Let Kimanis by-election be another great victory for Warisan-Pakatan like the Sandakan by-election

I call on the Kimanis voters to give another great by-election victory for the Warisan-Pakatan team like the Sandakan parliamentary by-election in May last year.

Former Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak had a good reception when he visited Membakut in the Kimanis constituency yesterday, but Najib also had a good reception when he visited Sandakan during the Sandakan by-election but the Pakatan-Warisan candidate, Vivian Wong won the by-election with a greater majority as compared to the general election.

I hope there will be a repeat in the Kimanis by-election, for Sabah will be delivering an important lesson to the rest of Malaysia that a stand must be taken against corruption and abuses of power of the previous administration.

For close to a decade, Malaysia suffered the shame and ignominy of being regarded by the world as a global kleptocracy, and Malaysians must demonstrate to the world that we want to put this shameful chapter in the nation’s history firmly behind us and that there is no room for those who want to forget the kleptocratic past or even to allow leaders who had been responsible for turning Malaysia into a global kleptocracy to return to power.

Malaysia has made a historic turnaround to build a clean, honest, accountable and transparent government.

In the courts for trial for corruption, money-laundering and abuses of power are the former Prime Minister and a galaxy of VVIPs of the former government, but this is only a start if Malaysia is going to be recognised by the world as a leading nation of integrity.

I expect the latest report of Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index 2019 which should be released later this month to have a good report of Malaysia’s anti-corruption efforts for the past year, but Malaysia has still a very long way to go to be internationally recognised as a top nation of integrity in the world.

The Kimanis by-election is important for it will an occasion for the voters to express their approval of the anti-corruption efforts so far, although the road ahead for Malaysia to become a nation of integrity is a long and arduous one.