Why Umno, MCA, MIC, Gerakan leaders dare not follow Nazri

Lim Kit Siang

Najib had himself told Umno that Umno must reform or it will be reformed – that he would execute the New Economic Model or he will be executed!

Najib has found that he biggest enemies of his four critical signature pillars to effect a national transformation come from within – whether 1Malaysia People First Performance Now concept, Government Transformation Programme, New Economic Model and to use the Tenth Malaysia Plan and the annual budgets to operationalise the GTP and ETP.

I commend the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz for his courage and conviction in declaring that he is Malaysian first and Malay next, although more than six months after I had thrown the challenge in Parliament to all Ministers whether they have the 1Malaysia DNA and are prepared to declare that they are Malaysians first and their race second, which is the declared objective of Najib’s 1Malaysia concept.

I share his disappointment when he said in a recent interview that he was puzzled and regretted why his Cabinet colleagues did not speak out as he did, even the Ministers from MCA.

Let me quote Nazri said in his interview with the Red Tomato publication:

“They are people who are just like me in the cabinet, but they are afraid. Even the MCA ministers, none of them has repeated what I’ve said that they are first Malaysians then Chinese – none of them. To me, it is not right to say that if we had said so, then we’d fall into the ‘trap’ of Kit Siang.


“What ‘trap’? The Indian Ministers didn’t come out to say that, other Malay Ministers did not, Kadazan and Iban Ministers also didn’t say so. I am a Malay, yet I’m taking the risk to come out to say. Why others can’t? Let me tell you, they all agree with me….”

Let all the Ministers, whether Umno, MCA, Gerakan, MIC, Sabah and Sarawak BN component parties explain and declare during the winding-up of the budget debate what is it they are afraid of and why they dare not declare that they are Malaysians first and race second as propounded by the 1Malaysia concept?

(Lim Kit Siang is the MP for Ipoh Timur and the DAP adviser)