The 'real' message for the six state elections in August

I read with amusement Lim Kit Siang's opinion about what the upcoming elections in six states are all about. I do not dispute the elderly DAP leader's view that the elections are about making Malaysia a world champion again and letting the country stand tall.

To be honest, though, Kit Siang sounds like a broken record. He has been saying the same thing for the past 50 to 60 years. One could be forgiven for thinking that he had just searched for his old press releases and copy-pasted excerpts to cobble together an "opinion piece".

But let me tell Kit Siang what the elections in the six states in August are really about: it is a referendum on whether the ruling government has betrayed the trust of the rakyat following the last general election.

Before the 15th general election (GE15), DAP and Pakatan Harapan (PH) leaders like Kit Siang gleefully sang the "Hoi hoi ya hoi" song to run down Barisan Nasional for being kleptocratic. They went to seats like Sungai Buloh with the slogan "One vote for Khairy Jamaluddin, is one vote for Zahid".

GE15 came and went. Khairy has lost and BN was reduced to a pale shadow of its former self with only 30 seats, thanks to the wave of outrage fanned by the likes of Kit Siang. And what did we get? Ahmad Zahid Hamidi as the deputy prime minister, and the DAP working in cahoots with those whom it had previously labelled as thieves and plunderers.

How do you answer that, Kit Siang? How can you sleep at night knowing that you have betrayed the will of the people and yet chose to accept one of the country's highest honorifics, a Tan Sri-ship, recently?

And when Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim recently announced that it would give the Department of Islamic Development Malaysia (Jakim) a greater role in policy-making, you were as quiet as a church mouse. Did you and your ilk in the DAP and PKR not call for Jakim to be closed down in the past? You lot had accused it of being bloated and making policies that contravened the rights of non-Muslims, such as those relating to unilateral conversions.

In the past, the DAP had also strongly condemned the Shariah Courts (Criminal Jurisdiction) Act 1965, better known as RUU355. But now that the DAP is intoxicated with power, it has become a party that approved proposed amendments at the Cabinet level. Yes, according to a minister in the Prime Minister's Department, RUU355 was approved by the DAP leaders in Cabinet.

And what of Kit Siang's silence over a police report under the Sedition Act against a woman who had spoken up against him on social media? Was the DAP not against the use of the Sedition Act in the past? Even the Tunku Mahkota Johor had in the past requested the police not to act against those who had spoken up against him on social media. Does Kit Siang think he is mightier than the royals?

These are just a few examples of areas that the DAP, and by extension, PH and the coalition government will be judged on in the six state elections slated for August. The public will send a strong message about whether these are concessions worth making or whether the current government has betrayed the trust of the people.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the position of MalaysiaNow.