KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 21 — As his 80th birthday wish, veteran politician Lim Kit Siang expressed his desire to see Malaysia develop towards being a world-class nation, and a country for all Malaysians regardless of race, religion, creed. 

The DAP lawmaker revealed how he has held on to these hopes of a Malaysia for Malaysians since his early schooling days, and all the way throughout the last 55 years he has spent in the Democratic Action Party (DAP). 

"Let us renew our dream that while Malaysians will have multiple identities — ethnic, religious, linguistic, cultural — they have one common overriding identity as Malaysians.

"Nobody is asking any Malaysian to forget that he or she is a Malay, Chinese, Indian, Kadazan, Iban, or Muslim, Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Sikh, (or) Taoist, but everyone is first and foremost a Malaysian. 

"That is my dream. That is your dream,” he said in a statement today. 

The Iskandar Puteri MP said despite the country having gone through dark patches in history like the May 13 riots in 1969, Malaysians must continue to unite to create a better Malaysia for the coming generations to thrive in. 

"But we must never allow the past to bury the future. If necessary, the future must bury the past to build better lives for future generations,” he added.