AUGUST 19 — Recently, it saddened me very much to see Lim Kit Siang being heckled at a dinner. It is utterly unfair to judge him in this form and manner.
I was with the late P. Patto during one official function at Parliament in 1990. One young Umno leader came up to me — I was P. Patto's political secretary then — and asked, “I am very curious to know, your party (DAP) is a party of the left and the NEP (New Economic Policy) is a policy of the left, why do you all in the DAP oppose it?”
He pondered a while and not wanting to be seen as rude, he continued in a low voice, “Doesn’t all these opposing make you DAP leaders hypocritical?”
I looked at him and answered. “It is rare to find a young Umno leader ask a question in this manner and since you have studied in Britain, I will answer your question in a customary British political lingo so that you would get a precise sense of what I am about to clarify.”
“The way you come out with this well-thought-of question you should not have missed the essence of the speeches that Kit Siang, Patto and Karpal Singh had given.
"They only criticise the leaders who are involved in the inconsistent implementation and nothing beyond that.
“As you have said that the NEP is crafted by the left, but you have overlooked one crucial fact i.e. the hard right wingers in BN, especially those in Umno, have hijacked it.
"They tightly control its implementation and as a result the nation’s wealth is deceptively siphoned away from the people who are supposed to benefit from it. This negated the core intention of the NEP i.e., to help the 'have nots,' irrespective of race.
“The planners of the NEP had 20 years in mind when they designed the NEP. But after 20 years, the nation’s wealth still remained at the top, in the hard right elitists’ pockets and only a small amount has trickled down to the masses.
“The vast majority of the masses are still waiting for the piece of cake that was promised to them in the NEP 20 years ago.
“As always been the case, the DAP with its stalwarts Kit Siang, P. Patto and Karpal Singh at its helm, is the bedrock of the left of centre politics in Malaysia. And they didn’t sway away one bit and to call them hypocrites is utterly unfair.”
With a surprised looked on the young Umno leader’s face, he responded, “NEP contains a lifetime of arguments and you have made it so simple and compete without being racial.”
Fast forward to the present, the victory over the BN government by Pakatan Harapan had ushered in a new Malaysia. A new invigorating political force has replaced the weary and corrupt BN government.
And for the first time in history, the Malaysian government is represented by a complete spectrum of ideologies i.e. the left, centre and the right, paving the way for the better handling of all controversial issues that had plagued the former government. Different ideas from the left, centre and right can be amalgamated into a solution that is acceptable to all.
And one enduring fact is that Kit Siang is still around and he is the bedrock of the left of centre political belief. He brought back the khat issue from the extreme right to the centre.
PH leaders now should be mindful of what they say or do because PH is made up of a vast diversity of races, religions and political beliefs.
Hopefully the PH leaders would grab this rare opportunity to deliberate controversial issues about religion, education and the economy amicably and intelligently.
They should stop biting each other’s back which has been the trademark of the BN.
* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail.
