandang serius laporan ini, termasuklah Pengerusi Kaukus ini, Dato’ Seri Anwar Ibrahim, Ahli-ahli Parlimen, Ahli Akademik, penyelidik, dan pertubuhan sivil. Pelbagai sebab-sebab yang kukuh untuk mempertimbangkan laporan ini secara serius telah dibangkitkan.

Saya tidak berhasrat untuk mengulang semula  semua sebab-sebab yang dibangkitkan ini. Tetapi saya ingin menyatakan yang di dalam era di mana berita palsu dan penipuan disebarkan secara meluas kini, sebarang penambahbaikan dalam ukuran kemiskinan, yang akan membawa kita kepada peningkatan jumlah rakyat yang akan dikira sebagai miskin, pasti akan “dipusing” oleh sesetengah pihak yang tidak bertanggung jawab. Jika, sebagai contoh, jumlah isi rumah yang berada di bawah paras kemiskinan dikirakan sebagai 19% daripada kesemua isi rumah melalui ukuran baru kemiskinan multi-dimensi, saya pasti pihak pembangkang dan tentera siber mereka akan menuduh yang jumlah isi rumah miskin telah meningkat secara drastik di bawah pentadbiran Pakatan Harapan. Dan sudah tentu sekali DAP, yang selama ini menjadi momokan tentera siber ini akan dituduh menjadi punca “kenaikan” ini.

Walaupun kerisauan ini bukanlah sesuatu yang tidak berasas, kita tidak boleh takut untuk memberikan gambaran masyarakat Malaysia yang tepat hanya kerana fakta ini boleh dimanipulasi dan disalah tafsir oleh sesetengah pihak yang tidak bertanggung jawab. Saya percaya yang kebenaran akan sentiasa menang terutamanya jika penerangan diberikan kepada pihak awam, bukan sahaja daripada kerajaan, tetapi juga daripada pakar-pakar dalam bidang ini, termasuklah daripada sesetengah penyelidik dan ahli akademik yang hadir hari ini di dalam seminar ini.

Satu contoh baik penerangan ini adalah pendedahan oleh Perdana Menteri Tun Dr Mahathir mengenai jumlah tanggung jawab hutang negara yang telah melebihi nilai RM1 trilion di bawah pentadbiran yang lalu kerana liabiliti dan komitmen luar jangka yang tersembunyi. Terdapat sesetengah pihak yang mengkritik tindakan mendedahkan angka ini. Tetapi setelah menerangkan secara telus kepada rakyat dan pihak-pihak lain yang berkepentingan, termasuklah agensi penarafan bon, Malaysia berjaya mengekalkan taraf kreditnya.

Hampir lima sudah berlalu sejak kita sebagai sebuah negara menerima pakai Dasar Ekonomi Baharu (DEB). DEB mempunyai dua tujuan utama dan satunya adalah pembasmian kemiskinan tanpa mengira kaum sebagai wadah perpaduan negara. Rancangan Malaysia yang mendatang telah memperuntukkan berbilion ringgit untuk program dan projek untuk mencapai matlamat ini. Angka rasmi pentadbiran sebelum ini menyatakan hanya ada 0.4 peratus isi rumah, yang berjumlah lebih kurang 27,000 isi rumah berada di bawah paras kemiskinan kebangsaan. Anggaran ini telah dipersoalkan secara serius sebagai cubaan untuk mengurang-kira jumlah isi rumah miskin dan telah terdapat pelbagai seruan supaya anggaran ini dikaji semula. Anggaran 0.4 peratus ini adalah delusional dan tidak boleh dijadikan asas untuk perancangan dan pengagihan sumber negara. Metodologi sedia ada perlulah digantikan setaraf dengan amalan terbaik antarabangsa. Tindakan segera diperlukan dan saya berhasrat untuk memberikan cadangan seperti berikut:

A) Tubuhkan satu Kumpulan Pakar Teknikal untuk mengira semula garis pendapatan kemiskinan (GPK) yang mengguna pakai amalan terbaik antarabangsa untuk mendapatkan anggaran yang lebih berkredibiliti. Langkah ini banyak digunakan di negara maju apabila berhadapan dengan isu ukuran statistik yang penting dan sensitif. Masanya sudah tiba untuk Malaysia maju ke hadapan dengan mengguna pakai kaedah yang lebih telus dan meninggalkan kaedah lama yang hanya bertujuan untuk memberikan anggaran yang membuatkan kita berasa selesa.

B) Mengarahkan EPU dan Jabatan Statistik untuk menerbitkan data terpecah (selepas memadamkan maklumat peribadi individu) daripada Tinjauan Pendapatan dan Perbelanjaan Isi Rumah yang terbaru bagi membolehkan ahli akademik membuat kaji selidik bebas. Penerbitan ini adalah sebahagian daripada komitmen terhadap keterbukaan dan ketelusan data yang konsisten dengan Manifesto PH.

C) Mempertimbangkan satu kaji selidik yang meluas untuk mengkaji punca kegagalan polisi-polisi yang dilaksanakan sebelum ini dalam mencapai matlamat DEB. Termasuklah mengkaji punca kebocoran polisi sebelum ini. Kaji selidik ini juga patut diberikan tugas untuk memberikan cadangan penambahbaikan program jaringan keselamatan untuk membantu golongan miskin. Satu lagi isu yang sesuai diberikan perhatian adalah bagaimana untuk mengubah “gaji minima” kepada “gaji kehidupan”.

Jurang pendapatan – Walaupun kadar kemiskinan telah menjadi topik perbincangan awam, satu lagi isu yang berkait rapat, jurang pendapatan, tidak menerima perhatian yang sewajarnya. Anggaran koefisien Gini negara kita telah menunjukkan terdapat pengagihan pendapatan yang tidak adil. Sesetengah kajian telah menunjukkan pembesaran jurang pendapatan di antara yang kaya dan miskin, terdapat juga sesetengah kajian yang menunjukkan sebaliknya.

Satu kajian yang baru diterbitkan oleh Muhammed Abdul Khalid (Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia) dan Li Yang (Paris School of Economics) yang bertajuk
INCOME INEQUALITY AND ETHNIC CLEAVAGES IN MALAYSIA EVIDENCE FROM DISTRIBUTIONAL NATIONAL ACCOUNTS (1984-2014)
 mengisi ruang yang penting dalam pengetahuan kita. Kajian ini mendedahkan beberapa mitos mengenai corak pengagihan pendapatan.

Penulis kajian ini telah menggabungkan maklumat yang diperoleh daripada akaun nasional, kaji selidik isi rumah, data fiskal, dan statistik demografi. Kajian ini dilihat sebagai cubaan pertama untuk mendapatkan ukuran ketidaksamaan pendapatan yang konsisten dengan akaun nasional. Penulis kajian ini membentangkan dapatan mereka seperti berikut:

Bagi tempoh 2002-2014, pertumbuhan pendapatan sebenar bagi kumpulan pendapatan 50% terbawah adalah yang tertinggi (5.2%), diikuti kumpulan pertengahan 40% (4.1%), kumpulan 10% teratas (2.7%), dan kumpulan 1% teratas (1.6%). Walaupun kadar pertumbuhan pendapatan purata positif di kalangan semua kumpulan etnik (Bumiputera 4.9%, India 4.8%, dan Cina 2.7%), pertumbuhan terbesar pendapatan sebenar berada di kumpulan 1% teratas Bumiputera (8.3%), yang sangat berbeza dengan pertumbuhan pendapatan kumpulan etnik India (3.4%) dan pertumbuhan negatif kumpulan etnik Cina (0.6%). Walaupun dengan kadar negatif, kumpulan etnik Cina masih merupakan kumpulan terbesar dalam kumpulan 1% teratas. Dalam tahun 2014, 60% individu dalam kumpulan 1% teratas adalah daripada kumpulan etnik Cina, sementara 33% adalah Bumiputera dan 6% daripada etnik India (berbanding dengan 2002, di mana kumpulan 1% teratas terdiri daripada 72% etnik Cina, 24% Bumiputera, dan 3% etnik India). Kami simpulkan dalam tempoh ini, pertumbuhan pendapatan Malaysia menunjukkan sifat pengagihan yang inklusif di antara kumpulan pendapatan tetapi dengan sedikit putaran di antara kumpulan etnik.

Kaukus Parlimen ini mungkin boleh menganjurkan satu seminar untuk menjemput kedua penulis kajian ini untuk memberikan pembentangan penuh kajian mereka.

Penulis kajian ini juga memberikan amaran untuk berhati-hati dengan anggaran mereka yang agak rapuh kerana kekurangan ketelusan dan keterbukaan data pendapatan dan kekayaan di Malaysia. Ini merupakan satu lagi rayuan kepada agensi kerajaan untuk bersifat lebih terbuka dan telus dalam menerbitkan data. Manifesto Pakatan Harapan telah menjanjikan reformasi dalam perkara ini.

Tiba masanya untuk EPU dan Jabatan Statistik diarahkan untuk menerbitkan data terpecah (selepas memadamkan maklumat peribadi individu) daripada Tinjauan Pendapatan dan Perbelanjaan Isi Rumah yang terbaru bagi membolehkan ahli akademik membuat kajiselidik bebas. Penerbitan ini menjadi bukti komitmen kerajaan Pakatan Harapan terhadap ketelusan dan keterbukaan dalam berkongsi maklumat, selari dengan manifesto PH. Reformasi ini telahpun dijanjikan dan ia mestilah dipenuhi. Penting untuk kita ingat kembali yang penerbitan maklumat-maklumat ini adalah satu perkara yang biasa dilakukan dan selari dengan Prinsip Statistik PBB. Tidak ada mana-mana negara yang matang dari segi statistik di dalam dunia ini yang menyorokkan datanya seperti Malaysia.

Tidak ada sebab untuk kita bersifat defensif ataupun mempertahankan polisi pentadbiran yang lepas terutamanya dalam bidang di mana terdapat konsensus yang besar untuk perubahan. Keperluan untuk pengemaskinian definisi dan pemahaman topik kemiskinan adalah salah satu contoh bidang tersebut dan kita tidak patut lari daripada cabaran sebegitu. Ini termasuklah memberikan akses kepada terma-terma dan definisi teknikal dan meningkatkan pemahaman di kalangan rakyat, menambahbaik polisi sedia ada dan membentangkan polisi baharu bagi mengurangkan jumlah isi rumah — yang telah bertambah dibawah definisi baharu ini — yang dikategorikan sebagai miskin. Saya yakin ramai ahli akademik dan penyelidik yang hadir hari ini akan dapat membantu kita dalam hal ini.

Tambahan lagi, kita tidak boleh takut untuk menyemak rekod DEB dalam mengurangkan kadar kemiskinan di Malaysia di kalangan berbagai kumpulan etnik. Walaupun kita harus mengakui yang DEB telah berjaya mengangkat keluar rakyat Malaysia daripada kemiskinan, terutamanya di kalangan komuniti Bumiputera, terdapat juga kumpulan terpinggir di kalangan kita, terutamanya komuniti Orang Asli dan Bumiputera Sabah dan Sarawak yang tinggal di kawasan pedalaman. Kita perlukan satu definisi kemiskinan multidimensi yang lebih meluas untuk memahami nasib komuniti terpinggir ini. Dengan pengiktirafan ini, bolehlah kita letakkan dan laksanakan polisi yang disasarkan dengan lebih baik untuk meningkatkan taraf hidup komuniti ini, terutamanya untuk mengurangkan kemiskinan antara generasi.

Perbincangan mengenai isu ini haruslah diteruskan selepas seminar hari ini. Perbincangan ini haruslah melibatkan lebih banyak NGO, ahli akademik, penyelidik, dan pihak berkepentingan yang lain yang berkerja di garis hadapan dalam perjuangan membasmi kemiskinan.

Malah, saya sanggup untuk bergerak lebih jauh. Kaukus Parlimen ini mestilah mendahului dalam menyeru reformasi institusi dan tadbir urus. Perdana Menteri dalam ucapan beliau di majlis sambutan ulang tahun pertama Kerajaan Pakatan Harapan pada 9 Mei 2019 telah berkata mengenai Visi Kemakmuran Bersama di mana Malaysia akan secara terus menerus dibangunkan secara mampan, selari dengan dengan pembangunan yang saksama pada setiap tahap sama ada kelas, kaum, mahupun geografi dan mewujudkan satu situasi yang harmoni dan stabil di kalangan rakyat menjelang 2030. Kaukus Parlimen ini tidak sepatutnya terhad menjadi perintis pemikiran baharu untuk isu kemiskinan sahaja tetapi juga isu-isu lain seperti:

a) bagaimana untuk memastikan tindakan afirmatif di Malaysia berasaskan keperluan dan bukan kaum;

b) bagaimana untuk membina perpaduan negara terutamanya dalam melawan peningkatan berita palsu dan ucapan kebencian yang cuba untuk menghasut polarisasi antara kaum dan agama;

c) bagaimana untuk melaksanakan reformasi institusi dan tadbir urus;

d) bagaimana untuk menjadikan Malaysia negara berintegriti yang terulung; dan

e) bagaimana Malaysia boleh menjadi contoh kejayaan Perikatan Peradaban di mata dunia dan bukan kegagalan kerana konflik peradaban.

Sekian terima kasih.

(Ucapan Ahli Parlimen DAP Iskandar Puteri Lim Kit Siang di Seminar Ekonomi, Kemiskinan di Malaysia: Takrifan dan Pelaksanaan yang dianjurkan oleh Kaukus Reformasi Institusi dan Tadbir Urus di Parlimen pada hari Selasa 24 September 2019)

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I would like to congratulate Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim for organizing this seminar in his capacity as the chairman of parliamentary caucus on reform and governance. The formation of this caucus is part and parcel of the rigorous reform of parliamentary process since Pakatan Harapan formed the government after the historic 14th General Elections in 2018. In addition to this parliamentary caucus, six new parliamentary committees have been formed to allow for greater room for backbenchers to keep the front bench accountable to parliament.

The presence of these new accountability structures and processes in a newly invigorated parliament would not have been possible under the previous administration as parliament was seen as a rubber stamp that was used to bulldoze through undemocratic decisions such as the 2018 delimitation bill and the Anti-Fake News Act to whitewash the 1MDB scandal.

Today’s event is a concrete example of how Members of Parliament, through this parliamentary caucus comprising of MPs from all parties represented in parliament, can give inputs on important policy matters for the members of the executive to give serious consideration to.

The issue for discussion today – our understanding of how poverty is defined and addressed via government policy – has been in the news of late arising from the report made by the UN special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, Professor Philip Alston, on the 23rd of August 2019, which states that Malaysia undercounts the number of its poor.

Many have called for the findings of this UN report to be taken seriously including the chairman of this caucus, Dato Seri Anwar Ibrahim, many Members of Parliament, academics and researchers (both Malaysians and non-Malaysians) and members of civil society. Many of the sound reasons to take this report seriously have been raised.

I do not want to repeat these points. But I want to acknowledge that in this day and age of fake news and outright lies, any enhanced measure of poverty, which would inevitably increase the number of people among marginalized groups who are defined as poor, can and most probably will be ‘spun’ by irresponsible parties. If, for example, the percentage of households in poverty is calculated at 19% using more updated measures of multidimensional poverty, I am almost certain that the opposition and their cyber troopers will use this figure to say that the number of poor people has spiked up dramatically under the Pakatan Harapan government. And in all likelihood, the DAP, being the bogeyman for these cybertroopers, will be targeted as the cause of this so called ‘rise’ in poverty.

While these fears are not unfounded, we should not shy away from giving a more accurate picture of Malaysian society just because the facts will be manipulated and misinterpreted by irresponsible parties. I very much believe that the truth will prevail especially if there is proper explanation made to the public, not just by the government, but by experts in this field including some of the researchers and academics who are present today at this seminar.

One good example is the revelation by Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir that our total debt exposure had actually exceeded RM1 trillion under the previous government because of hidden contingent liabilities and commitments. There were some quarters which criticized us from revealing and using this figure. But after explaining to the public and the relevant stakeholders, including the bond rating agencies, Malaysia was able to maintain its overall credit rating.

Almost five decades ago we as a nation adopted the New Economic Policy (NEP). The NEP had two prongs, one of which was  the eradication of poverty irrespective of race as a means towards attaining national unity. Successive Five Year Plans have allocated billions of Ringgit for programs and projects designed to meet this important goal. Official estimates put out by the previous government indicated that there are 0.4 percent of households, numbering approximately27,000 households, that remain below the national poverty line.

These estimates have been seriously questioned as a gross understatement and there have been call for a review of the estimates.  The estimate of 0.4 percent is delusional and cannot be used as a basis for planning and allocation of resources. The methodology in place needs replacement and needs to be brought into line with international best practice. There is a certain urgency and I would like to propose a number of steps:

A) Establish a Technical Expert Group to recalculate the PLI using international best practice to derive credible estimates of poverty. This is the commonly accepted approach adopted by most advanced countries when calculating important/sensitive statistical measures. It is time for Malaysia to move towards a fully transparent approach by abandoning outdated practices designed to generate “feel good” numbers.

B) Direct the EPU and Dept of Statistics to release disaggregated data (anonymized in keeping with the requirements of the Statistics Act) from the last Household Income-Expenditure Survey to permit researchers to undertake independent analysis. The release would represent the commitment to open and transparent sharing of data consistent with the PH Manifesto.

C) Consider a wide-ranging survey to look into why past policies have not succeeded in achieving the goals set out in the NEP. This should include the identification of leakages. The survey should be given the task of making recommendations for strengthening Safety Net Programs to aid the poor. A further issue that would merit attention would be how best to turn the “minimum wage” into a “Living Wage”.

Income Inequalities – While poverty incidence has been the subject of public discourse, the related issue of income inequalities has received far less attention. The calculations of Gini coefficients have broadly pointed to skewed distributions. While some studies have indicated a widening of the disparities in incomes between the rich and the poor, other studies have pointed in the opposite direction.

A recent study by  Muhammed Abdul Khalid (National University of Malaysia) Li Yang (Paris School of Economics)  entitled   INCOME INEQUALITY AND ETHNIC CLEAVAGES IN MALAYSIA EVIDENCE FROM DISTRIBUTIONAL NATIONAL ACCOUNTS (1984-2014) fills an important gap in our knowledge. The study exposes a number of myths about income distribution patterns.

The authors have combined available information obtained from national accounts, household surveys, fiscal data, and demographic statistics. This appears to be the first attempt to produce inequality measurements which are fully consistent with the national accounts. The two authors present their key findings as follows:

For the period of 2002 – 2014, the real income growth for the bottom 50% is the highest (5.2%), followed by the middle 40% (4.1%), the top 10% (2.7%) and then the top 1% (1.6%). However, while average growth rates are positive across all ethnic groups (Bumiputera 4.9%, Indians 4.8%, and Chinese 2.7%), the highest growth of real income per adult accrued to the Bumiputera in the top 1% (at 8.3%), which sharply contrasts the much lower growth rate of the Indians (at 3.4%) and negative income growth rates of the Chinese (at -0.6%). Despite the negative growth rate, the Chinese still account for the lion’s share in the top 1%. In 2014, 60% of the adults in the top 1% income group are Chinese, while 33% Bumiputera, and 6% Indians (compared to 2002, in which the top 1% consists of 72% Chinese, 24% Bumiputera, and 3% Indians). We conclude that in this period, Malaysia’s growth features an inclusive redistribution between income classes, but with a twist between racial groups.

The Caucus can probably organnise a Seminar to invite the two authors to make a presentation of the full findings.

The authors of the study caution readers to take account of the fact that the estimates are fragile because of the lack of transparency about income and wealth data in Malaysia. This is yet again another plea for official agencies to be more open and transparent in the release of data. The Pakatan Harapan manifesto had promised reforms in that regard.

It is time for EPU and Dept of Statistics to be directed to release disaggregated data (anonymized in keeping with the requirements of the Statistics Act) from the last Household Income-Expenditure Survey to permit researchers to undertake independent analysis. The release would represent the commitment to open and transparent sharing of data consistent with the PH Manifesto. This is a promised reform and needs to be met. It is noteworthy that release of such data are a basic and common practice and in keeping with the UN Principles of Statistics. No statistically mature country hoards survey data in the way Malaysia does.

We should not feel the need to be defensive or to defend the policies of the past administration especially in areas where there is a great consensus for change. The need for a more updated definition and understanding of poverty is one such area and we should not shy away from such a challenge. This includes making some of the technical terms and definitions accessible and simple to understand for the public at large, enhancing existing and coming up with new government policies to tackle and reduce the expanded number of people who will be categorized as poor under a revised definition of poverty. I am confident that many of the academics and researchers here would be able to help us in this regard.

In addition, we should not be afraid to examine the record of the National Economic Policy (NEP) in reducing poverty in Malaysia across the various ethnic groups in the country. While it should be acknowledge that the NEP has had some success in lifting many Malaysians out of poverty and into the middle class, especially among the Bumiputera community, there remain many pockets of marginalized groups among our midst, especially the Orang Asli and the natives of Sabah and Sarawak who are living in the rural areas. We need a wider definition of multidimensional poverty in order to properly capture the plight of these marginalized communities. With this recognition, we can then put in place and implement better targeted policies to help improve the livelihoods of these communities especially in terms of alleviating inter-generational poverty.

The engagement on this issue should continue beyond today’s seminar. This conversation, which has already started, should include more NGOs, academics, researchers, and other stakeholders who work on the frontlines of the battle against poverty.

In fact, I would go further. The Parliamentary Caucus should be in the forefront advocating institutional reforms and good governance. The Prime Minister in his keynote address on the occasion of the first anniversary of the Pakatan Harapan Government on May 9, 2019 spoke of the Shared Prosperity Vision where Malaysia could be continuously developed sustainably in line with equitable growth at all levels of the supply chain, class, race and geography and to create a sense of harmony and stability among the people by 2030. The Parliamentary Caucus should not initiate new thinking not only on the issue of poverty but also other important issues, viz:

(a) how to ensure that affirmative actions in Malaysia are needs-based and not race-based;

(b) how to promote national unity and in particular combat the surge of fake news and hate speech to incite inter-racial and inter-religious polarisastion;

(c) how to implement institutional reforms and good governance;

(d) how Malaysia can become a leading nation of integrity in the world  and

(d) how  Malaysia can be a show-case to the world  of the success of the Alliance of Civilisations instead of being a failure as a result of Clash of Civilisations.

(Speech by DAP MP for Iskandar Puteri Lim Kit Siang at  the parliamentary seminar on “Evaluating our Understanding of Poverty in Malaysia and the implementation of anti-poverty policies” organised by the Parliamentary Caucus on Institutional Reform and Good Governance in Parliament on Tuesday, 24th September 2019)

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I have received a memorandum on Sabah poverty from former Sabah Chief Minsiter, Harris Salleh and I am prepared to visit his pilot project in Balung, Tawau

I have received a memorandum on Sabah poverty from Tan Sri Harris Salleh, the sixth Sabah Chief Minister from 1976-1985.

We have had a very rocky relationship in the seventies and eighties, when Harris was the Sabah Chief Minister and abused his powers by banning me from entering Sabah for legitimate political activities.

The most notable episode in my clash with Harris Salleh when he was Chief Minister was when he denied me entry into Sabah to accept his political challenge to repeat my speech in Parliament without parliamentary privilege and I was bodily carried up to the waiting aircraft at the Kota Kinabalu Airport to take me back to Kuala Lumpur on August 24, 1984.

The photograph of this episode was later misused by the producers of the film “Tanda Putera” as a pre-release advertisement campaign to show that I was in Kuala Lumpur during the May 13, 1969 riots when I was never in Kuala Lumpur at any time during the May 13, 1969 riots.

Despite these very rocky history between us, I am prepared to listen to Harris’ view as to the most effective way to eradicate poverty, especially as it has become a very “hot” issue after the United Nations Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, Professor Philip Alston, said last month that Malaysia had not eradicated poverty as claimed by the previous government  and that  Malaysia had undercounted the number of poor.

Eradication of poverty irrespective of race was one of the two objective of the New Economic Policy (NEP) implemented in 1971.

According to government statistics, Malaysia’s official poverty rate fell from 49 per cent in 1970 to just 0.4 per cent in 2015, but Alston said there is “significant poverty” in the country, with an estimated one in six people considered poor and that the Malaysia’s official poverty rate was  “extremely artificial”, relied on outdated measures, did not reflect the cost of living and also excluded vulnerable populations.

Alston said analyses done by independent groups suggest that the true poverty rate was about 15 per cent.

In his memorandum, Harris said although Malaysia had been  successful in its programme to elevate poor people under previous programmes, particularly FELDA,
“However, all there were gone under the last ten years of Barisan Nasional government”.

He said poverty in Malaysia is still very high particularly in Sabah and called for a new strategy and programme to settle and eliminate poverty, particularly in the rural areas.

Harris has prepared for Sabah a Proposal for Economic Elevation of the Rural and  Coastal Communities.

He said that Sabah poverty can be divided into two areas; (i) coastal and (II) rural (interior), suggesting different programmes for each.

As Harris has established pilot projects for both areas and invited me to visit them, I am in principle prepared to visit Harris’ pilot projects, one in Balung, Tawau and the other in the Kuala Penyu district outside Kota Kinabalu.

(Media Statement by DAP MP for Iskandar Puteri Lim Kit Siang in Gelang Patah on Wednesday, 25th September  2019)

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 25 September 2019, 4:32 pm and is filed under
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Great challenge of Malaysian youths is to ensure that the goodwill, peace, tolerance and harmony of real-life Malaysia do not deteriorate to resemble the animosity, intolerance and extremism of social-media Malaysia

In my recent special message to the youths of Sarawak, especially those in the 16 – 25 age group,  I picked as the first of three challenges their ability to save  Malaysia to  become a top world-class nation of unity, justice, freedom, excellence and integrity instead of becoming a divided, failed, rogue and kleptocratic state.

I said many would ask  whether Malaysia had not been saved from such a trajectory in the historic and miraculous 14th General Election on May 9, 2018 and why was it necessary to save Malaysia from such a disastrous fate once again?

The  answer to this question has not sufficiently understood,  realised or appreciated by  Malaysians.

The answer is Yes, Malaysia had been saved from the trajectory towards a divided, failed, rogue and kleptocratic state on May 9, 2018, but the mission of a New Malaysia where the country becomes a top world-class nation of unity, freedom, justice, excellence and integrity cannot be accomplished within one general election cycle but is a long-term struggle lasting a decade or more, especially after the devastation and depredations of the last government which won for Malaysia the infamous and ignominious appellation of a global kleptocracy.

There are people who wants to wipe out  the historic and miraculous decision of May 9, 2018 and restore the country into the hands of those who preach an alliance of klepto-theocracy, through the untrammeled spread of fake news and hate speech to incite inter-racial and inter-religious polarisation and conflict, and who do not mind a big racial and religious conflagration in Malaysia which prompted some to openly talk about “rindu May 13”!

If Malaysians miss the present opportunity to reform Malaysia from a kleptocratic state to become a top world-class nation of unity, justice, freedom, excellence and integrity, there would not be a second chance again.

Malaysia is now in a ludicrous scenario where every ethnic community, whether Malay, Chinese or Indian, is consumed with fear, distrust and hatred believing that it is facing an existential threat to its rights, position and future in Malaysia.

This is the result of the untrammelled spread of fake news and hate speech especially on the social media to incite inter-racial and inter-religious conflagration.

Everyday provides more evidence of such time-bombs to Malaysian nation-building which, if not de-activated, can only spell disaster for peace, tolerance and harmony in Malaysia.

Yesterday, an  Umno leader linked the recent shooting in Bayan Lepas, Penang to religious insults despite a warning by police against wild allegations about the case.

Puteri Umno vice-chief Nurul Amal Mohd Fauzi, in a ceramah last night, repeated allegations on social media that the man whom police shot had gone amok after two people allegedly insulted the Prophet Muhammad.

“Yesterday a martyr was laid to rest. Sheikh Mohd Khairil was shot because he went amok in front of two kafirs who insulted the Prophet Muhammad,”
she said in her opening remarks at a PAS ceramah  in Kubang Kerian, Kelantan.

These time-bombs to nation-building can only spell disaster to peace, tolerance and harmony in Malaysia if they are allowed to be detonated.

Observant Malaysians will have long realised that there are two Malaysias – the real-life Malaysia and the social-media Malaysia.

The perception created by the social media is a Malaysia which has never been more polarised in racial and religious terms in the nation’s history, increasingly worsened everyday, as if the country is teetering on the verge of violent race and religious conflagration if the highly-orchestrated mountain of fake news and hate speech to  incite inter-racial and inter-religious polarisation is not immediately curbed.

But this is completely different from the real-life Malaysia all over the country, where instead  inter-racial and inter-religious animosity, distrust, fear and hatred, there is only  goodwill, amity, understanding, tolerance and harmony among Malaysians, whether Malays, Chinese or Indians, Kadazans or Dayaks.

There is however a rub. A highly-funded social media campaign is clearly afoot to ensure that the real-life Malaysia of inter-racial and inter-religious goodwill, amity, understanding, tolerance and harmony deteriorates to  resemble social media Malaysia where there is inter-racial and inter-religious animosity, distrust, fear and hatred.

An example of this insidious campaign was the recent flooding of the social media with fake news about the desecration of the national flag by Malaysian Chinese to create alarm, distrust, fear and hate among the Malays.

A picture of a Chinese-looking man burning the Malaysian flag which had taken the social media by storm was actually from a 2013 incident in Manila where a former Filipino police officer burned the Malaysian flag to protest against the then–Philippines President Benigno Aquino’s handling of the Sabah issue.

At that time, even the UMNO secretary-general Tan Sri Annuar Musa mischievously exploited the situation by tweeting:

“Umno n BN have laid strong foundation for the nation. We live in peace and harmony for almost seven decades…BUT NOW IT STARTS TO CRUMBLE, piece by piece, bit by bit …,”

I dare say that there is not a single Malaysian Chinese who will deliberately dishonour the national flag as flying it up upside down or other despicable acts.

This is why I had described as one of the challenges of Malaysian youths the great task to expose and kill the evil plans of those who wanted Malaysia’s goodwill, peace, tolerance and harmony to crumble into animosity, intolerance and extremism, with real-life Malaysia resembling the social-media Malaysia!

(Media Statement by DAP MP for Iskandar Puteri Lim Kit Siang in Gelang Patah on Thursday, 26th September 2019)

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 26 September 2019, 2:42 pm and is filed under
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The three things that happened to me in my first Internal Security Act detention in Muar 1969-1970

Tiga perkara yang berlaku pada saya semasa penahanan pertama saya di bawah ISA di Muar di antara tahun 1969 hingga tahun 1970

Tiga perkara yang telah berlaku sepanjang 17 bulan saya ditahan buat kali pertama di bawah Akta Keselamatan Dalam Negeri (ISA) di Pusat Tahanan Muar dalam tahun 1969-1970.

Pertamanya, saya memulakan pengajian ijazah sarjana muda perundangan dengan program luaran University of London dan kemudiannya saya terbang ke London sebanyak tiga kali dengan penerbangan termurah yang ada pada masa tersebut (Aeroflot), untuk majlis makan malam di Lincoln’s Inn bagi mendapatkan kelayakan untuk dipanggil ke bar di London. Tetapi saya memutuskan untuk tidak menjadi seorang peguam.

Kedua, saya belajar untuk membaca dan menulis dalam jawi dengan sendiri.

Tetapi, perkara ketigalah yang mengubah hidup saya, berkenaan dengan integriti dan kesetiaan kepada prinsip — kata-kata seorang patriot-penyair-ahli politik China Wen Tianxiang yang berbunyi:

“Siapakah yang dapat mengelakkan kematiannya sejak permulaan zaman?

“Biarlah hati saya cekal murni untuk kekal bersinar dalam sejarah.”

Biarpun hujan ataupun panas, kita mesti bersedia untuk berdiri megah dengan cabaran Wen Tianxiang, untuk “berhati cekal supaya kekal bersinar dalam sejarah”.

Seperti yang saya katakan sebentar tadi dalam majlis pelancaran Cawangan DAP di Kampung Baru Bentong, yang dahulunya saya buka, 45 tahun yang lepas pada tahun 1974, lawatan ke Bentong dan Karak hari ini adalah satu lawatan mengimbau kenangan.

Saya melihat dan berjumpa veteran seperti Lip Tuck Chee, yang memimpin kemasukan DAP ke negeri Pahang dengan memenangi PRK Raub 36 tahun yang lalu pada bulan Jun 1983, dan rakyat Malaysia yang telah menyumbang “darah, keringat, dan air mata” kepada pembangunan negara dan dedikasi mereka kepada prinsip serta perjuangan DAP kearah membentuk sebuah negara Malaysia yang demokratik, adil, dan bersatu padu.

Saya amat terharu apabila seorang gadis muda yang telah menyampaikan saya sejambak bunga semasa pelancaran Cawangan DAP Karak 20 tahun lalu hadir hari ini, menghulurkan pen kepada saya untuk upacara perasmian pelancaran Pusat Khidmat DAP Cawangan Karak.

Saya masih ingat, terutamanya PRK Bentong pada tahun 1989, yang saya sertai serta-merta selepas dibebaskan daripada tahanan ISA kali kedua saya di bawah Operasi Lalang pada 19 April 1989. PRK Bentong yang dijalankan pada 13 Mei 1989 merupakan satu perlawanan lima penjuru. Calon DAP Lip Tuck Chee mendapat 31% undian dengan 8,895 undian berbanding dengan 17,401 undian yang terima oleh calon MCA, Lim Ah Lek.

Bentong, yang ditandingi DAP pertama kalinya pada tahun 1974, kelihatan mustahil untuk dimenangi selama empat dekad. Seorang bekas Menteri Besar Pahang pernah bercakap dengan bongkaknya “ anda potong telinga saya dan saya terjun ke dalam sungai Pahang” jika DAP boleh menang di Bentong.

Tetapi, perjuangan “darah, keringat, dan air mata” ahli dan penyokong DAP akhirnya membuahkan hasil, di mana kita telah menang di dalam Pilihan Raya Umum ke-14, dengan Sdr Wong Tack menjadi ahli parlimen DAP yang pertama untuk kawasan Bentong.

Jauh sudah perjalanan perjuangan politik DAP selama 53 tahun yang lepas, daripada kemenangan pertama di Pahang dengan kerusi DUN Raub pada PRK Raub 1983, kepada kerusi parlimen pertama pada tahun 2013 dengan kawasan Raub.

Setakat hari ini, DAP mempunyai dua ahli parlimen dan tujuh ahli dewan undangan negeri daripada Pahang iaitu, Tengku Zulpuri Syah bin Raja Puji (Ahli Parlimen Raub dan Timbalan Menteri Kementerian Air, Tanah, dan Sumber Asli), Wong Tack (Ahli Parlimen Bentong), Chow Yu Hui (ADUN Tras), Young Syefura binti Othman (ADUN Ketari), Chiong Yoke Kong (ADUN Tanah Rata), Lee Chin Chen (ADUN Bilut), Kamache A/P Doray Rajoo (ADUN Sabai), Woo Chee Wan (ADUN Mentakab), dan Leong Yu Man (ADUN Triang).

Kita telah membuat perubahan yang kritikal dan penting dalam PRU14 pada 9 Mei tahun lepas terhadap arah masa depan negara, daripada trajektori ke arah sebuah negara yang gagal dan kleptokratik ke arah yang baharu, menetapkan semula polisi pembinaan negara untuk membina sebuah Malaysia yang baharu yang berteraskan perpaduan, kecemerlangan, keadilan, kebebasan, dan integriti.

Tetapi, kita tidak dapat menjamin kejayaan dalam mencapai cita-cita Malaysia Baharu ini, kerana tugas ini akan mengambil masa yang bergenerasi lamanya dan perjuangan ini boleh dirampas pada bila-bila masa dan diubah hala tujunya.

Tidak mungkin cita-cita Malaysia Baharu akan dapat dicapai menjelang 2023 dalam satu kitaran pilihan raya.

Saya mesti menekankan kepentingan untuk kita menyedari yang misi Malaysia Baharu ini boleh disekat, dipesong, atau disabotaj sebelum kita mencapainya. Misalnya, jika Pakatan Harapan kalah dalam PRU ke-15, tamatlah misi ini dan cita-cita Malaysia sebagai negara bertaraf dunia.

Apa yang kita sedang cuba untuk capai bukanlah satu “revolusi”, di mana kita kepala mereka yang berada di dalam regim lama dipenggal dan satu pentadbiran baharu ditubuhkan daripada kalangan ahli revolusi.

Ini bukan cara demokrasi, yang mana terdapat satu garis pembahagi di antara pimpinan politik dan pentadbiran kerajaan yang memerlukan kerajaan baharu untuk berkerjasama dengan pentadbiran terdahulu untuk melaksanakan reformasi dan perubahan dalam negara.

Untuk memberikan analogi yang lain, bayangkan kita sedang cuba mendaki sebuah gunung Malaysia Baharu, tak kiralah Gunung Kinabalu ataupun Everest sekalipun, yang merupakan puncak gunung yang tertinggi di dunia. Dan kita berhasrat untuk mencapai puncak gunung Malaysia Baharu ini dan pada masa yang sama terdapat penyokong klepto-teokrasi yang cuba untuk menggulingkan kita semua ke dalam gaung kegagalan dan kleptokrasi.

Perjalanan politik yang menanti kita adalah satu perjuangan yang mencabar, tetapi kita mestilah mempunyai stamina, kecekalan, komitmen dan keyakinan yang kita sekarang berada di haluan yang tepat untuk mencapai cita-cita Malaysia Baharu di mana kita berjaya sebagai sebuah negara yang terunggul di mata dunia berteraskan perpaduan, keadilan, kebebasan, kecemerlangan, dan integriti, selari dengan prinsip dan matlamat politik kita.

(Ucapan Ahli Parlimen DAP Iskandar Puteri di majlis pembukaan Pusat Khidmat DAP Cawangan Karak pada hari Khamis 26 September 2019, 8.30 malam)

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

Three things happened to me during the seventeen months of my first Internal Security Act detention in the Muar detention centre in  1969 – 1970.

First I started on law studies, which gave me an external  law degree with the University of London and I later flew to London three times on the cheapest flight available at the time (Aeroflot) to dine in the Lincoln’s Inn (cheapest dinner in London at the time, but with the air tickets added in, quite expensive meals) to qualify to sit for the Bar Examinations and to be called to the Bar in London. But I did not become a practising lawyer.

Second, I taught myself to read and write Jawi.

But it was the third event which moulded my whole life, about integrity and loyalty to principle – the saying of the great Chinese patriot-poet-politician, Wen Tianxiang, who penned these immortal words:

“Who can avert his death since time immemorial?

“Let my heart remain true to shine in the annals.”

Through thick and thin, rain or shine, we must be prepared to stand up to the yardstick spelt out by Wen Tianxiang, for the “
heart to remain true to shine in the annals”.

As I said just now at the launching of the renovated DAP branch at the Bentong new village, which I had opened 45 years ago in 1974, my visit to Bentong and Karak today is a visit down the memory lane.

I saw veterans and  old faces like Lip Tuck Chee, who spearheaded the first DAP breakthrough in Pahang state by winning the famous Raub State Assembly by-election 36 years ago in June 1983, and ordinary men and women but stalwart Malaysians who contributed to Malaysian nation-building with their
“blood, sweat and tears”
 because of their devotion down the decades to the DAP and love for Malaysia for a democratic, just and united Malaysian nation.

I was very touched just now that the girl who had presented me with a bouquet when I opened the Karak DAP branch twenty years ago in 1999 was present as a comely adult to hand me a pen for the signing ceremony to mark the opening to the Karak DAP Branch service centre.

I remember in particular the memorable Bentong by-election in 1989, which I had plunged into immediately after my release from my second ISA detention under Operation Lalang on 19th April 1989. The Bentong by-election  was held on May 13, 1989. It was a five-cornered fight. Our candidate Lip Tuck Chee polled 31% of the votes securing 8,895 against the 17,401 votes polled by the MCA candidate, Lim Ah Lek.

Bentong, which was first contested by the DAP in 1974, seemed unwinnable for the DAP for four decades. A former Pahang Mentri Besar had once bragged that
“you cut my ears and I’d jump into the Pahang river”
 if DAP can win Bentong.

But the decades of
“blood, sweat and tears”
by DAP members and supporters – the stalwart patriots of Malaysia – paid off and finally in the 14th General Election last year, we prevailed and Wong Tack won the Bentong parliamentary seat to become the first DAP MP for Bentong.

DAP has come a long way in the 53 years of political struggle – from the first breakthrough in Pahang in the Raub State Assembly by-election in 1983, to the first parliamentary breakthrough in the Raub parliamentary seat in 2013.

At present, the DAP has two MPs and seven state assembly representatives from Pahang, namely Tengku Zulpuri Shah bin Raja Puji (MP for Raub and Deputy Minister for Water, Land and Natural Resources), Wong Tack (MP for Bentong), Chow Yu Hui (State Assemblyman for Tras), Young Syefura binti Othman (Ketari), Chiong Yoke Kong (Tanah Rata), Lee Chin Chen (Bilut), Kamache A/P Doray Rajoo (Sabai),  Woo Chee Wan (Mentakab) and Leong Yu Man (Triang).

We have made the crucial and critical shift in the 14th General Election on May 9 last year from the trajectory of a failed, rogue and kleptocratic state and headed in a new direction, resetting nation-building policies to build a New Malaysia of unity, excellence, justice, freedom and integrity for Malaysia to become a top world-class nation.

But there is no guarantee of success that we can inexorably reach the goal of a New Malaysia, for this is work of a generation and we can always be hijacked and the nation-building direction diverted along the way.

There is no way that a New Malaysia can be achieved by 2023 in one general election cycle.

I cannot overemphasise that the mission for a New Malaysia can be blocked, diverted or sabotaged before its accomplishment For instance, if Pakatan Harapan loses the 15th General Election, then its kaput for New Malaysia and Malaysia as a top world-class nation.

What we are attempting is not a “
revolution
” where we can chop the heads of those in the old regime and build a new administration with the “
revolutionaries
”.

This is not the way of democracy, where there is a clear distinction between the political leadership and the government administration, requiring the new government to bring along the old administration to effect the transition, reforms and changes in the country.

To use another analogy, we are trying to scale the mountain of a New Malaysia, whether Mount Kinabalu, the highest mountain in Malaysia, or even Mount Everest, the highest mountain in the world, but we want to reach the top of the mountain of a New Malaysia, to become a top world-class nation of unity, excellence, freedom, justice and integrity while the advocates of “klepto-theocracy” want Malaysia to slide down the slippery slope to the ravine of a failed, rogue and kleptocratic state.

The political journey ahead is a new and arduous one, but we must have the stamina, perseverance, commitment and confidence that we are set on a trajectory to achieve a New Malaysia where we become a top world-class nation of unity, justice, freedom, excellence and integrity in keeping with our long-standing political principles and objectives.

(Speech by DAP MP for Iskandar Puteri Lim Kit Siang at the opening of the Karak DAP Branch service centre in Karak on Thursday, 26th September 2019 at 8.30 pm)

                This entry was posted on Friday, 27 September 2019, 8:25 am and is filed under
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Malaysians must give serious attention to the latest Oxford Internet Institute (OII) Report on “The Global Disinformation Order:  2019 Global Inventory of Organised Social Media Manipulation” as it gives a timely warning of the  national risks  if fake news and hate speech to incite inter-racial and inter-religious polarisation in Malaysia are allowed untrammelled  licence

Malaysians must given serious attention to the latest Oxford Internet Institute (OII) Report on “The Global Disinformation Order : 2019 Global Inventory of Organised Social Media Manipulaiton” as its give a timely warning of the national risks if fake news and hate speech to incite inter-racial and inter-religious polarisation in Malaysia are  allowed untrammeled licence.

Fake news and hate speech are evil influences by themselves, but when coupled with the agenda to incite inter-racial and inter-religious polarisation in plural Malaysia, they become exceedingly toxic and destructive which must be checked if the fabric of Malaysian society is not to be torn asunder.

The latest OII report finds that organised social media manipulation has more than doubled since 2017, with 70 countries using “computational propaganda” to manipulate public opinion.

Facebook is the platform of choice and is used in formally organised campaigns taking place in 56 countries.

The report states that such tools are used in 45 democracies, by politicians and political parties, to amass fake followers or spread manipulated media to garner voter support.

It said:
“The manipulation of public opinion over social media remains a critical threat to democracy, as computational propaganda becomes a pervasive part of everyday life.

“Government agencies and political parties around the world are using social media to spread disinformation and other forms of manipulated media. Although propaganda has always been a part of politics, the wide-ranging scope of these campaigns raises critical concerns for modern democracy.”

The report also stated that 87% of countries used human accounts, 80% used bot accounts, 11% used cyborg accounts and 7% used hacked or stolen accounts to spread disinformation.

Oxford researchers examined how cyber troops use different communication strategies to manipulate public opinion, such as creating disinformation, mass-reporting content or accounts, and employing abusive strategies such as trolling, doxing or harassment.

The report found that 52 countries used disinformation and media manipulation to mislead users, while 47 used state-sponsored trolls to attack political opponents or activists in 2019, up from 27 countries in 2018.

This reminds me of a secret directive sent out through WhatsApp by Najib/UMNO Psy-War HQ to UMNO cybertroopers to target DAP to cause collapse of the Pakatan Harapan government and save former Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak from being sent to Sungai Buloh Prison.

The WhatsApp secret directive, which I saw in May this year, read:

“c&p

“Arahan dari HQ, sekarang pastikan setiap posting kita tumpu pada DAP dan kalau boleh gunakan kreativiti untuk kaitkan dengan isue bangsa dan agama

“Mengikut maklumat intel, akan ada pendedahan penyelewengan pemimpin UMNO terbaru dari Kerajaan, kita akan counter dengan kaitkan dengan DAP, pastikan team focus pada isu DAP tidak kira isu apa pon”

The events of the past four months have confirmed the credibility of this WhatsApp message, as there had been an upsurge of fake news and hate speech to incite inter-racial and inter-religious polarisation coupled with baseless attacks on the DAP.

There is clearly a Social Media Manipulation and Psy-War High Command with a new game-plan to cause the collapse and disintegration of the Pakatan Harapan Government and save the Malaysian Kleptocratic Duo from accountability for the 1MDB scandal by creating or magnifying rifts and divisions between political parties and personalities in Pakatan Harapan, and distorting them into racial or religious conflicts.

Malaysia featured quite prominently in the OII Report on  Global Inventory of Organised Social Media Manipulation, which estimated that there were some 2,000 organised cybertroopers in Malaysia and that there were “Evidence for formal training found” in Malaysia.

Malaysians are in a new phase in politics in Malaysia in post-14th General Election, as UMNO leaders and cybertroopers under former Prime Minister have abandoned all pretensions of moderation, balance and 1Malaysian attitude to sabotage the Pakatan Harapan government, hoping that the Pakatan Harapan government in Putrajaya and in the various states would not last the full term, crack and disintegrate to allow UMNO to return to power before 15GE.

Former UMNO Deputy Minister, Tajuddin Rahman (MP for Pasir Salak) had  confirming that post-14GE, UMNO leaders and cybertroopers under Najib had launched a “scorched-earth” policy to take the vicious and toxic politics of race, religion, hate, fear and lies to an extremity never seen in Malaysia before.

In an eve of Sungai Kandis by-election gathering in August last year, Tajuddin made the wild, preposterous, reckless, most incendiary and seditious allegation that the DAP has an agenda to Christianise Malaysia, that that the DAP and “Christian-led Pakatan Harapan government” would want to abolish the Malay monarchy and establish a republic.

He claimed that there was a video featuring Christian pastors celebrating Pakatan Harapan’s victory during the May 9 general election, on the ground that the Christians have taken over Putrajaya and other states.

I am not aware that there is such a video. More than a year had passed but Tajuddin has not produced such a video.

Tajuddin accused DAP Ministers of being dominated by Christians like Anthony Loke, Tony Pua and Hannah Yeoh.

I am not aware that Tony Pua and Hannah Yeoh are Ministers. Tony Pua and Anthony Loke have Christian names but are not Christians.

Tajuddin has committed an political sin in Malaysia in accusing the Cabinet as controlled by Christian evangelists when there is not even an iota of truth in the allegation.

This was an  unpardonable example that after more than half a century of Malaysian nation-building, UMNO leaders (now joined by PAS leaders in an alliance of klepto-theocracy) are  trying to perpetuate the misconception that a Christian or non-Muslim is anti-Islam, a Chinese or Indian is anti-Malay – undermining the very basis of Malaysia as a multi-racial, multi-lingual, multi- religious and multi-cultural nation and that our very diversity in ethnicity, religions, languages and cultures is an unique asset for the nation and not a liability.

I do not believe that a Malay is anti-Chinese, anti-Indian, anti-Kadazan, anti-Iban in the same way that I do not believe that a good Muslim is anti-Christianity, anti-Buddhism, anti-Hinduism, anti-Sikkhism or anti-Taoism. Similarly, a Chinese or an Indian in Malaysia is not anti-Malay, and a good  Christian, Buddhist, Hindu, Sikh or Taoist in Malaysia is not anti-Muslim.

Immediately after the 13th general election in 2013, UMNO/BN propagandists went to town to allege the DAP funded a fictitious “Red Bean Army” (RBA) of 3,000 cybertroopers with a budget of RM100 million to RM1 billion in the previous six years to attack the UMNO/BN authorities and to defame UMNO/BN leaders over a whole variety of issues.

They even alleged that the RBA had two operational centres, one in Hotel Concorde in Kuala Lumpur and the other based in Komtar in Penang.

I recalled that when the UMNO/BN propagandists stepped up their barrage of lies, fake news and false information about the DAP-funded RBA, I led a team of DAP MPs accompanied by journalists to make a surprise visit to Concorde Hotel on the night of July 4, 2014.

We found Concorde Hotel – which was supposed to be one the two operational centres of the billion-ringgit Red Bean Army – crawling with UMNO leaders and operatives but no Red Bean Army. We found something even more shocking – that the exorbitant ice-kachang in Concorde Hotel had no red beans at all!

However, what was interesting about the UMNO/BN allegations about the RBA was that it revealed the modus operandi of UMNO/BN in recruiting cybertroopers, especially the funding involved – as no UMNO/BN cybertrooper or election worker will volunteer for free or work only for “water and sunshine” but had to be paid, and paid very handsomely!

The going rate for the UMNO/BN cybertroopers would be RM500 to RM3,000 monthly, including free telephone gadgets and laptops.

Just before the 14th General Election, the UMNO Information Technnology Bureau organized a convention for some 3,500 UMNO cybertroopers.

Taking an average expenditure of RM2,000 a month for each UMNO cybertrooper, this would come to some RM7 million a year, and this would not include the expenditures incurred by cybertroopers engaged by other units or state outfits of UMNO/BN.

Who foot the bill for these astronomical expenditures and where did the enormous amounts of money come from?

(Media Statement by DAP MP for Iskandar Puteri Lim Kit Siang in Gelang Patah on Saturday, 28th September 2019)

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Malaysians must not allow the only chance for the country to become a top world-class nation of unity, justice, freedom, excellence and integrity to be sabotaged by unscrupulous and unprincipled politicians wanting to regain political power by using fake news and hate speech to incite inter-racial and inter-religious polarisation

It is more than 500 days since the historic and miraculous decision of Malaysians in the 14th General Election on  May 9, 2018 –  what the  international media had described as a “shock victory – to achieve the “impossible dream” of achieving a change of government through peaceful and democratic means first time in six decades.

All Malaysians who had rooted for what appeared to be an “impossible dream”  of  a change of government had high hopes of the Pakatan  Harapan government in Putrajaya, and so did the leaders of the four parties of DAP, PKR, Bersatu and Amanah  which made up the Pakatan Harapan coalition, but they were totally  unaware of the magnitude of the  rot which the Najib premiership had left behind.

The country was in debt for over a trillion ringgit; the national institutions have lost their independence and professionalism as they were  suborned and subverted by the former prime minister and the 1MDB billions of ringgit; the country had forfeited the respect by the  international community of nations as it became a global kleptocracy, publicly flagellated as “kleptocracy at its worst”  in an  international conference;  while  race, religion, fake news and hate speech had been employed to protect the former government leaders from any possibility of  regime change in the 14th General Election.

Pakatan Harapan Ministers and deputy ministers were shocked to find that they had to ascertain and address the rot that had been left behind by the previous government before they could proceed to implement the Pakatan Harapan promises of a New Malaysia where the country can become a top world-class nation of unity, justice, freedom, excellence and integrity.

There is widespread disappointment and disillusionment among Pakatan Harapan voters and supporters who had expected political, economic, educational, socio-cultural changes in the past 500 days.

It is imperative that Pakatan Harapan  must make Malaysians understand that the re-set of nation-building policies  after the deep rot left behind by the previous government and the achievement of a New Malaysia  is a national mission which will take a generation to accomplish  and not just one general election cycle, but the Pakatan Harapan government  must now  embark on this re-set of nation building policies based on the five pillar-promises of the Buku Harapan presented to the people in the 14th General Elections, viz:

· Reduce the people’s burden;

· Institutional and political reforms;

· Spur sustainable and equitable economic growth;

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

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

Malaysians must not allow the only chance for the country to become a top world-class nation of unity, justice, freedom, excellence and integrity to be sabotaged by unscrupulous and unprincipled politicians wanting to regain political power by using fake news and hate speech to incite inter-racial and inter-religious polarisation/.

It might be useful to compile a catalogue of the fake news and hate speech which had made their rounds in Malaysia in the past 500 days.

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

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

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

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

Last week, there were reports that Malaysia is even losing out to Vietnam which should come as a wake-up call to Malaysians to put their shoulder to the wheel to transform Malaysia into a top world-class nation of unity, justice, freedom, excellence and integrity.

Instead, we continue to be bogged down by false issues especially in recent months, with an upsurge of fake news and hate speech to incite inter-racial and inter-religious polarisation in the country, reckless that it could provoke inter-racial or inter-religious conflict or conflagration.

Malaysians must strike out courageously in the direction of a New Malaysia, for which we have received a mandate from the voters  regardless of race and religion in the 14th General Election.

Once I said that Pakatan Harapan should not try to out-Malay UMNO and out-Islam PAS, and it was immediately distorted as proof that I am anti-Malay and anti-Islam.

This is the height of mischief and diabolism.

What I meant is that Pakatan Harapan should not out-Malay UMNO, just as it should not out-Chinese MCA or out-Indian MIC, but a political coalition which can out-Malaysian any other  political entity in the country.

In the same way, when I said that PH should not out-Islam PAS, it is not an anti-Islam expression, as I Pakatan Harapan should not be in the business to out-Christian, out-Buddhist or  out-Hindu any other political entity but to be a model Malaysian political party which fully upholds the Malaysian Constitution which provides for  Islam as the official religion but freedom of worship for all other faiths.

(Speech by DAP MP for Iskandar Puteri at the DAP Bukit Bertajam Veterans Club  dinner in Bukit Mertajam on Saturday, Sept. 28, l2019 at 9 pm)

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 29 September 2019, 10:08 pm and is filed under
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Another must-see film for Malaysians – “The Kleptocrats’: sombre reminder that May 9, 2018 saved Malaysia from becoming Venezuela of South-east Asia

Two films every Malaysian should see are “M for Malaysia” and “The Kleptocrats  -Billion Dollar Whale” to learn or to  be reminded of the existential threat Malaysia faced during the 14th General Election.

If there had been no historic and miraculous change of government on May 9, 2018, Malaysia would have continued in the  trajectory pursued for close to a decade to become a failed, rogue and kleptocratic state, and no power on earth could have  saved future generations of Malaysians, regardless of race or religion, from the  status of serfs in having  to repay the tens and hundreds of billions of debt conceived and implemented by “maestros” of  unimaginable scams and money-laundering  schemes to exploit the loopholes of  the international banking and  financial system.

If there had been no change of government, the re-elected Prime Minister would have made Malaysia the Venezuela of South-east Asia and the Sick Man of  Asia.

Venezuela is in the thick of a terrible political, socio-economic and humanitarian crisis. Once one of the 20 richest countries in the world and the richest in Latin America with free education and free medical services for her citizens, it is now poor, backward, broken and bankrupt state, with over 10 per cent of Venezuelans (3.4 million) having left the country in despair.

The humanitarian crisis in Venezuela has affected the life of the average Venezuelan on all levels. By 2017, hunger had escalated to the point where almost seventy-five percent of the population had lost an average of over 8 kg (over 19 lbs) in weight, and more than half did not have enough income to meet their basic food needs.

The ”Sick Man of Asia” was previously referred to China. But in the past 40 years of economic reform, the World Bank estimates that China  has lifted 850 million people out of poverty while its per capita GDP grew by nearly 24 times from 1978 to 2017.

If there had been no change of government on May 9, 2018, we would be steaming ahead to become the Sick Man of Asia by 2030 or 2040, and there would be even more imaginative and creative 2MDB, 3MDB or 4MDB scandals to shock  the global political landscape.

The film “The Kleptocrats”, which I saw on the iwonder programme, offers various vignettes of the heroes and heroines, both in Malaysia and worldwide, who had played important roles in the expose of what the US Attorney-General has described as “kleptocracy at its worst”, notably:

· The film opens up with a Red Granite party at the Cannes Film Festival 2011, where Jho Low, the present  fugitive from international justice,  made his appearance, and the party was so lavish and grand  where “a million dollars burnt right here” that it raised   the question:  “Who are these guys who shot up out of nowhere really.”

· The investigation by New York Times reporter Louis Strong beginning in Feb. 2013 on the “illicit money coming into the United States through high-end real estate through shell companies where the owners could be hidden” which led her to Riza Aziz,  and the film “Wolf in Wall Street”, Red Granite and two-headed investigations into Jho Low and Malaysian Prime Minister, Najib Razak;  the  1MDB scandal and her stakeout at Mandarin Oriental Hotel at Time Warner Centre in New York  in Sept. 2014 when both Najib and Jho Low were in the city.

· The November 2012 US$100 million birthday party of Jho Low,  described as the “most expensive party Las Vegas has even seen” which would finally be paid by Malaysian taxpayers.

· The poignant statements by Nazir Najib, brother of Najib Razak, of how he got hold of his other brothers, met Najib and told him that they were very concerned about the 1MDB, why  it was not subject to the same oversight as the rest of government companies and how it somewhat conflicted with the values of their  father, second Malaysian Prime Minister, Tun Razak  – public service, integrity, frugality; and how Najib promised  he would look into the matter and would fix any shortcomings in the 1MDB but  did not.

· Najib’s insistence of “good governance” as his only response  on the day the Wall Street Journal published the shocking report that RM2.6 billion had been deposited into Najib’s personal accounts on May 2013.

· The sudden clampdown on 1MDB investigations and the Week of Long Knives in July 2015 where Muhyiddin Yassin was sacked as Deputy Prime Minister, Shafie Apdal as Minister for Regional and Rural Development, Gani Patail as  Attorney-General followed by a “reign of terror” in the AG office, the Police, the MACC and Bank Negara.

· The telephone call by a Hollywood Reporter journalist from the Cannes Film Festival 2016 to the then DAP MP for Petaling Jaya Utara, Tony Pua, in Malaysia, and was told that Tony’s passport had been impounded and could not leave the country for being a threat to parliamentary democracy for his steadfast expose of the 1MDB scandal, since his first parliamentary question on the subject in March 2010.

There is deep and widespread disappointment and disillusionment that after more than 500 days, there are no visible signs of a New Malaysia.

It is important that Malaysians must be able to understand that while the Pakatan Harapan Government  has to deal with an  unexpectedly huge legacy of liabilities and debts, the government is still on track to build a New Malaysia to become a top world-class nation of unity, justice, freedom, excellence and integrity.

The last thing Malaysians want is to see the country becoming a Venezuela during the time of their children and grandchildren in 2030 or 2040.  Or an even worse fate.

(Media Statement by DAP MP for Iskandar Puteri Lim Kit Siang in Gelang Patah on Monday September 30, 2019)

                This entry was posted on Monday, 30 September 2019, 2:47 pm and is filed under
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Another week of shame for Malaysia – worldwide advertisement of 1MDB scandal as “the biggest fraud of the century” with emphasis on “true crime” and “current affairs” to promote documentary “The Kleptocrats”

It has been another week of shame for Malaysia – as in the past week, Malaysia has been advertised internationally as the country which is  home to  “the biggest fraud of the century” because of the 1MDB scandal with the emphasis on “true crime” and “current affairs”  to promote the documentary “The Kleptocrats”.

Such an  advertisement  on the “THE MULTI-BILLION $CANDAL THAT SHOOK HOLLYWOOD AND THE WORLD”   appears in the international media, whether South China Morning Post in Hong Kong, Straits Times in Singapore or Sydney Morning Herald Australia, and many others.

In Malaysia, the criminal trial of the former Prime Minister, Najib Razak, over 25 charges of  abuse of power and money laundering of RM2.28 billion from 1MDB funds, facing up to 20 years in jail if convicted,  entered into its 16th day in the High Court of Kuala Lumpur yesterday while another High Court judge has fixed Nov 11 to announce the verdict whether Najib’s defence on seven charges of abuse of power, corruption and money-laundering involving RM42 million of funds from SRC International after 58 days of prosecution case and 57 witnesses  needs to be called.

It is not exactly a time when Malaysians came hold their heads high in the world, although there is a  silver lining in the dark clouds – as Malaysia is probably the only country in the world which had toppled a kleptocratic regime by peaceful and democratic means on May 9, 2018 and put the former Prime Minister and some of  his kleptocratic cronies on trial.

But Malaysians are now very conflicted over the issue – with many very disappointed that Najib and his kleptocratic cronies are not in jail, to the extent that they are prepared to vote out the Pakatan Harapan Government, without realising that this would be very ticket  Najib and his kleptocratic cronies need to  escape jail altogether.

Malaysians must not be cutting off their noses to spite  their faces.

They must redeem themselves from the  infamy, ignominy and iniquity of hosting “kleptocracy at its worst” and the “biggest fraud of the century” which would put the American stockbroker-fraudster Jordan  Belfont –  the character  in “The Wolf in Wall Street” – to shame by demonstrating to the world that they have a pronounced sense of shame, and the ability to distinguish right and wrong, moral and immoral!

However,  with the advent of  the alliance of klepto-theocracy,  the country may be heading for another era of  ignominy and infamy, especially with the unfettered upsurge of fake new and hate speech to incite inter-racial and inter-religious tension and polarisation in plural Malaysia!

These are the political forces which preach the politics of hate, exclusion and extremism, who are not bothered whether a leader is a kleptocrat or a pedlar of fake news and hate speech to tear multi-racial, multi-lingual, multi-religious an multi-cultural society asunder, and who are only interested first and foremost  in the game of numbers to get back  or to accede to power in Putrajaya.

These people had suffered a series of disappointments –  that the Pakatan Harapan Government had not cracked up and disintegrated in the first months in office, that it had not disintegrated after one year in office  and were working  to deliver the final and fatal blow to the Pakatan Harapan government in the 15th General

Election by escalating  fake news and hate speech to create an incandescent political  situation in the country.

But suddenly,  these forces of klepto-theocracy see new hopes and opportunities from  a new permutation and combination of political numbers that  will bring them to  Putrajaya.

Pakatan Harapan must not fall into these traps.

The journey for Malaysia to become a leading nation of integrity has just started, and Malaysians must demonstrate that they have the stamina, commitment and sense of purpose for at least a decade to bring to justice  the kleptocrats, the “ikan yus” and the “ikan bilis” – so that Malaysia can  become a top leading nation of integrity by 2030.

Waging war against  kleptocracy will not itself make Malaysia an economic tiger and Pakatan Harapan leaders must heed the disappointment and of voters who brought about the historic  and miraculous  transition of power on May 9, 2018 through peaceful and democratic means but who mistakenly thought that the abuses of power and injustices of six decades could be resolved in 100 days or in one year.

The Pakatan Harapan Government  must give hope to Malaysians that it is committed to a Malaysian middle road for Malaysia and will not yield to the demands of extremism from any quarter, that it is committed to the New Malaysia agenda to be a top world-class nation of unity, justice, freedom, excellence and integrity, and that it would keep to its pledge announced at the Pakatan Harapan Convention on 7th  January 2018 that Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad would be the seventh Prime Minister of Malaysia and Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim the eighth Prime Minister of Malaysia before Pakatan Harapan seeks a new mandate in the 15th General Election in 2023 to continue with the unfinished  business to reset nation building policies to build a New Malaysia.

(Media Statement by DAP MP for Iskandar Puteri Lim Kit Siang in Gelang Patah on Wednesday 2nd October 2019)

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 2 October 2019, 8:57 am and is filed under
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The day I feel most ashamed as a Malaysian – to find a Malaysian listed internationally among the world’s top kleptocrats who  may even  be the  world’s No. 1 Kleptocrat

Today is the day I feel most ashamed as a Malaysian – to find a Malaysian listed internationally among the world’s top kleptocrats who  may even  be the world’s No. 1 Kleptocrat!

After viewing  again the documentary “The Kleptocrats” which tells “the wild story of the world’s biggest white-collar heist” which followed reporters and law enforcement agents as they track “an audacious scam – one that involves embezzlement, corruption, film stars, politicians and crooks”,  I browsed the Internet on sites on kleptocracy and corruption.

As Nazir Razak recounted  in  the documentary ”The Kleptocrats”  that he fell off the chair one morning in July 2015  when he was holidaying and  having breakfast in a Los Angeles hotel and picked up a copy of Wall Street Journal which exposed the RM2.6 billion deposit in Najib Razak’s personal banking accounts, I almost fell off the chair when I read  the Wikipedia page on “kleptocracy”, where  Najib was listed among the world’s 11 top kleptocrats, and may even be the world’s No. 1 Kleptocrat when all the facts and truth about the 1MDB scandal and all the other scandals in his regime are revealed.

According to  Wikipedia, which is used by netizens worldwide, Najb is in the company of  the 10 leading kleptocrats of the last three decades compiled by Transparency International in 2004, viz: former Indonesian President Suharto, former Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos, Former Zairian President Mobutu Sese Seko, Former Nigerian head of state Sani Abacha, former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, Former Haitian President, Jean-Claude Duvalier, former Ukranian Prime Minister Paylo Lazarenko, former Nicaraguan President Arnold Aleman and former Philippines President Joseph Estrada.

The pertinent question is apart from my feeling most ashamed today as a Malaysian to find that a Malaysian  is among the world’s top kleptocrats in the past three decades, and may even by the No. 1 kleptocrat when all the facts about the 1MDB scandal and other scandals are fully known, is this feeling of enormous shame similarly felt by all patriotic  Malaysians, regardless of race, religion or region?

Will all Malaysians, regardless of race, religion or region, unite on a common platform to redeem Malaysia’s honour, dignity, reputation and good name after  being  sullied and dishonoured worldwide  for having been  a global kleptocracy for close to a decade?

Or should Malaysians take the stand that a kleptocrat should be supported so long as he belongs to the same religion with the defiance of Malu Apa Bossku?

(Media Statement by DAP MP for Iskandar Puteri Lim Kit Siang in Gelang Patah on Thursday, 3rd October 2019)

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 3 October 2019, 11:42 am and is filed under
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Will the four public universities which is organising the Malay Dignity Congress on Sunday organise a Chinese Malaysian Dignity Congress, Indian Malaysian Dignity Congress, Kadazan Dignity Congress, Dayak Dignity Congress, Orang Asli Dignity Congress and most important of all, a Malaysian Dignity Congress?

Adakah empat universiti awam yang akan menganjurkan Kongres Maruah Melayu pada Ahad ini sudi untuk menganjurkan Kongres Maruah Cina Malaysia, Kongres India Malaysia, Kongres Maruah Kadazan, Kongres Maruah Dayak, Kongres Maruah Orang Asli dan paling penting Kongres Maruah Rakyat Malaysia?

Empat universiti awam, iaitu Universiti Malaya (UM), Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris (UPSI), Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) dan Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) akan menganjurkan Kongres Maruah Melayu di Stadium Malawati di Shah Alam pada Ahad ini.

Adakah empat universiti awam tersebut sudi mengadakan kongres yang sama untuk kaum-kaum lain di Malaysia, sebagai contoh; Kongres Maruah Cina Malaysia, Kongres Maruah India Malaysia, Kongres Maruah Kadazan, Kongres Maruah Dayak, Kongres Maruah Orang Asli, dan yang paling penting, Kongres Maruah Rakyat Malaysia?

Ini antara persoalan yang dibangkitkan rakyat Malaysia sebagai reaksi terhadap penganjuran Kongres Maruah Melayu pada Ahad nanti.

Maruah Malaysia akan terpelihara sekiranya maruah setiap kumpulan etnik dan agama di negara ini turut terpelihara — iaitu dengan berpegang teguh terhadap prinsip-prinsip asas dalam Perlembagaan Persekutuan dan Rukun Negara.

Adakah Kongres Maruah Melayu ini akan menegaskan semula prinsip-prinsip asas dalam Perlembagaan Persekutuan dan Rukun Negara, dan mengecam prinsip memecah-belah dan membinasakan yang bertentangan Perlembagaan Persekutuan dan Rukun Negara, contohnya, pendirian yang mengatakan seseorang itu harus mengundi calon yang beragama Islam meskipun dia adalah seorang kleptokrat atau pendirian yang mengatakan orang Melayu hanya boleh menyokong calon yang beragama Islam!

Adakah Kongres Maruah Melayu ini akan merangka sebuah strategi untuk rakyat Malaysia membina sebuah keyakinan diri yang baharu untuk “mengapai bintang di langit”, sebuah semangat “Malaysia Boleh” yang baharu, bagi melenyapkan pelbagai momokan dan ketakutan yang diada-adakan, direka-reka serta tidak berasas, supaya Malaysia mampu meraih kejayaan dalam setiap bidang yang diceburi manusia bagi mencapai zaman keemasan Malaysia?

Malaysia telah mengalami kegagalan, keaiban dan kezaliman yang tidak pernah berlaku sebelum ini setelah dikecam oleh dunia sebagai sebuah kleptokrasi global di mana Malaysia diletakkan di dalam kalangan kleptokrat utama dunia. Apakah sumbangan yang boleh dibuat oleh Kongres Maruah Melayu untuk menebus semula kehormatan, maruah, reputasi dan nama baik Malaysia, di dalam negara dan di arena antarabangsa?

Malaysia kini berada di kedudukan 61 dalam Indeks Persepsi Rasuah Antarabangsa (TI) terkini. Sekiranya Malaysia mahu mengubah dirinya untuk menjadi sebuah negara yang berintegriti di dunia, ia sepatutnya memasang cita-cita untuk berada di antara 30 negara teratas dalam TI CPI 2030. Adakah Kongres Maruah Melayu akan menyokong objektif ini dan mempunyai sebarang idea tentang bagaimana Malaysia boleh mencapainya?

Penglibatan empat universiti awam dalam menganjurkan Kongres Maruah Melayu meletakkan pendidikan di barisan hadapan agenda tersebut. Apakah strategi yang dicadangkan penganjur untuk merevolusikan pendidikan bagi memastikan semua rakyat Malaysia menikmati pendidikan yang berkualiti, bukan sahaja untuk memastikan bahawa universiti-universiti Malaysia berada di kalangan universiti terkemuka di dunia tetapi murid-murid di sekolah di Malaysia juga berada dalam pendahulu satu pertiga dalam ujian antarabangsa untuk matematik dan sains bukannya diturunkan ke negara pendahulu satu pertiga di kedudukan di bawah.

Adakah Kongres Maruah Melayu menyokong visi Malaysia menjadi negara terkemuka bertaraf antarabangsa yang berteraskan perpaduan, keadilan, kebebasan, kecemerlangan dan integriti?

Malaysia kini berada dalam keadaan di mana setiap komuniti, sama ada Melayu, Cina atau India, dibelenggu dengan rasa ketakutan, kesangsian dan kebencian sehingga mereka percaya mereka berdepan ancaman eksistensial terhadap hak, kedudukan dan masa depan di Malaysia.

Ini disebabkan oleh penyebaran ucapan kebencian dan berita palsu khususnya di media sosial bagi mengapi-apikan perpecahan dan permusuhan antara kaum dan agama di negara ini.

Adakah Kongres Maruah Melayu yang dianjurkan pada Ahad ini akan memulakan kempen literasi media bagi menyahaktifkan bom jangka pembinaan negara yang hanya akan membawa bencana kepada keamanan, toleransi, harmoni dan kecemerlangan dalam sebuah Malaysia yang majmuk?

Adakah Kongres pada Ahad ini akan melahirkan garis masa dan visi untuk Malaysia menjadi contoh kejayaan Perikatan Peradaban di mata dunia dan bukan kegagalan kerana konflik peradaban, kerana Malaysia adalah titik pertemuan empat tamadun hebat dunia – Melayu/Islam, Cina, India dan Barat?

Saya berharap jawapan-jawapan kepada persoalan-persoalan ini boleh temui dalam Kongres Maruah Melayu pada Ahad ini.

(Kenyataan Media oleh Ahli Parlimen DAP Iskandar Puteri, Lim Kit Siang di Gelang Patah pada Jumaat, 4 Oktober 2019)

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

Four public universities, namely Universiti Malaya (UM), Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris (UPSI), Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) and UiTM are organising a Malay Dignity Congress  at Stadium Malawati in Shah Alam on Sunday.

Would these four public universities be organising a Chinese Malaysian Dignity Congress, Indian Malaysian Dignity Congress, Kadazan Dignity Congress, Dayak Dignity Congress, Orang Asli Dignity Congress and most important of all, a Malaysian Dignity Congress?

This is among the many questions that have arisen among Malaysians on the holding of the Malay Dignity Congress on Sunday.

There can be only be dignity for Malaysia if every ethnic and religious group in Malaysia enjoys dignity – which will be in keeping with the fundamental principles in the Malaysian Constitution and the Rukunegara.

Will the Malay Dignity Congress reaffirm these fundamental principles in the Constitution and the Rukunegara and denounce destructive and divisive principles which subvert the Constitution and the Rukunegara, such as the stand that one must vote for a Muslim candidate even if he is a kleptocrat or that a Malay can only support a Muslim candidate!

Will the Malay Dignity Congress craft a strategy for Malaysians to develop a new self-confidence of “reaching for the stars”, a new “Malaysia Boleh” spirit, to exorcise the various contrived,  imaginary and other baseless  fears and demons for Malaysia to excel itself in various fields of human endeavour so as to achieve a golden age for Malaysia?

Malaysia had suffered unprecedented infamy, ignominy and iniquity for  being condemned by the world as a global kleptocracy  with a Malaysian ranked among the world’s top kleptocrats.  What contribution the Malay Dignity Congress can make to redeem Malaysia’s honour, dignity, reputation and good name, at home and  in the international arena?

Malaysia is presently ranked No. 61 in the latest Transparency International (TI) Corruption Perception Index (CPI).  If Malaysia is to transform itself to become a leading nation of integrity in the world, it should aim to be ranked among the top 30 nations in the TI CPI 2030.   Does the Malay Dignity Congress endorse this objective and any ideas how Malaysia can achieve it?

The involvement of four public universities in hosting the Malay Dignity Congress put education in the forefront. What strategy it proposes for an educational revolution to ensure quality education for all Malaysians, not only to ensure that Malaysian universities rank among the top universities of the world but Malaysian school children are in the top one-third bracket in international tests for mathematics and science instead of presently relegated to  the bottom  one-third bracket of nations?

Does the Malay Dignity Congress endorse the vision of  Malaysia becoming  a top world-class nation of unity, justice, freedom, excellence and integrity?

Malaysia is now in a ludicrous scenario where every ethnic community, whether Malay, Chinese or Indian, is consumed with fear, distrust and hatred believing that it is facing an existential threat to its rights, position and future in Malaysia.

This is the result of the untrammelled spread of fake news and hate speech especially on the social media to incite inter-racial and inter-religious polarisation and  conflagration.

Will the Malay Dignity Congress on Sunday spearhead a media literacy campaign to deactivate these time-bombs to Malaysian nation-building which can only spell disaster for peace, tolerance, harmony and success in plural Malaysia?

Will the Congress on Sunday give birth to a time-line and vision for Malaysia to be a show-case to the world of the success of Malaysia from an Alliance of Civilisations not a failure from the Clash of Civilisations, as Malaysia is the confluence of the world’s great civilisations – Malay/Islamic, Chinese, Indian and Western?

I hope answers to these questions could be found in the Malay Dignity Congress on Sunday.

(Media Statement by DAP MP for Iskandar Puteri Lim Kit Siang in Gelang Patah on Friday, 4th October 2019)

                This entry was posted on Friday, 4 October 2019, 10:15 am and is filed under
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An example of the evil and lunacy of the recent upsurge of fake news and hate speech to incite inter-racial and inter-religious polarisation and conflagration

I discovered today another evil and lunatic example in  the recent upsurge of fake news and hate speech to incite inter-racial and inter-religious polarisation and confrontation and  why the government must take immediate action against such dangerous trash.

The following post on the social media accused the DAP as the real organiser of the Malay Dignity Congress, making use of Dr. Mahathir Mohamad and Bersatu.

Under the heading “
KONGRES MARUAH MELAYU AGENDA POLITIK TERDESAK DAP MELALUI PPBM – MELAYU JANGAN TERJERAT”
, it said among other things:

“Seperti yang kita tahu keterlibatan Hamzah Zainuddin dan Latif Ahmad menjelaskan bahawa ianya dirancang oleh PPBM melalui beberapa ‘Pelompat Parti’ dan YB yang tidak bermaruah. AMBO juga yakin bahawa kongres ini merupakan perancangan DAP menggunakan Mahathir dan PPBM untuk menyaingi atau sekali lagi menipu dan cubaan untuk mengelirukan orang melayu dengan kongres-kongres seperti ini.

“Hamzah Zainuddin dan ramai lagi pelompat parti yang berada dalam PPBM ini sedang digunakan oleh Mahathir untuk memecahkan kesatuan melayu yang bersatu dibawah Penyatuan Ummah UMNO/PAS. Sekali lagi DAP menggunakan formula yang sama iaitu pecah dan perintah. Mahathir diberi tanggungjawab dalam memecahkan penyatuan melayu antara UMNO dan PAS.

“Dalam satu mesyuarat Majlis Presiden PH pada awal Julai lepas mereka membincangkan bahawa kedudukan mereka(PH) amat getir jika melayu terus bersatu dibawah Penyatuan UMNO/PAS. Mereka harus lakukan sesuatu. DAP dan PKR bersetuju bahawa Mahathir mengambil tangungjawab untuk bercakap soal melayu dan kenyataan pertama selepas mesyuarat itu ialah pelawaan Mahathir untuk semua melayu menyertai PPBM. Masih ingat??

“Terutama DAP menyedari mereka akan dikuburkan jika tidak ada usaha untuk memecahkan melayu kepada banyak segmen. Mereka menang kerana melayu berpecah kepada banyak segmen. Mereka berkuasa kerana melayu terbahagi kepada banyak parti. Hari ini Melayu di satukan dibawah Penyatuan Ummah UMNO/PAS. Jika tidak ada usaha menyaingi dan memecahkan penyatuan melayu itu maka mereka akan berkuasa sepenggal. Mengetahui dan memahami hayat mereka yang bakal terkubur maka DAP mengarahkan PPBM lakukan sesuatu dengan melayu. Melayu harus dipecah-pecahkan.”

There was no such Pakatan Harapan Presidential Council discussion or decision in July which is pure lie woven from whole cloth. Yet the fake news/hate speech on this social media  hinged on such a lie.

If such fake news and hate speech to generate doubt, suspicion, alarm and hate among the races  so as  incite inter-racial and inter-religious polarisation are not halted, Malaysia is heading towards very troubled times marked by division, strife and conflict among the diverse races and religions in the country, and Malaysia can forget about any vision to be a top world-class nation of unity, justice, freedom, excellence and integrity or to be a showcase to the world as a success story of the Alliance of Civilisations and not a basket case of failure from a Clash of Civilisations.

(Media Statement by DAP for Iskandar Puteri Lim Kiut Siang in Kuala Lumpur on Saturday 5th October 2019)

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 5 October 2019, 1:29 pm and is filed under
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