Jade Emperor Festival Or 8th Day Of Chinese New Year Message By Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng In Komtar, George Town On 7.2.2014.
During this year’s Chinese New Year festivities, the regular topic of discussion in family reunion gatherings is how the toxic atmosphere of playing with the fires of racial and religious hatred has paralysed the pursuit of happiness and hastened the brain drain by accelerating the exodus of human talent. Penang will counter UMNO’s dangerous games of playing with the fires of racial and religious hatred with the weapons of social justice, economic prosperity, good governance and clean leadership.
Recent events coupled with the refusal to address the pressing issues of entrenched corruption and cronyism as well as price hikes that threaten the livelihood of ordinary Malaysians, have lent credence to the view that BN has stopped governing because they no longer know how to rule. The PR Penang state government’s success in becoming the first state in Malaysian history to wipe out poverty and becoming the only state not to raise local services such as quit rent, assessment, business license fees and water tariffs has made UMNO desperate.
The performance of Penang PR has made UMNO more desperate when even the Prime Minister disclosed in Parliament that Penang was No.1 in attracting Foreign Direct Investment(FDI) from 2010 to August 2013, with RM19.7 billion out of Malaysia’s total FDI of RM103 billion. Penang is not only the village champion but also now a world champion when Lonely Planet listed Penang as the No.1 food destination of the world.
The violent demonstrations by UMNO supporters in Penang, the attack by UMNO supporters on a senior Malay civil servant carrying out enforcement action, the attempted fire-bomb attack on a Catholic church in Penang and the call by a UMNO division to ban the 200-year old practice of open selling of pork in a 95% non-Muslim area in George Town is clearly intended to distract attention from UMNO’s price hikes even at the cost of destroying the very foundations of a nation-state so assiduously built by UMNO’s founders Tunku Abdul Rahman and Tun Abdul Razak.
Since Merdeka, official government statistics have revealed that more than 2 millon highly-skilled and talented Malaysians have left the country. In their place are more than 5 million unskilled foreign migrant workers from Indonesia, Bangladesh, Myanmar and Vietnam – clearly a loss in exchange value in skill gaps and management expertise for Malaysia.
Even these unskilled foreign migrants sent back RM20 billion in remittances in 2012, a figure expected to increase to RM30 billion this year. With so many unskilled foreign migrants, some Malaysians are feeling like strangers in their own land, particularly in Sabah.
Malaysians must not lose hope but compel UMNO to back down from playing with the fires of religious and racial hatred by focusing on the economy. Malaysians must persist to insist in integrity and transparency to fight the cancer of corruption, the pursuit of excellence and competitiveness must not be given up, give hope to the future by providing a platform of equal opportunities not only to build human talent but allow them to realise their potential and most important of all that social harmony can only be achieved by celebrating our differences.
The public can not compromise in demanding good management and productivity skills in our political leaders. Political leaders must be subjected to the criteria of adopting sound management techniques of setting targets, rewarding performance and ensuring that the results can be measured.
Only with an objective outcome-based administration can we ensure that the pusuit of happiness is not an empty dream but a vision that can be realised through hard work, collaborative effort and respect for rule of law. There can be no rule of law when justice easily falls victim to power. There can only be rule of law when our legal system protects rights of all citizens and serve the people.
LIM GUAN ENG
—-Mandarin Version —
槟城首长林冠英于2014年2月7日在光大乔治市发表农历初九天公诞献词：
槟州政府会以社会正义、经济繁荣、良好施政和廉正领导为“武器”，去抵御巫统所玩弄的种族及宗教仇恨之火。
今年的华人新年期间，最常在家庭聚会中被提起的热门话题，莫过於是操弄种族及宗教憎恨之火，已瘫痪了我们追求幸福的旅程，并且加速人才的外流与出走。近期发生的一连串事情，诸如贪腐及朋党主义的肆虐、高企不下的物价造成普罗百姓的生活威胁等，国阵都拒绝对这些迫在眉睫的问题作出回应，已让人民失去信任，甚至认为国阵政府已经失灵，因为他们再不懂得如何治理。
最近一系列事件很明显示巫统不愿正视我国人民所面对的贪污猖獗、朋党垄断以及百物上涨的生活民生问题，国阵已经让人民觉得他们因为“不懂如何治国而停止治国”。而槟城民联政府成为我国历史上第一个扫除贫穷的州属，并且维持政府收费，如租金、门牌税、水费、执照费，都让巫统抓狂。
当首相在国会宣布槟城于2010年至2013年8月期间，所获外国投资额为全国第一，达197亿令吉（全国外国投资总额为1030亿令吉），槟城民联的表现也让巫统更加绝望。槟州不再只是甘榜冠军，也是世界冠军，孤独星球（Lonely Planet）投选槟城成为2014年全球最佳美食榜首。
巫统支持者在槟城举办暴力集会、攻击一名正在执法的马来公务员、企图在槟城的天主教堂发动爆炸袭击、以及一个巫统区会要求禁止200多年来公开在乔治市95%非穆斯林地区贩卖猪肉的做法，很明显地，巫统是在转移公众对百物上涨的视线，甚至不惜摧毁巫统奠基人敦姑阿都拉曼及敦阿都拉萨辛辛苦苦建立起来的立国根基。
自独立以来，官方统计数据显示，超过200万名高技能及有才华的马来西亚人离开这个国家。取代他们的是500万令吉来自印尼、孟加拉、缅甸及越南的非技术外劳，这显然造成我国的技术鸿沟及管理专才的流失。
上述非技术外劳在2012年寄出的外汇达200亿令吉，我们估计今年会达到300亿令吉。外劳之多，让马来西亚人都觉得自己像在国土里的陌生人，特别是沙巴。
马来西亚人不能丧失希望，而是要逼迫巫统马上停止玩弄宗教及种族仇恨，并把焦点摆正在经济课题上。马来西亚人必须坚持廉正及透明度以对抗贪污、追求卓越、竞争不放弃、对未来充满希望，提供平等机会的平台，不只要培育人才，也要让他们发挥所长，最重要的是通过赞美多元维持社会和谐。
民众对于政治领袖必须有所要求，对于后者的管理能力及生产力等技术要求绝对不能妥协。而政治领袖亦要掌握管理技巧，如设定目标、奖励绩效，同时确保成果可以被量化。
唯有放眼以成效为基础的治理，我们才能确保追求幸福不是梦，而是一个愿景，我们可以通过努力工作、合作经营及尊崇法治做到这一点。
唯有认真当推行“成果型施政模式”，国人追求幸福的目标才不至于沦为一场梦。而这个目标可以透过努力工作、共同合作及遵从法治得以落实。当权力腐蚀正义，我们就没有了法治，反之，当我们的法律能够保护所有人的权益、为民众服务之际，那么，法治就得以实现了。
林冠英