Can the voters of Malacca turn the Malacca general election on Nov.20 poll into the first “Malaysians First” election forerunner to the 15th Malaysian General Election?

Last night, I had the first taste of the Malaysia-made Timah Whisky. I also had a first taste of Taiwanese Omar whisky.

Whisky connoisseurs will have their opinion of Timah and Omar whisky but only those who don’t drink can come out with silly or stupid statements like “drinking a Malay woman” or “drinking a Malay man”.

But the episode has made Malaysia notorious as a nation which is unable to differentiate between what are essential and non-essential.

There is for instance considerable attention to “political frogs” in the Malacca state general election but the real question for Malaysians is how the country can leap-frog to become a world-class great nation after half-a-century of being overtaken by other countries, instead of Malaysia overtaking other countries.

In the first decade of Malaysian nationhood, we were ahead of Taiwan and South Korea. Today, we have been overtaken not only by these two countries, but others like Vietnam and Singapore, and in danger of being overtaken by others like Indonesia.

Can the 22-month Covid-19 pandemic be a wake-up call for Malaysians?

Yesterday, Indonesia recorded 434 new Covid-19 cases (Indonesia’s 26th consecutive day in triple-digit numbers) and 21 Covid-19 deaths (Indonesia’s 40th consecutive day in double-digit numbers) compared to Malaysia’s 5,403 new Covid-19 cases and 78 Covid-19 deaths.

We are paying a heavy Covid-19 price for the Sheraton Move conspiracy, which toppled the democratically-elected Pakatan Harapan government after 22 months and ushered in two backdoor, undemocratic and illegitimate governments.

I believe that whatever its faults, the Pakatan Harapan government would have kept the Covid-19 cases and deaths very low, like South Korea, which today ranks No. 73 among nations with the most cumulative total of Covid-19 cases - 383,407 Covid-19 cases and 2,998 Covid-19 deaths.

In contrast, although the exponential increase of Covid-19 cases and deaths in Malaysia have been halted, Covid-19 pandemic statistics is still on the high side with cumulative total of 2,516,255 Covid-19 cases and 29,427 Covid-19 deaths.

The price of the Sheraton Move conspiracy is the over 2.5 million Covid-19 cases and nearly 30,000 Covid-19 deaths under the two backdoor, undemocratic and illegitimate governments.

I had the first taste of Timah and Omar whisky after the webinar “Malaysian First – Boleh Ke?” to mark the launch of Kee Thuan Chye’s book, “Lim Kit Siang: Malaysian First”.

This made me think whether the voters of Malacca can turn the Malacca general election on Nov. 20 poll into the first “Malaysians First” election forerunner to the 15th Malaysian General Election.

This of course is for the voters of Malacca to decide.