Guan Eng: Pakatan has to offer new hope to people of M’sia
SHAH ALAM: Pakatan Harapan has to offer Malaysians new hope and reassure everyone – Malays and non-Malays – that it is not a threat to anyone if it wants to win the 14th general election, says DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng.
Lim said that it was important for Pakatan to be able to present a new sense of solidarity and nationhood to prevent Barisan Nasional and Umno from dividing the coalition using the emotive race and religion cards.
“We know that DAP will continue to be the whipping boy to scare the Malay voters from voting for Pakatan,” he said in his speech at the special congress to carry out a fresh election for the party’s new central executive committee (CEC) here yesterday.
He said Pakatan’s challenge would be to convince the people that it could build the country together.
Pakatan Harapan is made up of PKR, DAP, Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia and Amanah.
“We are with Pakatan today because we know that the political reality does not allow any single party to rule Malaysia.
“This is good for all because this enable us to work together,” he said.
Lim also said it would be Pakatan’s historic role to build a nation – Bangsa Malaysia – on empathy, mutual respect and trust to battle the hatred, divisiveness and mistrust that had been ingrained in the people.
He also said should Pakatan win the election, it would offer Sabah and Sarawak a new deal to renegotiate the Malaysian federalism and to devolve more powers and responsibilities to the two states to decide on how to improve the lives of ordinary Sabahans and Sarawakians.
On the fresh CEC election, Lim said the party was holding it under protest as it did not want to be deregistered.
He said party members could not even attend the event as the Registrar of Societies (RoS) had restricted it to only delegates.
“No democracy, no participation, just like watching a football match being played in an empty stadium,” he said.
A total of 1,356 delegates voted, with 36 spoilt votes, in the CEC election.