In his speech at the 1MDB forum held in Johor yesterday, Lim highlighted fears of several “time bombs” aside from the scandalous 1MDB, which he says would spell disaster for the nation if not diffused:

1) RM 1.3 trillion illegal capital flight Time Bomb

GFI (Global Financial Integrity) revealed that Malaysia had lost RM 171.11 billion in 2012 in illegal capital flight or an accumulated amount of RM 1.30 trillion (USD 394.8 billion) in ten years from 2003 to 2012.

“Malaysia remains among the top five countries for illegal capital flight, behind China, Russia, India and Mexico. If calculated on a per capita basis, Malaysia’s illicit capital outflow is the world’s No. 1 in 2012, at US$1,646.36 (RM5,762.26) per capita, ahead of Russia’s US$856.16 per capita, Mexico’s US$774.81 per capita, China’s US$183.91 per capita and India’s US$47.65 per capita,” said Lim

2) Oil price collapse Time Bomb

Despite government projections that crude oil prices would be “stable” this year, Brent, the global benchmark is expected to plunge to USD 50 per barrel. Tapis oil price which is used by Malaysia, follows closely with about 5 percent higher than the Brent crude oil prices.

DAP’s National Political Education Director Liew Chin Tong had warned that for every USD $1 price drop, Malaysia would suffer RM 650 million in revenue losses.

Lim Kit Siang says that this would have catastrophic effects on the country’s economic model, which relies on oil for 30 percent of its spending.

3) The Economic Crisis Time Bomb

“One country sticks out like a sore thumb in terms of vulnerability: Malaysia” , writes Nicholas Spiro, managing director of Spiro Sovereign Strategy in the South China Morning Post on the state of economies in emerging Asia.

He said that when Thai and Indonesian equities fell just 2.5 percent and 0.8 percent in the past three months, Malaysian stocks had dipped by a whopping 12 percent, one of the steepest plunges amongst the major emerging markets.

Spiro also regarded Malaysia as South East Asia’s weakest spots with the multiple plunges of Forex and equity markets in tandem with current with current slide in global commodity prices leading to research houses revising their 2015 growth outlook for Malaysia.

Coupled with the oil price plunge, it is unclear if Malaysia would withstand the economic storm under the current premiership

4) The Corruption Time Bomb

Lim Kit Siang said that the government had nothing to crow about, even if Malaysia had improved slightly in the Transparency International (TI) Corruption Perception Index – to 50th place.

“Najib’s best is still lower than the worst rankings of the two previous Prime Ministers, as Tun Mahathir’s worst TI CPI ranking was No. 37 while Tun Abdullah’s worst ranking was No. 47.”

5) The Brain Drain Time Bomb

Lim said that some of the two and a half million of Malaysia’s best brains and most creative talents have left for other countries; when they should be in Malaysia to ensure we achieve our destiny as a great nation in the world.

“It is not only non-Malays but also Malays who are being forced to migrate because of an unimaginative, uninspiring, undemocratic and repressive government and leadership,” said Lim.

6) The Education Time Bomb

“15-year-olds in Shanghai, Singapore and South Korea were performing as though they had four or even five more years of schooling than 15-year-olds in Malaysia!” commented Lim Kit Siang on the deteriorating state of education in the country.

He said that the 2012 PISA (Programme for International Students Assessment) results released in December last year, Malaysia was stuck in the bottom third of the countries surveyed in international assessments, where the nations 15 year olds fared poorly in Mathematics, Science and reading.

While in the bottom rung, Malaysia, Lim said was being overtaken by nations like Kazakhstan in Math and Science.

Lim expressed shock that Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin had only “woken up” almost a year since the PISA results to say that it is time for Malaysia to emulate the Shanghai education system, which has been successful in producing high performing students in PISA.

According to Lim, UMNO Ministers themselves are not keen on sending their children to public schools, opting for international schools instead. The same sentiment was echoed by former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, when saying that the poor parents had to accept poor education for their children, so that politicians can be popular.

7) The Terrorism Time Bomb

This year, the nation was shocked by the news of Malaysians who joined ISIS, a muslim military organization intending to set up a caliphate in the middle east. The group, widely believed to be a terrorist organizations have orchestrated mass executions and the slaughtering of journalists as a message to the United States of America – who were responsible for bringing former Iraq premier Sadam Hussein to justice for crimes against humanity.

Lim believes that if nothing is done in the country to curb terrorism at home, Malaysia might suffer the same fate as Sydney or Peshawar, Pakistan that witnessed acts of terrorism killing innocent children in attacks.

“The tragedy in Sydney which signals the advent of lone-wolf terrorism, that leaves two innocents dead after a 16-hour hold up; and the Taliban massacre of at least 132 children in a school in Peshawar in Pakistan are stark reminders of the dangerous times that we are living in.”

“This was why I was aghast at the police complacency when it said it was no cause for concern when Malaysia leapt into the world’s Top 50 countries in the recent Global Terrorism Index of the Institute of Economic and Peace, where Malaysia climbed 42 places from 91st in the 2012 edition to 48th out of 162 countries,” said Lim.

8) SSKM Time Bomb

Lim said that though the number who advocate Sabah and Sarawak Keluar Malaysia (SSKM) is minuscule, the government needs to be fair in its treatment of the the two states.

“The outrageous Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Illegal Immigrants in Sabah (RCIIIS) which had caused disbelief, dismay and disquiet among Sabahans is a good example that the legitimate complaints and grievances of the people of Sabah and Sarawak can only be ignored at the expense of a more cohesive and sustainable sense of unity, harmony and solidarity in Malaysia!”

Instead of addressing the issues faced by the people of the two states, Prime Minister Najib Razak announced in the recent UMNO General Assembly Meeting, that the Sedition Act would be strengthened to punish those who call for the secession of Sabah and Sarawak.

9) Racial and Religious Time Bombs

Threats of May 13, the rise of right wing Malay and Islamic groups, and the berating of non Malay races at the UMNO General Assembly are some of the factors that Lim believes had contributed to a racial and religiously polarized Malaysia, unseen in the nations history.

This, he said, stems from unrestrained rhetoric and politics of hate, immoderation and intolerance to incite inter-racial and inter-religious hatred, conflict and tension.

“Just like 1Malaysia, “moderation” is the slogan of the Prime Minister in international forums but not his policy in the country.”

10) Time Bomb of Repression

“National and international confidence in national institutions, like the police, the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary have been going south as a result of the “white terror” regime in the past few months, with the crackdown on Pakatan Rakyat leaders, intellectuals, social activists and student leaders, with 23 persons prosecuted under the Sedition Act since 2009, and countless investigated and awaiting sedition charges, including Anwar Ibrahim and myself,” said Lim.

The government, who are seen acting swiftly against Pakatan Rakyat leaders, have not acted against or condemned Barisan Nasional leaders who have blatantly incited racial hatred, or used derogatory slurs against non-Malay races.

Mashitah Ibrahim, the UMNO Wanita Baling Chief had said during the UMNO General Assembly, that the Chinese community were involved in a ritual page by page burning of the Quran. However, this contradicted a statement by UMNO’s MB for Kedah, Mukhriz Mahathir that said that it was a mentally unstable Malay man who had folded and not burnt the pages of the Islamic holy book.

Lim said that like Mashitah, those who belonged to Barisan Nasional enjoyed the sanctions of the law, and by virtue of being part of the ruling alliance, are free to openly incite religious and racial hatred.

“There are many other Time Bombs ticking away – like the Iskander Time Bomb in Johor, the MAS Time Bomb and the MH 370 and MH17 air disasters and tragedies; and even the Time Bombs in the Political Parties, whether in Barisan Nasional or Pakatan Rakyat, like the controversy over hudud implementation which is a Time Bomb for all BN and PR parties.”

“The maturity, wisdom and judgment of Malaysians are going to be sorely tested with the host of these Time Bombs ticking away, as to whether they could be defused or detonated to saved Malaysia from disaster,” Lim concluded.