KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 22 — Pakatan Harapan’s greatest challenge in the 15th general election is to make Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim Malaysia’s 10th prime minister, DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang said today.
He said it would take a “political miracle”, but did not discount the possibility that Malaysians would unite as they did it in the election four years ago when they voted out the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition.
“To make Anwar Ibrahim the tenth Prime Minister of Malaysia is a tall order — equally or probably harder than toppling the Umno/BN political hegemony in the 14th general election (GE14).
“But if the Malaysian voters can perform a ‘political miracle’ in the GE14, they can perform another ‘political miracle’ in GE15 on November 19, 2022,” Lim said in a statement.
He also said that the Sheraton Move that triggered the collapse of the PH government in 2020 was not a “complete failure” as former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak from Umno ended up in prison after being found guilty of embezzling RM42 million belonging to government investment fund SRC International Sdn Bhd.
Lim said that in this election, Malaysians should ask themselves two questions: “Firstly, Is Malaysia worth saving? Secondly, can Malaysia be saved?”
He said they must make their views on corruption clear by voting in the 15th general election.
He claimed Umno president Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi is only interested in keeping himself and his party leaders out of jail instead of rebuilding the nation that has been battered by the post-pandemic global economy.
Borrowing the words from the first prime minister Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra Al-Haj, Lim said that Malaysia cannot become a “beacon of light to a difficult and distracted world” unless its citizens make a strong stand in the war against “darkness”.
“Malaysia has not reached the stage of a totally broken, divided, and failed nation, although we have fallen considerably from our expectations of a world-class great plural nation.
“But Malaysia is still ‘save-able’ and worth saving,” he said.
The PH coalition has officially nominated its chairman Anwar to be the next prime minister if it wins the November 19 general election.
Anwar has also confirmed that he will not defend his Port Dickson, Negri Sembilan parliamentary seat but run in Tambun, Perak where the incumbent MP is former Bersatu ally Datuk Seri Ahmad Faizal Azumu who was also the previous state mentri besar.