Pakatan Harapan must not lose the moral high ground to allow three of the “immoral Malacca quartet” to stand as Pakatan Harapan candidates in the Malacca state general election

For nearly two years, ever since the Sheraton Move conspiracy which toppled a democratically elected Pakatan Harapan government and snatched away the people’s mandate for the first time in Malaysian history, ushering in a backdoor, undemocratic and illegitimate government at the end of February 2020, a pall of immorality had been cast over Malaysian politics.

This is why the Malacca state general election of Nov. 20 has many significance and implications – one of which must be to restore and raise the moral tone of Malaysian politics.

Politics has been wrongly described as “dirty” but it is not politics which is dirty and but dirty politicians who make politics “dirty”.

Politics throughout history is a noble path to serve humanity to take human beings to a higher plane of justice, freedom, equality and humanity. But it has also been debased to serve the selfish interests of kleptocrats, opportunists and crooks to amass wealth and power for their own personal aggrandizement.

This is why I welcome the decision of the Pakatan Harapan presidential council rejecting the overtures of one of the four former Malacca state assemblymen who caused the Malacca state general election on Nov 20.

But I am of the view that the other three former Malacca state assemblymen who constituted “the immoral Malacca quartet” who caused the Malacca state general election should also not become Pakatan Harapan candidates.

It has been said that to achieve victory in Malacca, we must tactically join with anyone that can give Pakatan Harapan victory.

If given the choice of victory by teaming with kleptocrats, opportunists and crooks or defeat by being consistent with political principles and integrity, I will opt for the latter.

Pakatan Harapan must not lose the moral high ground to allow three in the “immoral Malacca quartet” to stand as Pakatan Harapan candidates in the Malacca state general election on Nov. 20, 2021.

Lim Kit Siang MP for Iskandar Puteri