Kit Siang: “Latest events point to Malaysia teetering on the edge of another May 13 riots”
Lim Kit Siang, Focus Malaysia
AFTER 54 years, Malaysia is teetering on the edge of another May 13 riots.
Will all political parties and candidates in the forthcoming six state polls on Aug 12 declare that they do not want a recurrence of May 13 tragedy in Malaysia by reaffirming the relevance of the Rukun Negara nation-building principles for a plural Malaysia?
Last night, Opposition leader Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainudin condemned the legal action taken against Perikatan Nasional’s (PN) election director and caretaker Kedah Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Muhammad Sanusi Md Nor by calling it selective prosecution and questioned the need to apprehend Sanusi at 3am.
While the police arrest of Sanusi at 3am is generally regarded as excessive and an abuse of power, Zainudin had not addressed the press conference of the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Tan Sri Razarudin Husain held five hours earlier to explain the force’s handling of the case.
Apparently, the police only resorted to arresting Sanusi after attempts to call him and his aides got rejected and the police initially had difficulties locating his whereabouts.
Why did Zainudin fail to refer to the IGP’s explanation five hours earlier? Was the IGP telling the truth?
What is Sanusi’s comment to Razarudin’s claim that he had gone incommunicado prior to his scheduled court appearance?
The nation’s founding fathers, Datuk Seri Onn Jaafar, Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Razak Hussein, Tun Hussein Onn, Tun Ismail Abdul Rahman, Tun Tan Cheng Lock, Tun Tan Siew Sin and Tun V.T. Sambanthan envisaged a nation comprising Malays and non-Malays.
That is why there is Article 43 in the Malaysian Constitution which does not limit a Prime Minister (PM) to the Malays where non-Malays are not constitutionally barred from holding the office of PM although Article 43(7) barred a person who is a citizen by naturalisation or by registration under Article 17 from becoming Prime Minister (PM).
At any rate, I do not expect to see a non-Malay to become a PM in my lifetime or even my children’s lifetime.
We seem to have slipped further in the year 2023. After six decades of nation-building, Malaysia has slipped from a first-rate world-class nation to a second-class mediocre country. We have become a nation in decline.
Are we fated to end up as a divided, failed and corrupt state? This is the most important question for the six state polls on Aug 12.
Can we save Malaysia to reset and return to the original nation-building principles of a plural Malaysia which our nation’s founding fathers have written into the Federal Constitution and Rukun Negara to reunite a very polarised plural society?
Or to make Malaysia a first-rate world-class nation with world-class political, economic, educational and social systems instead of hurtling along to become a divided, failed and corrupt state?
