Call on political parties and leaders in Penang to be the vanguard in Malaysia to condemn mischief-makers who are trying to falsely frame the 14th General Election as a battle between Malays and Chinese as well as between Islam and enemies of Islam

I call on all political parties, whether in government or opposition, to take an united stand to condemn mischief makers who want to create chaos in the country by falsely framing the forthcoming 14th General Election as a battle between Malays and Chinese as well as between Islam and enemies of Islam.

This is the height of mischief and even treason.

The forthcoming 14th General Election is not a battle between Malays and Chinese, nor is it a battle between Islam and the enemies of Islam.

The 14th General Election is a battle between Malaysians vs Malaysians, for a democratic Malaysia with accountability and good governance or a kleptocracy which rejects the principles of democratic good governance.

It is for Malaysians, regardless of race or religion to ponder deep and hard why Malaysia in the past six decades had failed to live up to the promise when we achieved Merdeka on August 31, 1957 to be united, harmonious, democratic, progressive, prosperous multi-racial, multi-religious and multi-cultural nation; save Malaysia and re-set nation-building directions and policies for Malaysians to compete with the rest of the world and not to fight among ourselves and lose out in the international race of nations for development and progress.

Falsely trying to frame the forthcoming 14th General Election as a battle between the Chinese and the Malays as well as a battle between Islam and the enemies of Islam, are both great disservices to the Malaysian nation and people.

But even more heinous and treacherous are attempts to create the landscape and environment as if the 14th General Election will indeed be a battle, firstly between the Malays and Chinese; and secondly, Islam versus the enemies of Islam, for both go against truth and reality and the wasatiyyah (moderation) principles of justice, balance and excellence which the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak had been trying to promote in the international arena with his Global Movement of Moderates (GMM) initiative.

Will the 14th General Election in Penang be a battle between the Chinese and the Malays as well as a battle between Islam and the enemies of Islam.

Such dangerous and irresponsible politics of lies, hate and fear have no place in a country which wants to be recognised and respected as a mature parliamentary democracy.

The two following paragraphs in the speech yesterday by the Penang Governor, Tun Abdul Rahman Abbas when declaring open the fifth Penang State Assembly should debunk the lies that the next general election in Penang will be a battle between the Malays and the Chinese as well as a battle between Islam and the enemies of Islam:

“24. Satu aspek negeri kebajikan ialah Agenda Ekonomi Saksama (AES) dan Program i-Sejahtera di mana bantuan kewangan secara wang tunai sebanyak RM 412.63 juta diberikan kepada 1.6 juta rakyat Pulau Pinang sejak tahun 2008. Ia merangkumi Warga Emas, bayi, OKU, Ibu Tunggal, Ibu yang tidak bekerja, pelajar, pemandu teksi, operator bas sekolah berdaftar, penarik beca, bantuan pukat kepada nelayan dan RM 1,000 kepada mahasiswa-mahasiswi tempatan. AES merupakan pelaksanaan universal basic income (pendapatan asas sejagat) pertama di Malaysia di mana Kerajaan Negeri menghapuskan miskin tegar dengan menjaminkan setiap keluarga menerima RM790 sebulan. Bagi keluarga yang menerima pendapatan yang kurang daripada RM790 sebulan, Kerajaan Negeri akan menambahnya sehingga cukup RM790 setiap bulan. Lebih RM23.2 juta telah dibelanjakan untuk program AES ini sejak ia dimulai pada tahun 2014. Kejayaan AES jelas dilihat dengan kejayaan Kerajaan Negeri mengurangkan ketidaksamaan pendapatan daripada 0.419 pada 2009 kepada 0.364 pada tahun 2014 iaitu penurunan sebanyak 13% dalam 6 tahun.”

“31. Pembangunan Islam di Pulau Pinang yang mendokong kedudukannya sebagai agama Persekutuan tidak diabaikan apabila jumlah peruntukan untuk Hal Ehwal Agama Islam naik 84% selepas tahun 2008 kepada RM457 juta untuk tempoh 2008-2016 berbanding dengan RM257 juta untuk tempoh 2000-2007. Siapnya Kompleks Kehakiman dan Mahkamah Tinggi Syariah Pulau Pinang di Jalan Scotland, atas tanah Kerajaan Negeri bernilai RM80 juta dan perbelanjaan kos pembinaan RM33 juta oleh Kerajaan Persekutuan, merupakan satu lagi kejayaan dalam pembangunan Islam.”

Last month, Malaysia’s celebrity chef, Redzuawan Ismail, better known as Chef Wan, created waves with an Instagram post using his handle @chefwan58 praising Malaysia’s “good governance” together with a 30-second video clip of a conversation he had with a Penang taxi driver, who told him that Penangites were “very happy” with the current state government.

Chef Wan posted after visiting Penang:

“True that good governance of the state will speak by itself from the tourists that visited our countries that kept saying how wonderful this old city is and well-preserved to the rakyat biasa yg menikmati secara apa yg di sediakan (the people who are used to enjoying what has been given).”

His 30-second video clip of a conversation he had with a Penang taxi driver was quite an eye-opener.

Curious to know the taxi driver’s opinion of just how many Penangites were satisfied, Chef Wan suggested the figure “80%”, to which he received a rather surprising reply.

“Lebih (more),” the taxi driver told him. He said everyone was happy, and the city was much cleaner and better maintained than it had ever been under the previous administration.

The taxi driver added that he did not take into consideration religion or ethnicity when forming his opinion, only the ability of Penang’s leaders.

“These are very good people,” he said.

In his Instagram post, Chef Wan said that the people could evaluate for themselves what was going on in Penang and was confident that those who are honest and just want to bring changes to the nation will succeed eventually.

Recently, two incidents highlighted the dangers of allowing mischief-makers the licence to falsely turn the next general election into a battle between Chinese and Malays as well as a battle between Islam and the enemies of islam, viz:

• firstly, the assault of film director David Teoh in front of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Najib during a Transformation Nasional 50 (TN50) dialogue session at the Prime Minister’s residence on Wednesday night; and
• secondly, the false and malicious police report lodged by University Utara Malaysia (UUM) lecturer Kamarul Zaman Yusof against Selangor Speaker and DAP Selangor State Assemblywoman for Subang Jaya, Hannah Yeoh, accusing her of proselytization of Muslims with the publication of her autobiography “Being Hannah” three years ago.

These are only two of many incidents in the past few years which demonstrate that Malaysian nation-building efforts to create a united, tolerant harmonious, forward-looking and progressive multi-racial, multi-religious and multi-cultural nation which is also a world-class nation are facing setbacks, allowing mischief-makers to try to falsely frame the next general election as a battle between the Chinese and the Malays as well as between Islam and the enemies of Islam.

I call on all political parties and political leaders in Penang to be the vanguard to condemn mischief makers who are trying to falsely frame the forthcoming 14th Geneal Elections into battle between the Malays and the Chinese as well as between Islam and the enemies of Islam.

Let all political parties and leaders in Penang forswear the politics of lies, hate and fear, not only during the general election campaign, but in the run-up to the next polls, and establish a mechanism where such politics of lies, hate and fear can be exposed and halted.

DAP leaders forswear the politics of lies, hate and fear to exploit the primordial racial or religious sentiments of the people, and to practise the politics of honesty, truth, peace and harmony in multi-racial, multi-religious and multi-cultural Malaysia.

Are the UMNO and Barisan Nasional leaders, in particular the Prime Minister who had been preaching wasatiyyah principles in the past few years, prepared to respond in like fashion?