For the second time this year, I am taking full advantage of the Age of Information Technology which enables the instant communication of information with information travelling at the speed of light to pen this Second Open Letter this year to the Prime Minister and all Cabinet Ministers just before their third Cabinet meeting of the New Year of 2014.
Members of the Cabinet who have not read or not informed of this Second Open Letter before the Ministers meet for their third Cabinet meeting later this morning clearly belong to the dinosaur epoch and are not fit to be in the Cabinet – and the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak would have a very strong reason to get rid of these dead-wood and half-past six Ministers in a Cabinet reshuffle.
In my first Open Letter to the Prime Minister and the Cabinet before their first Cabinet meeting on 8th January 2014, I urged the first Cabinet meeting to send our a clear and unmistakable message to end the national drift and loss of leadership and direction to create an united, harmonious, just, and competitive and great Malaysian nation.
I zeroed in on the nation’s quintuplet of crisis which warranted priority and immediate attention by the Cabinet, viz:
• Firstly, the crisis of nation-building and national unity because of the worst racial and religious polarization in the nation’s history – making a mockery of Bangsa Malaysia in Vision 2020 as well as Najib’s signature policy of 1Malaysia;
• Secondly, the deepening economic crisis caused by avalanche of price hikes culminating in the introduction of the GST at six per cent in April 2015;
• Thirdly, the crisis on the corruption front with no signs that there will be a serious campaign to fight “grand corruption” and end the colossal waste, extravagance and misuse of public funds.
• Fourthly, the crisis of deteriorating national educational standards to the extent that both the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister have studiously avoided talking about Malaysia’s poor performance in 2011 TIMSS and 2012 PISA; and
• Fifthly, the crisis of security and safety of citizens, investors and tourists as the police has not yet understood the meaning of “democratic policing” and is still guided by the colonial mentality with “regime-protection” as the top police priority, when it should be to keep citizens, investors and tourists free and safe.
Two weeks have elapsed since my first Open Letter to the Prime Minister and Cabinet.
Unfortunately, the leaderless, headless, clueless and rudderless drift of the Najib government had continued in its aimless direction in the past two weeks, with no resolution in sight for the quintuplet of five crisis.
In many aspects, the national situation has got worse in the past fortnight.
For instance, the Cabinet has yet to reaffirm the 10-Point solution endorsed by the Cabinet in April 2011 to resolve the Bible controversy, with the Cabinet divided on the 10-Point Solution as the Deputy Prime Minister and other Cabinet Ministers seem to have broken ranks from the 10-Point Solution.
And for the last 10 days, Najib and the Cabinet had been devastated by the “kangkung tsunami” reducing their authority and credibility to smithereens, being the butt of “kangkung” jokes, videos, satire, comedies, sketches, spawning products like Kangkung Fried Chicken, Burger Kangkung, McKangkung and even crossing international boundaries to become embarrassing “kangkung-rate” international news in BBC, Channel New Asia, Singapore Straits Times, Jakarta Post, etc.
The “kangkung” craze has also gone viral on the Internet, with three videos attracting over 1.2 million hits on YouTube alone: the “kangkung remix feat, Najib” by Yuri Wong crossing 735,000 hits, the “Ucapan Najib ‘kangkung’ hangat di alam maya” video in second place with over 410,000 hits while the Effing Show #99 “Let Them Eat Kangkung” seems set to be the hottest item of the “popteevee” series, with over 125,000 hits in five days.
What is most deplorable is the “May 13” threat coming out of the closet during this period seeking to incite and racialise an issue which has nothing to do with race but is about the unhappiness of all Malaysians, whether Malays, Chinese, Indians, Kadazans or Ibans about the government’s arrogance and indifference to the people’s sufferings as a result of the price hikes.
An example of this irresponsible and dangerous incitement of racial and religious hatred, tension and conflict are the Penang UMNO demos on Saturday and Sunday over the earlier “kangkung” flash mob by PKR Assemblyman for Machang Bubuk Lee Khai Loon where kangkung was stuffed into the mouth of a cardboard cutout of the Prime Minister.
Penang UMNO and their allies distorted the “kangkung flash mob” protest against the Prime Minister as an attack on the Malay Prime Minister by the Chinese – which is a perversion of the truth.
As the PAS Deputy President, Mohamad Sabu has said: “I’m a Malay and I don’t feel insulted.”
It is the height of irresponsibility and even criminality in plural Malaysia to distort an issue about price hikes which affect all Malaysians into a racial issue of the Chinese disrespecting the Malays.
There are however Malaysians who feel that certain boundaries should not be crossed in any protests, like the offices of the Prime Minister, the Parliamentary Opposition Leader, the Chief Minister or Mentri Besar which should continue to receive due and proper respect if political discourse and disputation are to kept within civilized bounds – a view held by Malaysians regardless of race or religion.
When I suggested that Lee should consider apologizing for the “flash mob” incident for disrespect to the office of Prime Minister, I never for one moment suggested apology to samseng (thugs) as I fully agree that no one should bow down to threats or any form of violence.
I have been asked whether those who showed disrespect to the former Bersih co-ordinator Ambiga Sreenivasan for the disgusting “butt dance” or to the Penang Chief Minister for the equally abominable shit cake and funeral incidents. Yes they should, but it is not for me to say so publicly but for those responsible for these deplorable unMalaysian actions.
As Lee has decided on his course of action, let us move on.
What the Cabinet this morning should be concerned about is the systematic campaign by a group of irresponsible and reckless elements to incite racial and religious hatred, conflict and tension to create another May 13 situation to destabilize the country, as happened over the past weekend.
Is the Cabinet today prepared to take a firm stand to put a stop to the continued incitement of racial and religious hatred, conflict and tension as well as to all the saber-rattling to create another May 13 situation?
Or to be specific, are Barisan Nasional leaders prepared to work with Pakatan Rakyat leaders by having a Leaders’ Summit to ensure that there could not be another May 13 incident in Malaysia as well as to reach a consensus on the quintuplet of national crisis facing the country to restore national and international confidence in the country?
(Third 2014 Cabinet Meeting “Open Letter” to the Prime Minister and Cabinet Ministers in Kuala Lumpur Wednesday, 22nd January 2014 at 2 am)
We saw a change in Prime Minister in 1969. Are we about to witness a similar scenario taking place in 2014? The ultimate fall of the Prime Minister by those who plotted against him under the disguise of “Kangkung-gate”? Or should this be read as Najib’s idea of allowing the situation until it took a turn for the worst so he may continue to rule under emergency laws by roping in his opponents and the oppositions in one big scoop?
This is what Dr Lim Teck Ghee in his blog post would summarize on the overall future scenario:
The most likely scenario then, in the country in the next five years (or at least until the 14th general elections is held), is maintenance of the current status quo with time running out on attainment of economic targets and with further fraying of an already dangerously fragile social fabric.
The momentum of continued political bickering and ethnic and religious discord if not broken – especially against a backdrop of economic stagnation – could set the stage for the next momentous development in the country’s evolution: either a dramatic break with the past through deep reforms – this appears a distinctly unlikely possibility; a sharper turn towards an Islamic conservative future; or a retreat to emergency rule in which Umno-led right wingers, and other powerful stake players including the monarchy – tied to maintaining an authoritarian ethnocracy – make a bid for, and successfully seize power. – January 21, 2014.
When you eat caviar everyday please stop talking about kangkung in public. One- you will automatically make people pissed off. 2nd, nobody will believe you anyway with whatever logic you tried to put forward. He should sack all his million dollar advisors. Fking useless.
once upon a time in ancient China…
I would like to state that I am sorely dissapointed with LKL and give credit to LKS for his wisdom to show leadership when the young ones cannot up their game to match his.
While in a fair world LKL action is perfectly acceptable. In Malaysia, the one-sided political environment system simply demand that the the best politicians rise above the limitations. That is only way this country get fixed. Not more entitlement to work with but much less than justice. Young aspiring politicians not prepared to step up extraordinary, should not aspire more than less than ordinary..
Let me throw an open question here.
What is “one way street”?
It is a street sign telling people how the traffic on the street ought to flow and in the context of malaysia the sign allows us to do any of the following, that is to say move:
(1) from left to right;
(2) from right to left;
(3) from the nearside pavement onto the road and then to the right or to the left;
(4) from the farside pavement onto the road and then to the right or to the left;
(5) from the nearside pavement onto the road and then onto the farside pavement;
(6) from the farside pavement onto the road and then onto the nearside pavement;
(7) from the sky down onto the road and then to the right or left or onto the pavement, both nearside or farside;
(8) parking, stopping or waiting indefinitely; and
(8) any possible combinations of the above.
Alright. What has this got to do with the topic above?
A lot. It typifies umno’s mentality.
Lets look at the question posed above: Are BN leaders prepared to work with PR leaders to ensure that there could not be another repetition of May 13 riots in Malaysia?
To umno this invitation could be seen as:
(1) racism;
(2) anti-melayu (read umno);
(3) an attempt to topple the government;
(4) anti-agung, anti-sultan, anti-monarchy;
(5) anti-islam jenis umno;
(6) illegal;
(7) unconstitutional;
(8) ungrateful; and more.
JJ1K.
RR1C!
I felt that LKS has made a baby steps towards gaining more melayu middle grounds. Next would be to nurture meore melayu moderate leaders. With the ongoing mud slinging match between Azmin & Khalid, DAP Selangor should consider having melayu leaders with one ready to be MB Selangor in GE14.
If Singapore PAP took over 4 years to change the entire melayu mindset there, I believe DAP can do it
These gangster criminals who threatened riot and violence do not know their actions and behaviors are criminal.
As usual, they are building their political careers and wealth by attacking the innocent ordinary Chinese to gain support…….UMNO tolerated and supported them.
It is disturbing that political and community ‘ leaders ‘ see nothing wrong and allowed this to continue to happen.
Sotong,
It’ll continue to happen so long that DAP does not work hard in winning the supports of all malays especially the rural ones. I agree with you on the criticism but how to preach to the virgin land of rural melayus. That’s the key thing that Uncle Lim got to address
They WANT another riot n U want them 2 work with PR kaki 2 prevent another riot?
Got logic meh? Sounds like kangkung n sotong 2 rakyat
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ebj1vT7CMyk
Mr Lim,
If BN claims to have the interests of all Malaysians at heart, they would do well to respond positively to your call for a bilateral approach to the increasing racial tensions created by events such as we have seen from the kangkung protests by UMNO-linked NGOs in Penang recently.
Like you, I look forward to the response by BN leaders to your second call for bilateral talks.
Was it Mama created 513?