Can all political coalitions and parties agree that Malaysia should be the first nation in the world to deal with the bane of the information era — the toxic politics of lies, fear, hate, race, and religion?

The 15th General Election on November 19, 2022 has given rise to an “unity government” but can all political coalitions and political parties agree that Malaysia should be the first nation in the world to deal with the bane of the information era — the toxic politics of lies, fear, hate, race, and religion — which could destroy Malaysia or reduce it to a third-rate, failed, and divided nation in another three or four decades?

There is no guarantee that the task for a national reset by returning to the nation-building principles the nation’s founding fathers enshrined in the Malaysian Constitution and the Rukun Negara will succeed nor is it a mission which could be accomplished by one Prime Minister or in one general election, as it will take three or four decades.

But a start has to be made — and Malaysia has started on the right footing in the 15th General Election.

It is up to Malaysians committed to the Malaysian Dream for Malaysia to be a first-rate world-class nation to give life to the shape, structure, sinews and muscles of the Better Malaysia which will be in vain if Malaysians do not have the willpower, stamina, perseverance, and commitment to save Malaysia from becoming a rogue democracy, a failed and divided state, and a global kleptocracy in the next three or four decades, and instead, to become a world top-class nation which is united, harmonious, democratic, just, progressive, and prosperous.

If the toxic politics of lies, fear, hate, race, and religion are to be believed, I am probably the most powerful and among the richest Malaysians in the country.

Before the 14th General Election, such toxic politics alleged that I will be the Prime Minister of Malaysia if Pakatan Harapan wins the polls in the 14th General Election.

When such lies and falsehoods were proved wrong after May 9, 2018, new lies and falsehoods were manufactured to allege that I was the real power in the 22-month Pakatan Harapan government in Putrajaya and that Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, Anwar Ibrahim, Azizah Ismail and Mohamad Sabu were merely my stooges and puppets — although at the same time, I was cast as a traitor of the “Chinese cause”.

I was alleged to have received RM1 billion from Mahathir for him to join and head Pakatan Harapan and alleged to receive RM1.2 billion from Israeli sources to promote their cause.

There were other allegations of other fortunes coming my way to make me one of the richest men in Malaysia — except that these billions exist only in the realm of the toxic politics of lies, hate and fear of opportunistic and desperate political leaders.

I was accused of being a communist; responsible for the May 13, 1969 riots, leading the street demonstrations in Kuala Lumpur shouting anti-Malay and anti-Islam slogans, although I was never in Kuala Lumpur after the May 10, 1969 General Election; painted as quite a devil, a puaka, even jembalang; that I am anti-Malay, anti-Islam, anti-Royalty; an agent of KGB, CIA, MI6 and even Australian Intelligence.

I was even accused of wanting to split Peninsular Malaysia into two, East Coast for the Malays and the West Coast for the Chinese.

DAP had been demonised with all sorts of lies and falsehoods, but DAP National Chairman, Lim Guan Eng is the only political leader in Malaysia who had crossed ethnic lines to sacrifice his political future and position as Member of Parliament, and even went to jail, in the defence of honour and dignity of an underaged Malay girl, when he was an MP for Kota Melaka in the nineties.

No political leader, whether UMNO, MCA, MIC, PAS or any other political party, had ever made such sacrifices.

The DAP was accused of behind the abortive Pakatan Harapan government move at the end of 2018 to ratify the International Covenant on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination (ICERD) although DAP Ministers and leaders knew nothing about it. This has been proven true by recent events.

Even after the 15th General Election, even before Anwar Ibrahim has formed his Cabinet and government, DAP was accused of being “dominant” in the new Anwar Ibrahim government.

We must not allow the toxic politics of lies, hate, fear, race, and religion free rein for they can destroy Malaysia or condemn Malaysia to a failed and divided state.

The toxic politics of lies, hate, fear, race, and religion must be countered by arguments, reason, facts and the truth.

Can all political coalitions and political parties rise above the toxic politics of lies, hate, fear, race, and religion — the bane of the information era — to unite to build a Better Malaysia, which is a top world-class Malaysia where Malaysians, regardless of race, religion, region or politics, are proud to be Malaysians, by agreeing that this will be top of a Common National Agenda for the next five years?