PETALING JAYA, Dec 20 – The vote of confidence in Parliament yesterday on Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim as the 10th Prime Minister has solidified Anwar’s tenure as Prime Minister for five years, said DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang.
Nevertheless, he also warned about the possibility of a Sheraton Move2 political conspiracy to topple the government and to be on guard against such a move.
“Perikatan Nasional (PN) MPs made this point quite clear in the parliamentary debate yesterday although the masterminds of a Sheraton Move2 political conspiracy must now realise that after the vote-of-confidence in Parliament yesterday, it is unlikely to happen in months as they originally expected,” he said in a statement issued here today.
He said the vote of confidence will also provide a much-needed breathing space for a reset of nation-building policies and for Malaysia to end the decline from a first-rate world-class nation to a second-rate mediocre country.
“Although the PN MPs did not vote against the motion, it is unfortunate that the PN MPs chose to quibble over semantics instead on focussing on the urgent need to check Malaysia’s national decline and to save Malaysia from ending up as a failed, divided and kleptocratic state in a few decades.”
Kit Siang also commended UMNO Titiwangsa Member of Parliament Johari Ghani for raising the issue of Malaysia’s national decline and urging MPs to focus on fixing the economy instead of quarrelling over semantics.
Johari had expressed disbelief that the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) did not expand from 2018 to 2021, which is at -0.1 percent, while Indonesia’s GDP recorded 11.8 percent, followed by Vietnam (24.2 percent), Thailand (9.7 percent) and Philippines (19.3 percent).
He said if politicking continued in the country, where time had been wasted with three prime ministers in the last four years, Malaysia would risk falling further behind Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam and Thailand in terms of economic development.
Johari Ghani had also defended that the confidence vote was necessary to ensure the government serves a full term and is given the opportunity to elevate the country’s economy by providing the political stability that will attract greater foreign direct investment (FDI).
Kit Siang said MPs must use the “breathing space” provided by the vote of confidence to rebuild the economy and propel Malaysia into the information and technological era; unite Malaysians of diverse races, religions and regions; end the injustices and inequalities in the country.
He also said the time should be used to ensure that schools and universities are centres of educational excellence and a clean, honest and incorruptible government recognised by the world while leveraging on the values and virtues of the four great civilizations which meet in confluence in Malaysia.
–WE