Malaysians must have stamina to undo injustices of the past, says Kit Siang

DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang says Malaysians must develop social media literacy to tackle fake news and hate speech.

PETALING JAYA: There is reason to believe Malaysia can reset nation-building policies and undo the injustices and abuses of power in the past six decades, DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang said.

In a National Day message, Lim said this is possible if the people have the stamina, perseverance and commitment to work for a New Malaysia which will be a “world-class nation of unity, freedom, justice, excellence and integrity”.

He said it will an example of the success of an “alliance of civilisations”, instead of a failure caused by a “clash of civilisations” – a national mission which will take more than a general election cycle to accomplish.

Writing on his blog, Lim said Malaysians must develop social media literacy to tackle the “massive and orchestrated campaign of fake news and hate speech”.

“Malaysians have been entrapped in a vicious position where every community lives in fear, doubt, suspicion and even hatred of other communities and religions, believing that its rights, ethnicity, religion and culture are facing an existential threat.

“How could this be possible? The Malays are made to believe that they had lost political power, and their rights, ethnicity, religion and culture are facing an existential threat.

“But it is not only the Malays who fear that they are facing an existential threat as the Chinese Malaysians and Indian Malaysians also fear that their rights, ethnicity and culture face an existential threat.

“if every community, ethnicity and culture is facing an existential threat, who is creating all these threats to all the communities, ethnicities and cultures in the country?”

Saying very cloud has a silver lining, Lim noted that yesterday, Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad called on those responsible for calling for a boycott of non-Bumiputera and non-Muslim products in the past two months to cease their campaign, as it is not going to work but will only create anger.

“The failure of the boycott campaign is one proof that the social media does not represent the larger Malaysian whole.

“Let us celebrate the 62nd Merdeka Day today and the 56th Malaysia Day on Sept. 16 conscious that we are in the thick of the battle for the soul of Malaysia,” he said, adding that it was vital to “bridge Malaysia’s divides to build a common future for all Malaysians”. - FMT