KUALA LUMPUR (June 27): DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang said the most important question in Malaysia today is not who will win the next general election, but whether Malaysia will become a failed state before Malaysia’s Centennial in four decades from now.

In a statement on Monday (June 27), the MP for Iskandar Puteri said the general election drums are becoming louder and louder.

He said the “court cluster” wants the 15th general election to be held now, before any of its members is sent to prison for corruption and abuse of power.

Lim said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob is fighting a bitter rearguard battle both because he does not want to be the prime minister in Malaysia with the shortest tenure and because he is not convinced he will be Prime Minister again even if Umno win a majority of parliamentary seats.

“But the most important question in Malaysia today is not who will win the next general election, but whether Malaysia will become a failed state before Malaysia’s Centennial in four decades from now,” he said.

Lim said it has become a mark of Malaysia’s failure to build a united nation from our diverse people, languages, cultures and civilizations that meet in confluence in Malaysia that if a non-Malay had said the New Economic Policy (NEP) had failed, he would be instantly branded as anti-Malay.

“There is a need for more Malay leaders, scholars and intellectuals to speak up and to ask “What Went Wrong?” that Malaysia cannot fulfil its potential to become a world-class great nation but suffer from a grave denial syndrome that there are powerful and influential leaders who even deny that Malaysia had become a kleptocracy?” said Lim.

He said Malaysia has failed to achieve Vision 2020 to be a united and developed nation, a Bangsa Malaysia, infused by strong moral and ethical values, living in a society that is democratic, liberal and tolerant, caring, economically just and equitable, progressive and prosperous, and in full possession of an economy that is competitive, dynamic, robust and resilient.

“We have failed to achieve the Malaysian Education Blueprint 2013-2025 to achieve above global average and be in top one-third of countries in international education standards.

“The 1Malaysia slogan has been overtaken by the 1MDB scandal.

“In the past half-a-century, Malaysia lost out to Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong and Vietnam,” he said.

Lim said that probably, the greatest wrong was in continuing the corruption, abuses of power and breaches of trust in the NEP in 1990 until Malaysia became the “kleptocracy at its worst” with the mega multi-billion 1MDB scandal instead of replacing it by a needs-based policy declaring a war against poverty regardless of race, religion or region.