The Johore general election should be the start of a second mission to save Malaysia from becoming the Venezuela of ASEAN

Contrary to public and international expectations, Malaysians united and rose on May 9, 2018 in the 14th General Election and saved Malaysia from becoming the Venezuela of ASEAN.

Thanks to the Sheraton Move conspiracy in February 2020 and two backdoor and illegitimate governments, we are back to the slippery slope of corruption and the route to become the Venezuela of ASEAN.

Can Malaysians unite and rose to the occasion a second time in four years to save Malaysia in the 15th General Election from being the Venezuela of ASEAN?

This is a task which will be more uphill and difficult than in the 14th General Election for Malaysians are now consumed by disappointment, dejection, despondency and even a sense of hopelessness – with a sense of resignation that nothing will ever change.

These Malaysians in the Malacca and the Sarawak general elections decided that there was no point of voting which was the cause of the low voting turnout in these two state general elections.

Do we give up and surrender to the kleptocrats, kakistocrats and let Malaysia become the Venezuela of ASEAN in the coming decades?

Venezuela is in the thick of a terrible political, socio-economic and humanitarian crisis. Once one of the 20 richest countries in the world and the richest in Latin America with free education and free medical services for her citizens, it is now poor, backward, broken and bankrupt state, with over 10 per cent of Venezuelans having left the country in despair.

The humanitarian crisis in Venezuela has affected the life of the average Venezuelan on all levels. By 2017, hunger had escalated to the point where almost seventy-five percent of the population had lost an average of over 8 kg (over 19 lbs) in weight, and more than half did not have enough income to meet their basic food needs.

The ”Sick Man of Asia” was previously referred to China. But in the past 40 years of economic reform, the World Bank estimates that China has lifted 850 million people out of poverty while its per capita GDP grew by nearly 24 times from 1978 to 2017.

Two decades ago, analysts were predicting the “Coming Collapse of China”. Now, analysts are writing about China as the new global superpower.

If there had been no change of government in Malaysia on May 9, 2018, we would be steaming ahead to become the Sick Man of Asia by 2030 or 2040, but now that we are back again on the trajectory of a kleptocracry, kakistocracy and a failed state, do we resign ourselves to this fate for our children and children’s children?

Malaysia is the second worst performing state in the original list of 41 countries in the Transparency International (TI) Corruption Perception Index (CPI) 1995.

The TI CPI 1995 ranked Venezuela as No.38 with a score of 2.66 out of 10 in 1995. In the TI CPI 2021, Venezuela ranked as the fourth most corrupt nations out of 180 countries, ranked No. 177, with a score of 14 out of 100 points.

Countries which were regarded as more corrupt than Venezuela in 1995, Pakistan (39), China (40) and Indonesia (41) have made important strides in the battle against corruption in the last three decades, while Malaysia joins Venezuela as the second state which has regressed the most in the battle against corruption since 1995.

Malaysians must rise and unite again to save the country from becoming the Venezuela of ASEAN for the second time and the Johore state general election should the start of this second mission for the sake of our children and children’s children.