Lim Kit Siang felt humiliated after watching a video in which an African leader made a joke about corruption in Malaysia.
According to the DAP leader, Malaysia's international standing and reputation have now become the butt of jokes for Africans at international conferences.
“This is a sign of the slump of Malaysia's international standing and reputation, that instead of Malaysians making Africa the butt of jokes about corruption, Malaysia has become the butt of jokes of Africans in international conferences about corruption and kleptocracy,” he said in a statement.
Lim was referring to former Kenyan premier Raila Amolo Odinga's remarks during a 2013 conference at the Wilson Centre in Washington DC, a video of which was uploaded to YouTube on Nov 11 this year.
The DAP leader went on to say that the coming general election is an opportunity for Malaysians to cleanse the country's international image and standing.
The Gelang Patah MP also claimed the past three weeks in Parliament showed that Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak and his government are incapable of clearing and cleansing Malaysia.
“Only Malaysian voters can make a historic quantum leap to save Malaysia from the infamy and ignominy of a global kleptocracy and rescue Malaysia from being the butt of jokes, even among African countries for corruption and kleptocracy,” he said.
To do this, Lim added, voters must cast out Umno and BN from Putrajaya and replace it with a Pakatan Harapan federal government.
Malaysian minister and African minister
In the one-hour-22-minute video, Odinga, when addressing the issue of corruption towards the end, talks about an African nation which he refers to as “Country X”.
“A delegation comes from Malaysia to this African country... for a visit and... an African delegation (from Country X), the one that has gone to Malaysia... so now they are being shown the development projects, this is the (Malaysian) minister in charge of roads... When he (the African minister) is taken for a reception in the evening to the residence of the (Malaysian) minister, his host, he finds a beautiful, nice mansion and sees the furniture is very good and there is a nice swimming pool and the compound is half an acre, nice compound with trees and so on.
“So he asks the (Malaysian) minister, 'How did you achieve all this?' The minister takes him out to the balcony and then shows him, 'See that road up there?'. The man says 'yes'. He (the Malaysian minister) says, 'Ten percent is here (in the house)'.
“One year later, the time is now for the Malaysian minister to pay a return visit to the African minister. So when he goes there, they do the same thing, he is taken around the country and shown... we are trying to do this project...
“And when he goes for the dinner in the evening, he walks in the compound. It is a five-acre compound... when he goes in there, he finds the furniture is all imported from Europe, and most of the things in there are all golden... he sees an Olympic-size swimming pool.
“He (Malaysian minister) asks the (African minister) how he achieved this. He is taken to the balcony. 'Do you see that road there?' The Malaysian (minister) could see no road. Then he is told, 'One hundred percent here' (in the house).”
