In his Chinese New Year message today, the Penang chief minister said there was a need to fulfill the “Malaysian Dream” where accountability and transparency replaced corruption and abuse of power.
“Following the resignation of Jacob Zuma, South Africa now holds greater promise than Malaysia.
“However, it is still not too late to reclaim Malaysia’s promise in the next 100 days,” he said, alluding to the possibility of the 14th general election (GE14) taking place in a matter of months, if not weeks.
Lim said Zuma’s forced resignation came about following his alleged misrule in allowing public assets and funds to be captured by private individuals and interests.
“Instead of fostering equality, there is greater inequality of income and a new aristocracy had risen to exploit the nation’s wealth as their own.
“Instead of giving average people control over government, average people felt alienated from their government,” he said.
He added that the Malaysian dream was similar, in that it entailed power being shared and not concentrated in the hands of a few.
“Such a scenario is where open tenders for public assets and projects replaced direct awards, and public funds were utilised by the public instead of being ‘hijacked by the cronies’.
“It is also where peace and harmony replace hatred and disorder. Where mutual respect and tolerance replace extremism and racism,” Lim said.
On Wednesday, Zuma finally agreed to step down as head of state on orders from the ruling African National Congress (ANC), bringing an end to his nine scandal-plagued years in power.
Reuters reported that the resignation came just hours after police raided the luxury home of the Gupta family, Indian-born billionaire allies of the former president who had been at the centre of corruption allegations against Zuma and his circle for years.
Zuma and the Guptas have always denied any wrongdoing.
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