I want Anwar Ibrahim to be the 10th Prime Minister for full five years to stop the national decline and to start the long process to make Malaysia great again

There is a fake social media message in circulation which said: “Lim Kit Siang ramal Anwar akan tumbang dalam tempoh setahun”.

I never said such a thing.

I want Anwar Ibrahim to be the 10th Prime Minister for full five years to stop the national decline in various sectors of national life, and to start the long process to make Malaysia great again.

In fact, this is the message I sent Anwar on Nov. 24 when the Yang di-Pertuan Agong appointed him as the 10th Prime Minister of Malaysia.

The fake message is the toxic politics of lies, fear, hate, race, and religion which have divided and polarised plural Malaysia since the 15th General Election campaign and which must be dealt with sternly and strictly if Malaysia is not to end up as a basket case of disunity and polarisation.

The Ministers and leaders of the Anwar Ibrahim unity government must learn from the lessons of the 22-month Pakatan Harapan government, and the most important lesson is that there are political personalities and forces which are trying to truncate the life of the unity government.

Except for a tainted few, the majority of the Pakatan Harapan Ministers and leaders had never expected the Sheraton Move conspiracy and had expected the government to last the full term of five years instead of being toppled in 22 months.

All the Ministers and leaders of the Anwar Ibrahim unity government must be fully aware that there are political personalities and forces which are trying to duplicate a Sheraton Move conspiracy and topple the Anwar unity government if possible before the full year is over.

All Ministers of the Anwar unity government must be aware of this plot and unlike their predecessors in the Pakatan Harapan Cabinet who thought they have five years to implement their mandate, be conscious of the possibility that they may be toppled and have the sense of urgency to carry out their institutional reforms in the shortest time possible.

The Anwar Ibrahim unity government had started well — from Anwar’s decision not to take the Prime Minister’s salary and the Cabinet agreement to a 20 per cent salary cut until the economy recovers; measures and approaches to attract quality investments, transition to a low-carbon economy, improve social protection, and strengthen fiscal resilience to ensure that economic structural reforms are implemented in an orderly manner; the decision to terminate all political appointments in government-linked bodies; the reduction of social lottery draws to just eight per year from 22 under the Perikatan Nasional government; probing the questionable funding sources of political partiers for the 15th General Election and institutional reforms to ensure that Malaysia has a good, clean, and honest government which is guided by the Rukun Negara.

But top of these tasks is to end the toxic politics of lies, fear, hate, race and religion which had bedevilled the country, and in fact, the world.

This is the time when Malaysia can show the world what could be done to end the toxic politics of lies, fear, hate, race, and religion which coupled with the information era and the social media become a powerful mix threatening to tear nations apart.