Kit Siang warns of ‘new M'sia's' fragility

KUALA LUMPUR: Speaking at Universiti Malaya for the first time in over four decades, DAP’s Lim Kit Siang told attendees that the reforms achieved since the general election needed careful nurturing to ensure they take root.

Speaking at the launch of a book titled 509: The People Have Spoken today, the Iskandar Puteri assemblyman said Malaysians achieved history by voting in a new government in the 14th general election in May, but stressed that the work was far from over.

“A New Malaysia cannot be accomplished in a hundred days or in six months but will take a decade or two.

“All Malaysians must develop a Big Picture and Long-term Vision perspectives,” he said.

Among others, he cited a socalled “thanksgiving” rally today over the government’s decision to reject the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) as an example of obstacles with which the country must still grapple.

While saying the previous Opposition would not have been allowed to organise a rally like what PAS and Umno are planning today, he said it was crucial to pay attention to the divisive message that will be delivered then.

Lim said it was fortunate that the opponents and detractors of ICERD were not able to find evidence that DAP was the prime mover in the abortive bid to ratify the convention, asserting that this would have given his party’s rivals fodder to play up racial sentiments.

“This would have served the script of these agitators of Umno-PAS anti-ICERD axis about the anti-Malay, anti-Islam character of the Pakatan Harapan government...” he said.