None of the 135 Pakatan Harapan-Warisan Members of Parliament have heard of the alleged no confidence motion to topple Mahathir and the public have shown the least interest in it as they just do not believe in such a “shariah-compliant lie”

In the past week, the media had been dominated by the purported news of a no confidence motion in the forthcoming Parliament reconvening on March 11 to topple the Prime Minister, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamed.

Ask the 135 Pakatan Harapan-Warisan Members of Parliament, and none of them had heard of the alleged no confidence motion to topple Mahathir as the Prime Minister!

But most intriguing of all, the Malaysian public as distinct from the Malaysian media have shown the least interest in the purported news of a no confidence motion to oust Mahathir as Prime Minister as they just do not believe in such a “shariah-compliant lie”.

The purported no-confidence motion only exist in the imagination of certain desperate, opportunistic and unprincipled political leaders, who think they can distract public attention from their lies and falsehoods with fairy tales, after they had coined a most disgraceful term in Malaysian and Islamic politics – “shariah-complaint lies”.

In the nine months after the 14th General Elections on May 9, 2018, the country has been afflicted by the most toxic and vicious politics of lies, hate, fear, race and religion in the nation’s history to create suspicion, distrust, fear and hate among the diverse races and religions in the country, capitalising on the advent of the social media which allows messages, including the most dastardly of lies and falsehoods, to be sent out to the individuals instantaneously, which unchecked could only lead to unprecedented racial and religious polarisation and division and condemning Malaysia to the trajectory of a failed state.

Pakatan Harapan wants to build a New Malaysia where Malaysia becomes a world top-class nation, respected by the world not only for its democracy, good governance, rule of law, the unity and harmony of our plural society of diverse races, religions, languages and cultures, but also for our accomplishments in different fields of human endeavour.

This is why we want unity and harmony in plural Malaysia, where the diversity of our races, religions, languages and cultures becomes an asset and secret of our national success and greatness, and not a liability and weakness.

This can only come about if we move away from the toxic and vicious politics of lies, including “shariah-compliant lies”, hate, fear, race and religion which wants to create racial and religious suspicion, distrust, hate and fear and promote instead a positive and inclusive Malaysian attitude whereby we celebrate our racial, religious, linguistic and cultural diversity to build a New Malaysia which can be a show-case to the world of unity, harmony and sense of purpose and excellence of a plural society.

Lim Kit Siang MP for Iskandar Puteri