MP SPEAKS Dear classmates, comrades, relatives and friends, I thank all of you who had come from far and wide to do me honour on the occasion of my 75th birthday yesterday.
My classmate Michael Ong had emailed from Canberra his apologies for not being able to be with us.
He said: “The spirit is willing, but the body is weak. With an increasingly painful left knee joint and painful feet - not to mention forgetful 'senior moments' - I am not confident in my ability to travel alone. (My wife) Judith, too, is getting frail.”
This is a timely reminder, in particular to all my classmates, of the frailty and brevity of life.
Michael continued: “Any way, I woke up early and composed the following acrostic for the occasion. If I may say so, it seems to me that your political struggle is like a love affair with the country and reminds me of a love poem I learnt during schooldays - ‘Life In a Love’ by Robert Browning.”
This is the acrostic - i.e. a series of lines or verses in which the first letters when taken in order spell out a word - titled ‘LKS Duty Before Self’, which Michael had penned:
LKS Duty Before Self
L im Kit Siang serves and strives to
K eep faith with a daring dream dreamt
S ince schooldays for all Malaysians
D efiantly devoted despite personal pains you
U nflinchingly undertake
T he struggle to achieve a Malaysia
Y et to be born fearlessly fighting the good fight
B edevilled and berated by enemies and
E ven erstwhile temporal fellow travellers
F allen for fishy fame and luring lucre
O vations sought nought in your oratory but
R esisting a repressive regime
E mbedded in its corporate corruption
S till you soldier on relentlessly
E ven in the evening of your life
L eading and challenging all citizens to
F ind fulfilment in a new Malaysia
I am humbled by Michael’s acrostic. Michael is right.
My ups and downs, trials and tribulations in the past 50 years were a labour of love - of a Malaysian patriot answering the national call to help realise a united, harmonious, democratic, progressive and prosperous Malaysia that can be an example to the world for our success in multiracial, multi-religious, multilingual and multicultural nation-building and capable of world-class political, socio-economic and educational achievements.
These were the aspirations of my classmates who left High School Batu Pahat after Form Five in 1959.
As long as DAP’s lifespan
It was this call to make this a nation all Malaysians can feel proud that was the motive of why I ended my journalistic career in Singapore to return to Malaysia and begin my political work to achieve the ‘Malaysian dream’.
That was 50 years ago. My political work is as long as DAP’s lifespan, which was formally registered on March 18, 1966 - although it sought registration more than five months earlier on Oct 11, 1965.
The 13th general election, the 11th contested by DAP, is the highwater mark of the party - where DAP secured 38 MPs and 95 state assembly seats out of a Pakatan Rakyat total of 89 MPs and 229 state assembly seats.
These figure do not include the 12 state assemblymen and women DAP had won in the 2011 Sarawak elections, which will bring the total number of state assembly representatives to 107 - a figure we would never have dared to visualise when we started 50 years ago.
But the hope of Malaysians for political change was not realised in the GE13 although Pakatan Rakyat had won 53 percent of the popular vote; and two years after the general election, the hopes of the people were crushed when Pakatan Rakyat ceased to exist .
In the past six months however, Malaysians can again hope and root for political change and the realisation of the ‘Malaysian dream’ with the formation of Pakatan Harapan and the coming together of DAP, PKR and Parti Amanah Negara.
The year 2015 had indeed been an “ annus horribilis ” for Malaysia.
Yet the events of the past 50 days portend that the year 2016 will overshadow 2015 as an even worse “annus horribilis” for Malaysia.
In the sixth decade of our nationhood since the achievement of Independence in 1957 and the formation of Malaysia in 1963, Malaysia has lost its way.
In the heady days of Independence, the people in the country had high hopes and aspirations.
When Malaysia was formed 53 years ago in 1963, our country was second in Asia after Japan in terms of economic development, prosperity and per capita income, as well as wealthier than other Asian countries - including South Korea and Taiwan, which were poorer and more backward at the time.
But over the decades, Malaysia lost out in the race of economic competitiveness and educational excellence and by the 90s, Malaysia had been left behind with the emergence of the Asian economic tigers - comprising Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea and Taiwan - while Malaysia could only aspire to be the next Asian tiger.
But these hopes of Malaysia to become the next economic tiger were never realised with the Asian financial crisis in the 1990s - and today, Malaysia is even further behind the economic tigers, as well as at risk of being overtaken by other countries in Asia, Africa and South America.
Malaysians’ self-confidence lost?
Our only ‘accomplishment’ appears to be in the field of corruption, where Malaysia was named third in the world’s “worst corruption scandals in 2015”, had dropped four places in Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index (CPI) 2015, and at risk of being overtaken by China and Indonesia in the CPI within a decade.
Today, bogged down with a multitude of political, economic, good governance and nation-building crises - which have been described as the makings of a “perfect storm” to hit the country - Malaysians have lost the self-confidence to re-make the world that we had displayed in earlier decades.
When I saw the film ‘Ola Bola’, what struck me most was that we have lost the national unity, togetherness, cohesion, solidarity and oneness which had united not only the football team, but all Malaysians in the quest for a place in the Olympic football finals in 1980.
This also brought back memories of the outpourings of the national spirit when we had ruled the world in badminton in the 50s and 60s.
These national celebrations over our sports accomplishments have not only become few and far between over the past few decades, marking another serious Malaysian decline in another field of human endeavour, with Malaysia falling from a top football nation in Asia a half-century ago to be ranked 171th in the Fifa rankings - 38 places away from rock bottom in the Fifa rankings of 208 members.
Malaysia today has instead become more polarised than ever on race and religion, which is likely the cause of low national achievements and accomplishments in every field of human endeavour.
I agree with CIMB chairperson Nazir Razak that corruption and racism have undermined Malaysia’s nation-building efforts.
Or as former minister Rafidah Aziz recently posted in her Facebook , lost were the years when Malaysians went in groups to each other’s houses (and there was no hang-ups about our multiracial society), when we respected each other's religion and sensitivities, and no one injected into our lives the notion of being different.
Malaysia must get out of this rut we have been stuck in the past few years, which the twin mega scandals have combined to pull us down deeper and deeper into the abyss.
Malaysians must find and restore our self-confidence to compete with the rest and the best in the world. We must rediscover our greatness as Malaysians.
On my 75th birthday, my only wish is to see a realignment of progressive political forces to save Malaysia and to keep faith with the ‘Malaysian dream’ of a united, inclusive, moderate, democratic and prosperous Malaysia.
I want to thank my wife, Neo Yok Tee and my family, now with seven grandchildren; in particular my two sons, two daughters and two daughters-in-law, Guan Eng and Betty, Hui Ming, Hui Ying, Guan Choon and Siew Swan, for their solid support - despite hardships and travails in my half-century-long quest for an united, harmonious, plural, democratic, progressive and prosperous Malaysia.
I want to end by also thanking all Malaysians - regardless of race, religion or region - who have supported me and I invite all to let us jointly journey on in this quest for a ‘Malaysian dream’.
LIM KIT SIANG is the MP for Gelang Patah and DAP parliamentary leader.
