Lim: Show courage, go for change

The DAP secretary-general tells Malaysians to show courage and elect Anwar as Prime Minister for a brighter future.

GEORGE TOWN: DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng dared Malaysians today to vote for a change and elect Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim as the Prime Minister to save the country.

He also called on all Malaysians to bring about a brighter future for a Malaysia free from fear, free from ignorance and free from corruption in the forthcoming 13th general election.

He said Malaysia had been running a budget deficit for 15 years in a row and the last time Malaysia recorded a surplus was when Anwar was the deputy premier and finance minister.

“It is imperative that Anwar be elected as PM to put Malaysia back in the black,” Lim said in an open letter, “To All Malaysians Who Believe That Malaysia Deserves Better” posted in his blog.

“Only when Malaysians have the courage to change, only then they can live with dignity.

“Malaysians must move towards an international and intelligent state, one that is livable by being clean, green, safe, healthy, practised integrity, justice and good governance,” said Lim.

He said the greatest gift that a good government can bestow on the future generation was not cash handouts, but knowledge, education, a just system with integrity and equal opportunity.

“Only then can we live with dignity and our young live better than us,” said.

He was referring to the current domestic political landscape dominated by two rival coalitions of Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Rakyat encompassing political parties of various ideologies.

He said the election would be about the country’s economy and which coalition of parties had correct policies, ideas, ideals and principles to make Malaysian livelihood better.

‘Time for a new Malaysia to emerge’

He said once less developed countries like South Korea and Taiwan had now transformed into high-income economies while Malaysia remained trapped in middle-income cage.

“After more than 50 years, Malaysia is way behind being only half as rich as Korea and Taiwan,” said Lim, the Penang Chief Minister.

He said that Malaysia was world’s No 1 in illegal capital flight per capita, with a loss of RM32,000 for every Malaysian, which is more than even China with a loss of RM6,400 per capita during the same period of time.

“No wonder then that our national debt has doubled from RM267 billion in 2007 to over RM502 billion today, five years later,” said the Bagan MP.

He assured that Pakatan policies would not bankrupt the nation, but would only benefit the people.

“Pakatan’s manifesto amounting to RM46 billion can easily be funded by an ‘anti-corruption dividend’ of 25% or RM51 billion from the RM206 billion worth of annual government procurements and projects.

“Pakatan states had proven to be able to run clean, accountable and transparent governments; managed to overturn deficits into surpluses and save billions of public funds through open competitive tenders; reduced state debts; and increased assets and reserves.

“More importantly, we have channelled our savings to the people through our people-centric social programmes. With your help and support, we can do the same for Malaysia,” said Lim.

He said it was timely for a new Malaysia to emerge “where problems of Malay, Chinese Indian, Kadazan or Iban are our problems, where your leaders are our leaders, where your children, are also our children, where your hopes are our aspirations”.

“We do not want to fear the government but the government to fear us. Join us in giving hope to you and the young. Let us not let BN steal our children’s future as they had stolen ours for the last 56 years,” said the Pakatan leader.