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Keng Yaik should clarify whether futurologist Alvin Toffler’s praise for Mahathir was made  before or  after the Anwar Ibrahim  and Munawar Anees affairs in 1998, when he boycotted the MSC International Advisory Panel meetings and publicly lambasted  Mahathir


Media Conference Statement (2)
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when launching the DAP’s 46th National Day Celebrations and the “Defend Secular Malaysia” campaign in Air Itam
by
Lim Kit Siang

(PenangSunday): Yesterday, the  speech of the Gerakan President and Primary Industries Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Lim Keng Yaik at the Gerakan 32nd National Delegates Conference entitled “The Mahathir Legacy” was a paean of praise for the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, which was no surprise. 

What  was a surprise however was that Keng Yaik enlisted  the futurologist and world-famous  author of The Third Wave and  Power Shift  Alvin Toffler for his paean of praise for Mahathir, quoting him as follows: “If any macroeconomist, investment banker or editorial writer thinks he or she can do a better job of holding a complex, multi-ethnic state together in relative peace, in a world stained by ethnic cleansing, please step forward, Mahathir has done it”. (Bernama)

Keng Yaik should clarify whether Alvin Toffler’s praise for Mahathir was made before or  after the Anwar Ibrahim and Munawar Anees affairs in 1998, when the futurologist  boycotted the Multimedia Super Corridor  (MSC) International Advisory Panel (IAP)  meetings and publicly lambasted  Mahathir for his treatment of Anwar and Dr. Munawar Anees, the former editor of Periodica Islamica and associate of Anwar,  when both were  under incarceration. Alvin Toffler had never attended a single one of the six IAP meetings held so far. 

In November 1998, Alvin Toffler warned that the  MSC cannot flourish in a "climate of political repression".  He said “Mahathir seemed the only Muslim leader in the world with an Information Age vision of the future, instead of an obsession with the past” but “Regrettably, in the last few weeks, Mahathir’s vision seems to have evaporated. Instead of a sound strategy to compete in the global Information Age, he seems to be adopting the tactics of a police state.” 

The MSC IAP  will be holding its seventh annual meeting on Sept. 4-5, which will be the last to be attended by Mahathir as its Chairman as the IAP is chaired by the Prime Minister. 

IAP members should use their last meeting to impress on Mahathir to address Alvin Toffler’s message that “The Internet cannot deliver its full economic and cultural benefits in a climate of political fear”, as well as the incompatibility of Malaysia becoming a information super-power and as  an Islamic State, as stated in his “929 Declaration” of Malaysia as an Islamic State at the Gerakan national delegates conference on Sept. 29, 2001.  

(24/8/2003)


* Lim Kit Siang, DAP National Chairman