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On Malaysia Day, Kit Siang moots new charter to ‘exorcise’ racial, religious bogeys

Participants wave flags during 2018 Malaysia Day Celebrations at Padang Merdeka in Kota Kinabalu September 16, 2018. — Picture by Shafwan Zaidon
Participants wave flags during 2018 Malaysia Day Celebrations at Padang Merdeka in Kota Kinabalu September 16, 2018. — Picture by Shafwan Zaidon

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 16 — To mark nationhood today, DAP’s Lim Kit Siang invoked a new “Malaysia Boleh” spirit to fight racial and religious insecurities that still haunt the country.

The Iskandar Puteri MP said reviving the spirit would imbue Malaysians with the confidence to address communalism sowed by fearmongers towards a “golden age” for the country.

“Malaysians must develop a new self-confidence of ‘reaching for the stars’, a new ‘Malaysia Boleh’ spirit, to exorcise the various fears and demons — contrived, imaginary or otherwise — for Malaysia to excel itself in various fields of human endeavour so as to achieve a golden age for Malaysia,” he said in a statement on the 56th Malaysia Day.

Lim then pointed out that Malaysia’s rich history is built on diverse races and civilisation and urged ordinary Malaysians to celebrate the best of what it can offer.

“Let Malaysians benefit from the best values and teachings of all these great civilisations which meet in confluence in Malaysia to build a great Malaysian civilisation which is inclusive and all-encompassing, instead of being narrow-minded, regressive and exclusive!” he added.

As a means to ensure that Malaysians truly appreciate the country’s history, Lim suggested that the period between Hari Merdeka and Hari Malaysia be dedicated as a “Malaysian Unity Season”.

“Malaysians should dedicate the 15 days between Hari Merdeka on August 31 and Malaysia Day on September 16 every year as Malaysian Unity Season to emphasise and promote unity of diverse races, languages, regions, cultures and civilisations in Malaysia and avoid division and disunity,” he said.

However, Lim lamented that a charter was signed during the period that does not represent the Malaysian spirit.

“It was unfortunate that this Malaysian Unity Season this year was spoiled by a function yesterday which launched a Charter which did not celebrate the great Malaysian spirit which is all-encompassing, inclusive and open-minded but is more akin to a Clash of Civilisations in Malaysia rather than an Alliance of Civilisations,” he said, referring to the National Consensus Charter that was signed by Umno and PAS last Saturday.

The charter was meant to solidify the parties’ political cooperation, ending decades of fierce rivalry.

“Maybe, next year, we can launch a Charter for all Malaysians, regardless of race or religion, to promote the Alliance of Civilisations rather than for any particular race, religion or culture,” added Lim.

Lim then stated that the political rhetoric centred on the National Consensus Charter, which calls for an “Islamic Golden Age” to topple the Pakatan Harapan government, is misguided.

“It has been said that those who launched the Charter yesterday wanted to establish an Islamic Golden Age to wrest power from the Pakatan Harapan Government in the next general election.

“I think such thinking is the result of the misreading of history. There had indeed been ‘Golden Ages’ in each of the great civilisations of the world, but l am not aware that there was any Golden Age which was founded on kleptocracy or greed,” he said.

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