Open letter to PM and Cabinet – Lim Kit Siang

JANUARY 08, 2014

I am taking full advantage of the Age of Information Technology which enables the instant communication of information with information travelling at the speed of light to pen this Open Letter to the Prime Minister and all Cabinet Ministers just before they start this morning, their first Cabinet meeting of the New Year of 2014.

I urge the prime minister and ministers to send out a clear and unmistakable message in their first Cabinet meeting to end the drift and loss of leadership and direction to create a united, harmonious, just, competitive and great Malaysian nation.

The Cabinet cannot do better than start their first meeting by discussing and digesting the question eloquently posed yesterday by a Good Samaritan in Malaysia, Tan Sri Robert Phang, who asked “Why are we quarrelling over God?”

In his New Year statement, Phang said: “Happy New Year! I am sure that all Malaysians wish and pray that this year 2014 would be a better year than last year. But are our prayers in vain when we are so divided as a nation and we are so petty as to quarrel over God?

“When we make prayers, we do so in the name of God by whatever name we call Him. We have done so without much problem in the past because to God belong all things in heaven and on earth. We have done so since the independence of Malaya and the founding of Malaysia. Our beloved prime minister teaches us to wave our finger to say 1Malaysia and yet today we are like a nation tattered.

“As an old man past 74 years who has seen our independence and formation of Malaysia, I am troubled by the fractious state that we are in today.”

These are the sentiments and concerns uppermost in the minds of all thinking and patriotic Malaysians in the New Year.

In fact, I believe many Malaysian patriots and nationalists, who pride themselves as being Malaysians than just being Malays, Chinese, Indians, Kadazans or Ibans, are having restless or even sleepless nights wondering and worrying about the future of the country which seems to be on auto-pilot completely bereft of leadership and direction from the prime minister and the Cabinet.

The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, proclaims the inclusive 1Malaysia policy where Malaysians regard themselves as Malaysians first and their race, religion, region and socio-economic status second and travels the capitals of the world to launch and sell his “Global Movement of Moderates” but at home, his government funds the extremist and racist Perkasa group, which is dedicated to  destroying his 1Malaysia concept and repudiation of the message of moderation, harmony and co-existence underlying the  “Global Movement of Moderates” campaign.

Have Malaysians for the first time in history, got a government whose right hand does not know what its  left hand is doing?

Heaven forbid if this is otherwise – then we have a government practising the worst form of Machiavellian statecraft, deliberately sabotaging with the left hand what its right hand is advocating!

In the past few days, I have urged the prime minister and Cabinet to give top priority to a series of five national crises confronting the country:

Firstly, the crisis of nation building and national unity highlighted by the worst racial and religious polarisation in the nation’s history. It is urgent and imperative that the Cabinet today should re-affirm the 10-Point solution endorsed by the Cabinet in April 2011 to resolve the Bible controversy, especially as the deputy prime minister and another member of the Cabinet at the time seem to have broken ranks from the 10-Point solution.

Secondly, the deepening economic crisis caused by the series of price hikes and looming avalanche of more price hikes in the coming weeks and months culminating in the introduction of the GST at 6% in April 2015.

Thirdly, the crisis on the corruption front with no signs that there will be a serious campaign to fight “grand corruption” and end the colossal waste, extravagance and misuse of public funds.

Fourthly, the crisis of deteriorating national educational standards to the extent that both the prime minister and deputy prime minister have studiously avoided talking about Malaysia’s poor performance in the 2011 TIMSS and 2012 PISA; and

Fifthly, the crisis of security and safety of citizens, investors and tourists as the police have still to transform themselves into an efficient, independent, professional world-class police service dedicated to “democratic policing” and not just “regime-protection” even if it means gross  violation of international human rights norms and standards.

Is the Cabinet prepared to support the convening of a National Reconciliation Summit of Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Rakyat leaders to address these five national crises and to rebuild national unity or to convene an emergency session of Parliament as proposed by the Pakatan Rakyat Leadership Council – putting national interests above all partisan or self interests? – January 8, 2014.