The 2023 Budget, though the biggest in nation’s history, is no game-changer to resolve the economic crisis, raise the quality of education, ensure that Malaysia will not be a poor performer in another global pandemic or make Malaysia a world-class great nation

For several days this week, the foremost question in the minds of Malaysians is whether Parliament will be dissolved for the holding of the 15th general election despite the economic crisis and the worst monsoon and floods season threatening the country.

This speculative frenzy did not end with the tabling of the 2023 Budget by the Finance Minister, Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz yesterday as Malaysians are back to the question whether Parliament will be dissolved on Monday.

The 2023 Budget, though the biggest in the – nation’s history, is no game-changer to resolve the economic crisis, raise the quality of education, ensure that Malaysia will not be a poor performer in another global pandemic or make Malaysia a world-class great nation.

It rained money, with goodies all around, but does nothing to reverse the trajectory of the country in the past few decades of losing out to Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea, Vietnam and more countries to come in future years.

And clearly, it will do nothing to ensure that Malaysia’s ranking and score in the 2022 Transparency International (TI) Corruption Perception Index (CPI) which will be announced in January next year will not be worse than TI CPI 2021.

What Malaysia needs a reset of nation-building principles and policies to transform Malaysia from the trajectory of a kleptocracy, kakistoracy and a failed state to a “tiger” economy and a world-class great nation.

This will depend on whether August 23, 2022 marked a watershed in Malaysian nation-building, where a former Prime Minister was not only sent to jail for corruption offences but marked a return to the nation-building principles and polices entrenched in the Constitution and the Rukun Negara but which have been forgotten by the nation’s government leaders – constitutional monarchy, parliamentary democracy, separation of powers, rule of law, an independent judiciary, good governance, public integrity with minimum corruption, 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.

Would Malaysia move to towards a healthy parliamentary democracy where there is meaningful separation of powers with the rule law of law and an independent judiciary, with the country recovering from four decades of darkness where an independent mission to Malaysia led by the International Commission of Jurists once came out with a report on “Justice in Jeopardy”?

This would be battle in the 15th General Election – a kleptocracy like Sri Lanka versus Malaysia a world-class great nation when we celebrate Malaysia’s Centennail!

Pakatan Harapan stands for the latter and I call on Malaysians regardless of race, religion or region to stand solidly behind Pakatan Harapan to make Anwar Ibrahim the tenth Prime Minister of Malaysia in our journey to make Malaysia a world-class great nation, if not in this decade, at least by Malaysia’s Centennial.