DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang met PKR president Anwar Ibrahim on Friday and assured him that the DAP leadership had never proposed a change of opposition leader.
However, in a statement today, Kit Siang said that he did tell Anwar that the opposition must set forth in a new direction focusing on the need to strengthen and consolidate all opposition forces through a new national consensus.
This came after DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng and Amanah president Mohamad Sabu issued a joint statement saying Pakatan Harapan is in need of a political reset following the failure to vote down Budget 2021.
The duo said it showed that there has been no shift of allegiance from the Perikatan Nasional (PN) side and that Harapan should stop wasting time with them.
Since then groups from Amanah have touted a grand coalition reuniting Malaysia's opposition forces, while Selangor PKR Youth said it is open to discussing the possibility but insisted that the arrangement cannot include former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
Yesterday, however, PKR's Saifuddin Nasution Ismail, who is also Harapan secretary-general expressed confidence that Anwar could still produce the numbers needed to form a new government via statutory declarations (SDs) or in the Dewan Rakyat.
"I am taken aback by the latest statement of the Harapan secretary-general as he must speak on behalf of all three parties in the opposition coalition and not for only one," Kit Siang said.
The Iskandar Puteri MP is also of the view that there is daily new evidence of Malaysia spiralling down the trajectory of kleptocracy, kakistocracy and a failed state by 2040.
"This is why there is an urgent need for a new national consensus for the Merdeka Constitution 1957, the Malaysian Constitution 1963, the Rukun Negara 1970 and the Vision 2020 promulgated in 1991 have all failed – to the extent that there are now cabinet ministers who reject these basic documents of Malaysian nation-building," he added.
The DAP stalwart too called for a reset of nation-building policies after these failures.
Kit Siang referred to the setting up of the G-25 - a group of 25 prominent Malays comprising former top civil servants, judges, ambassadors and scholars - six years ago in December 2014.
"They issued a joint statement calling on then prime minister Najib Abdul Razak to show leadership as it was time for moderate Malays to speak up as extremist, intolerant and immoderate voices did not speak for Malays," he said.
The group said it was "deeply concerned" and found it necessary to take a public position given the consequences of vitriolic rhetoric on race relations and political stability in the country.
It also called on like-minded moderate Malays and Muslims to speak up for a rational and informed discussion on Islam in the country.
"Unfortunately, this call did not result in a new national consensus on nation-building policies, and the nation had to wait for the 14th general election to attempt a reset of such policies.
"But the Harapan government was too short-lived as it was toppled after 22 months by the Sheraton Move conspiracy which ushered in a backdoor and illegitimate jumbo-sized Muhyiddin cabinet," Kit Siang claimed.
As a result, he said that the lines have been drawn in the political battlefield – Malaysian politics vs Malay politics.
"Malaysia can only become a great nation if we can leverage on its unique position as the confluence of four great civilisations in the world to build a united, harmonious, democratic, just, prosperous and progressive world-class nation.
"There must be a new beginning for the Malaysian nation-building process with a new national consensus. Time and tide wait for no man and the time for action for a new national consensus is now," he added. - Mkini
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.