CORRUPTION and power abuse will reign supreme if Malaysians do nothing, Pakatan Harapan (PH) chairman Anwar Ibrahim said.

“All of us have choices – whether to pick the good or allow evil to rule. And no sensible person would pick corruption and cruelty,” he said today.

“But if we choose to be cynical and reject politics, more Malaysians will suffer as a consequence.”

Anwar, who is also PKR president, was speaking at Sidang Nadi Rakyat in Petaling Jaya, a gathering of about 200 people organised by PKR for pro-opposition activists and groups.

They included some who were artists, and speeches were on five key subjects – education, public transport, cost of living, women and youth and arts.

The conference, which was chaired by former Kedah assembly speaker Ahmad Kassim, was held to allow activists and artists to speak up on issues affecting them and voters.

Anwar, aware of the criticisms against the PH government which lasted from 2018 to 2020, argued that the 22-month-old government was “not completely bad”.

“While there were weaknesses, Pakatan also had some very good ministers,” he said.

“Take Anthony Loke, for instance. He was an attentive transport minister, and which government has had a defence minister (Mohamad Sabu) who was brave enough to expose all the corruption in his ministry?”

But Anwar concluded that if voters choose not to vote because of their disappointment with PH, the country would only have more poor people and the wealth gap would grow wider.

Vote based on facts

Mohamad, who is Amanah president, took the stage later to express concern about Malay voters who appear to vote according to sentiments instead of facts.

“I’m very nervous when I see the Malacca and Johor elections, which saw only 9% and 7% of Malays vote for us,” he said.

Although PH had improved Malaysia’s ranking in Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index (CPI) from a score of 61 to 51, Malays still rejected it, Mohamad noted.

“While we were brought down by racial and religious politics, this new government pushed Malaysia’s CPI ranking back to 62. If we are not careful, we will hit 70 soon.

“Yet, Malay voters do not seem concerned, particularly when two of their presidents are now on trial for corruption,” Mohamad said without naming names. It is public knowledge, however, that Umno’s current president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and former president Najib Razak are both facing corruption trials.

Mohamad said if Malaysians allow racial and religious politics to dominate, the country will become another Sri Lanka.

“Sri Lanka’s demographics are similar to Malaysia. But when they allow the majority race (Sinhalese) to do whatever they want and support corruption, the country loses out and reaches a state where they can’t even service their debts,” he said.

“Do we want to be Sri Lanka? I leave that to you.”

The conference was also attended by DAP secretary-general Anthony Loke, Upko president Wilfred Madius Tangau and other MPs such as Maszlee Malik, Khalid Samad, Abdullah Sani Abdul Hamid and Shamsul Iskandar Md Akin.

The conference is part of PH’s drive to woo voters and regain relevance with a disillusioned electorate following two changes in government since PH was elected in 2018, owing to party-hopping by elected representatives.

The next general election must be held by September 2023. – July 2, 2022.