History was made yesterday in Parliament in passing the constitutional amendment against party-hopping, but it is only the beginning of a reset of nation-building policies and principles if Malaysia is to achieve her potential as a world-class great nation

History was made yesterday in Parliament in passing the constitutional amendment against party-hopping, but it is only the beginning of a reset of nation-building policies and principles if Malaysia is to achieve her potential as a world-class great nation.

Malaysians should ponder two question about the constitutional amendment passed by Dewan Rakyat with 209 votes in favour, none against with 11 MPs absent, viz:

Firstly, why such history could only be made under Prime Minister, Ismail Sabri, and not in the last 44 years when I first made such a proposal in Parliament in 1978;

Secondly, whether the history made by Parliament yesterday could be the beginning of a reset of nation-building policies and principles for Malaysia to achieve her potential as a world-class great nation.

The first three Prime Ministers Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Razak and Tun Hussein would have been shocked that the nation had deviated from the founding nation-building principles to the extent that there are Ministers in the Cabinet who do not accept the Rukun Negara principles and there are leaders who are proud that Malaysia is notorious in the world as a kleptocracy.

Will the Prime Minister spearhead a movement for Malaysia to be a world-class great nation by returning to the nation-building principles our founding fathers have agreed in the Malaysian Constitution and Rukun Negara – constitutional monarchy, parliamentary democracy, separation of powers, rule of law, good governance, public integrity, meritocracy, respect for human rights and national unity from our multi-racial, multi-lingual, multi-religious and multi-cultural diversity where there are no first-class and second-class citizens whether based on race, religion or region?

In the past half-a-century, Malaysia lost out to Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong and Vietnam.

Will we lose out China and Indonesia before the end of this decade in the annual Transparency International (TI) Corruption Perception Index (CPI)?

Will we lose out to more countries in economic development, even to Indonesia and the Philippines, come 2,040 or 2,050? To become a Sri Lanka in future will be Malaysia’s nightmare.

Can the “history” Parliament made yesterday marked the beginning of a reset of Malaysia’s fortunes to achieve our potential to be a word-class great nation?