Jalan Raja Uda is the only street in Malaysia, and probably the world, to have 10,000 red-silk lanterns to welcome the Chinese New Year of the Rabbit — heralding a Successful World-Class Malaysia in the making

The ceremony tonight to light the 10,000 red-silk lanterns at Jalan Raja Uda in Butterworth is significant not only because Jalan Raja Uda is the only street in Malaysia, and probably the world, to have 10,000 red-silk lanterns to welcome the Chinese New Year of the Rabbit in two weeks’ time, it marked the end of the Covid-19 pandemic in Malaysia and a reset of Malaysia to make Malaysians all over the world proud to be Malaysians.

For more than three weeks since Dec. 17, 2022, we had daily triple-digit Covid-19 cases and daily single-digit Covid-19 deaths — a far cry from the time when Muhyiddin Yassin resigned as the first backdoor Prime Minister of a “kerajaan gagal” in August 2021, when Malaysia had daily five-digit Covid-19 cases and daily triple-digit Covid-19 deaths.

Let us hope that well before the National Day on August 31 year, we will be having daily double-digit cases, and having more daily zero Covid-19 deaths than having deaths.

Now there is a new Federal government with Anwar Ibrahim as the Prime Minister of an Unity Government.

Let the lighting of 10,000 red-silk lanterns in Jalan Raja Uda tonight usher in a new year where Malaysians inside the country and the whole wide world can feel proud as Malaysians, instead of being humiliated and ashamed as Malaysia was associated with kleptocracy and abuses of power.

Malaysia needs a reset of our nation-building policies, and we must learn from the wrongs and mistakes we have made in deviating from the nation-building principles of our founding fathers and which prevented Malaysia from achieving Vision 2020 to create a Bangsa Malaysia out of our multi-racial, multi-lingual, multi-religious and multi-cultural nation, and placed Malaysia among the successful world-class nations.

The lighting of the 10,000 red-silk lanterns in Jalan Raja Uda is therefore highly significant in heralding a new beginning for Malaysia.

Malaysia is at the confluence of four great civilisations — Malay/Islamic, Chinese, Indian, and Western — and we must leverage on the values and virtues of these four great civilisations to build a great world-class nation.

We should learn from best and not the worst from these four great civilisations to build a great Malaysia where Malaysians all over the world can be proud.