KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 25 — In a last-ditch effort to keep Pakatan Harapan (PH) afloat, DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang said PH is the only political coalition committed at restoring and reforming the nation into a respectable nation.
The Iskandar Puteri MP conceded that doubt was sowed among the people when two of his DAP colleagues were among 12 acquitted of charges related to alleged involvement with terrorist groups, added with the recent limbo of the local political landscape.
Lim, however, reiterated that PH, despite him not agreeing with some of their decisions is the only outfit capable of steering the country towards progress and therefore worth salvaging.
“I would answer in the positive ― that Pakatan Harapan is worth saving as no other political grouping in Malaysia is committed to restoring Tunku Abdul Rahman’s vision of a Malaysia as ‘a beacon of light in a difficult and distracted world’,” he said in a statement.
“As I told DAP leaders yesterday, so long as DAP leaders remain true, loyal and steadfast to their principles and objectives to make Malaysia a great nation, and do not go against their conscience, they must be prepared to be unpopular and even misunderstood,” he added.
Lim then pointed out that efforts should instead be focused towards foiling attempts to wrestle power away from PH, saying any other alternative would lead to Malaysia being a doomed and failed state.
“The alternative to the ‘Malaysian Dream’ that we are trying to achieve of the country becoming a ‘Tiger Economy’ and a world top-class nation is a Malaysian nightmare of the reversion to a global kleptocracy, a failed and rogue state, and even worse, the advent of a kakistocracy where the worst, the most unscrupulous and the most unprincipled elements of society occupy the high offices of state in the nation,” he said.
Lim added that despite the imperfections of PH, it has managed to set its course towards a reformed ‘New Malaysia’, saying no other political bloc has come forth and made similar commitments to continue such nation-building aspirations.
This comes amid an obvious jostle to claim a majority and receive consent from the Yang DiPertuan Agong to form a new government by political parties and its leaders.
The rush comes following the effective dissolution of PH and its Cabinet after Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad resigned as Prime Minister yesterday.
