I

refer to your editorial entitled Truly ASEAN? dated April 10, 2018. It was intended to sell the news, rather than to feed the truth. The writing was infested with falsehood and unsubstantiated accusations that were degrading to Malaysia’s democracy, particularly its people.

Malaysia has enjoyed more than 60 years of peace and prosperity under the Westminster-style parliamentary democratic system. Through free and fair elections, voters are elect to elect their members of parliament, without fear or favor. Foreign election management bodies, including representatives from Indonesia’s KPU, are invited as observers to our elections. Ultimately, whomever commands the confidence of the parliament will be appointed as the Prime Minister and invited to form a government. Malaysia has gone through 13 elections successfully. It has been working extremely well for our country and we intend to preserve this.

The writer clearly was bought into the twisted and perverted narratives of the lie-mongers. When opinions and unsubstantiated accusations were veiled and masqueraded as facts, one would definitely wonder the ethics and integrity of the writer. A simple search on the internet would explain that none of the accusations leveled against Mr. Najib Razak were true. A thorough research before penning opinions is advisable rather than quoting unverified sources.

Malaysia consists of a mélange of people from different race and religion and everyone is duly represented. Their voices are heard, social justices are upheld and their sovereignty is well guarded. Rather than noisy democracy, we have guided democracy with a strong and capable leader carrying the aspiration of the whole nation. This is proven when the International Monetary Fund reported in early March that Malaysia is “well on its way to achieving high-income status”. We Malaysians could not be any prouder than this.

We would rather work hard toward nation building than attending to the noise of unproductive naysayers. Please stop peddling lies.

Dato’ Seri Zahrain Mohamed Hashim
Malaysian ambassador to Indonesia
Jakarta