Is Malaysia destined for  “greatness” under Najib’s premiership – to be regarded worldwide as  a global double kleptocracy?

Is Malaysia destined for “greatness” under the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, to be regarded worldwide as a global double kleptocracy?

Yesterday, the DAP MP for Taiping, Nga Kor Ming, offered Najib free legal services to sue international news weekly, the Economist, for its 8th March, 2018 article: “Stop, thief! Malaysia’s PM is about to steal an election”.

I fully endorse this offer of free legal services from DAP, and Najib can choose anyone of the following nine DAP  lawyer-MPs to defend his reputation and that of the nation – Gobind Singh Deo (Puchong), Nga Kor Ming (Taiping), Ngeh Koo Ham (Beruas), M. Kulasegaran (Ipoh Barat), Lim Lip Eng (Segambut), Thomas Su (Ipoh Timur), Teo Nie Ching (Kulai), Ramkarpal Singh (Bukit Gelugor), Chong Chieng Jen (Bandar Kuching).

But  it is almost a full week, and there has been thunderous silence from Najib, with no response whatsoever  from Najib on the Economist’s article calling him a thief who is to steal the 14th General Election – or the MSNBC television host Rachel Maddow who called Najib a thief in the Rachel Maddow Show programme on March 9 because of the international multi-billion 1MDB money-laundering scandal.

Is Malaysia set under Najib as Prime Minister to be known worldwide not only as a global kleptocracy, but a global double kleptocracy?

I want to ask Najib a direct question – why speak on a multitude of issues in the past week but keep silent on the allegations of global double kleptocracy?

I had  said ten days ago  that the 1MDB money-laundering scandal had literally been “raining cats and dogs” worldwide with bad news  for Najib,  the Malaysian government  and people since the seizure of the Bombadier jet in Singapore early February, followed by   the seizure of Equanimity luxury super-yacht  in Bali at the  end of February;  the CNBC special programme on “What happened to Malaysia’s 1MDB money” on March 1; reports that the “Wolf Of Wall Street” producers agreed to pay US$60 million to US Department of Justice (DoJ) in kleptocratic lawsuit settlement; report that  a top  Republican fundraiser close to President Donald Trump had asked as much as US$75 million (RM295 million) from Jho  Low to  get the United States Department of Justice (DoJ) to stop investigating the 1MDB scandal; Malaysian officials including  Ministers, Deputy Minister and even the Inspector-General Police rushing to defend Jho Low and the 1MDB scandal like the IGP claiming that there is “nothing to link Jho Low with 1MDB” and the Communications and Multimedia Minister, Datuk Seri Salleh Said Keruak claiming that there was no evidence the luxury  superyacht seized by Indonesian authorities and FBI  is owned by Jho Low; and the two international media organisations publicly calling Najib a “thief” transforming Malaysia into a global double kleptocracy.

Malaysia’s international reputation was further dragged through  the mud worldwide  this week– with the Swiss Parliament debating the  motion tomorrow on the repatriation of funds to the people of Malaysia of some RM400 million 1MDB-linked funds confiscated from Swiss banks in the 1MDB money-laundering scandal.

But this is not the only international event to sully and tarnish Malaysia’s very battered international reputation.

Two days ago on Monday, the international human rights and anti-corruption NGO, Global Witness, released a 26-page report, entitled “The Real Thieves of Wall Street” in its campaign to get the UK financial regulator, Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), to investigate Royal Bank of Scotland and Standard Chartered for handling more than US$2 billion of allegedly embezzled funds from 1MDB.

Global Witness questioned why the Financial Conduct Authority has declined to probe RBS and StanChart over the 1MDB scandal despite the two British banks being fined by Swiss and Singaporean regulators and investigated by US authorities.

US prosecutors allege that Malaysian officials and their business associates siphoned billions of dollars of government-guaranteed funds from 1MDB to personal bank accounts to buy luxury items such as a $250m yacht, a Picasso painting, jewellery and funding for Hollywood films, including The Wolf of Wall Street.

Global Witness said in its  26-page report that the 1MDB affair was “a clear failure” by the banks because they “ignored the rules, turned a blind eye, kept profitable clients and continued handling billions of dollars of dirty money despite clear warning signs”.

Banks are supposed to carry out extra checks when handling money from state entities, reporting any suspicious transactions to regulators, blocking them if they are not explained and closing accounts where needed.

The FCA said in an emailed statement that it was “aware of these matters and has been liaising with our regulatory partners in the jurisdictions in which these activities occurred”.

It added:
“We are aware of the action that has been and is being taken by those agencies and others and we are monitoring with interest.”

Murray Worthy, author of the Global Witness report, however said:

“Just because foreign regulators have investigated it doesn’t let the FCA off the hook. This is one of the biggest corruption cases of all time, and it is worth comparing the UK approach with the US Department of Justice, which is putting huge efforts into going after the $4.5bn of illicit proceeds.”

Margaret Hodge, the Labour MP and anti-corruption campaigner, said: “It is time for the FCA to take firm action to hold banks that handle dirty money to account [and to] explain its apparent inaction over this case, when other countries completed their investigations over a year ago.”

The Monetary Authority of Singapore fined Coutts, the private banking arm of RBS, S$2.4m in late 2016 for breaches of anti-money-laundering regulations and failing to meet due diligence requirements for politically exposed persons.

The Swiss banking regulator fined Coutts SFr6.5m last year, finding that “those responsible failed to follow up on these clear causes for concern” over a high-risk $700m transfer from 1MDB in 2009 and instead chose to “continue with the lucrative business relationships”. RBS sold the international arm of Coutts in 2015.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore also fined StanChart S$5.2m for “significant lapses in the bank’s customer due diligence measures and controls for ongoing monitoring” after $1.1bn that had originated from 1MDB was transferred into an account of a Malaysian businessman in Singapore.

Several other banks have been fined by Singapore regulators over the 1MDB scandal, including Credit Suisse, BSI, UOB and Falcon Bank. US authorities have also investigated Goldman Sachs’ role in handling bond issues for the Malaysian fund.

But in Malaysia, we have  Ministers and Deputy Ministers shouting “fake news” about the 1MDB scandal, with Najib and the Malaysian Government carrying on a charade that there is no such thing as a 1MDB scandal.

Instead, the Najib government wants to have legislation and mechanism to clamp down all references to the 1MDB scandal, and shut off Malaysia from the world so that Malaysians are cloistered from  the latest developments on the international 1MDB scandal.

The meeting which the  Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Azalina Othman had with representatives of internet giants Facebook, Google, YouTube, Twitter, as well as the Asia Internet Coalition, in Parliament two days ago is part of this “fake anti-fake news” campaign – a two-prong objective to suppress 1MDB developments as “fake news” in Malaysia and to empower the UMNO/BN leaders, propagandists  and quinoa cybertroopers to create and peddle fake news against the Opposition with immunity and impunity.

Azalina said that her meeting with representatives of internet giants is to ensure that the Fake News bill that is being formulated is comprehensive and covers all aspects, and that it is proof that the government is inclusive in forming policies and laws.

If so, why has Azalina not honoured her undertaking that the Fake News Bill would be formulated by a special committee involving MPs from both sides of the divide?

On Sunday, Deputy Communications and Multimedia Minister Jailani Johari warned that action would be taken against “fake news” about state fund 1MDB.

Can Azalina explain this threat from the Deputy Minister?

(Media Conference Statement  in Parliament on Wednesday, 14th March 2018 at 11.30 am)

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If MCA national leaders have a fraction of the guts and gumption of David Choi and dare to speak up on the great rights and wrongs in the country, MCA would not be reduced to the ridiculous straits of a 7/11 party

MCA leaders should not allow themselves to be pushed around by UMNO but even more important, they must have the guts and gumption to speak up on the rights and wrongs in the country.

Examples of such UMNO  bullying are the two recent Barisan Nasional elections preparations   functions, one at Bandar Tun Razak and the other at Rembau.

Examples of MCA having to develop the guts and gumption to speak up on the great rights and wrongs in the country  are aplenty, over issues big and small.

On the one hand there  is the sacking of Pahang division leader David Choi who last November had apologized to a Taiping  farmer arrested for sharing a video deemed insulting to MCA deputy minister Chong Sin Woon, after Chong’s offensive “deity” jibe after the Penang floods.  On the other hand, is the thunderous silence of the MCA leader s whether in Parliament or Cabinet about the international 1MDB money-laundering scandal and worsening corruption in the country, as evidentced by Malaysia falling to the lowest ranking of Transparency International Corruption Perception Index 2017 – lowest in 23 years.

If the MCA national leadership  have only a fraction of the guts and gumption of David Choi, the MCA would not be in today’s straits, reduced to a 7/11 party from the great days when Tun Tan Cheng Lock was the President of MCA.

If the MCA President, Deputy President and Secretary-General have a fraction of the guts and gumption of David Choi, and not hide in  predominanty Malay-majority seats to depend basically on UMNO’s Malay votes to get into Parliament and Cabinet, they would have  long spoken out about the international multi-billion dollar 1MDB money-laundering scandal which has reduced Malaysia  into a global kleptocracy.

Furthermore, none of them would have acted like the MCA Deputy President, Datuk Seri Wee Ka Siong, acting as UMNO”s catspaw to act according to the UMNO agenda to stai nand tarnish Penang Pakatan Harapan’s reputation for integrity and good governance, so that 1MDB scandal would not look so monstrous, trying to strike a posture of a great anti-corruption fighter but who is afraid to breathe a single word about Najib’s 1MDB scandal!

(Media Statement in Parliament on Wednesday, 14th March 2018)

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Kit Siang supports filing of a motion to review the Speaker’s rejection of questions and motions concerning 1MDB scandal

I support the filing of motion in Parliament to review the Speaker’s rejection of questions and motions concerning the 1MDB scandal.

Three DAP MPs, Nga Kor Ming (Taiping), Ngeh Koo Ham (Beruas) and V. Sivakumar (Batu Gajah)  have received  an ultimatum from the Speaker, Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia, demanding that they make an open apology to him for their remarks about the Speaker’s rejection of an emergency motion on the seizure of the luxury superyacht Equanimity of Jho Low and questions related to the 1MDB scandal or face “stern action”.

Under what section of the Dewan Rakyat Standing Orders does it give the Speaker the powers to unilaterally decide what is said outside Parliament constituted  contempt of the Speaker and empower the Speaker to impose punishments?

The Speaker was ill-advised to send such ultimatum  to the three DAP MPs  demanding public apology or to face “stern action”.

The Speaker should consult with Parliamentarians  from both sides of the divide on matters affecting Parliament and not just consult with the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department in charge of parliamentary affairs.

I am prepared to stand corrected,  but Pandikar has clearly exceeded his powers in writing such an ultimatum to the three DAP MPs for their remarks outside parliamentary proceedings.

(Media Statement in Parliament on Thursday, 15th  March 2018)

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 15 March 2018, 6:20 pm and is filed under
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Malaysians must have a Parliament which they can feel proud – a Parliament which understands the Malaysian Dream of all Malaysians and not one which is like the traditional three moneys, eyes that see not, ears that hear not and mouth that speaks not

Last night was the launch of the book by the DAP Selangor State Assemblywoman for Damansara Utama Yeo Bee Yin, the youngest member of the Selangor State Assembly, “Reimagining Malaysia”.

A small-town girl from Batu Anam, Segamat who have become an engineer after being recipient of the Gates Cambridge University Scholarship, Bee Yin tells in the book the story of her personal journey, her hopes and dreams for the country.

As I said in the foreword to the book,  I believe most Malaysians have a dream to want to make Malaysia a better country for the people and themselves, which is shunted aside or snuffed out altogether by the exigencies of life, including parental expectations and pressures.

We must find ways to respond to these inner voices and give them room for expression.

Recently, it was reported that low wages and a lack of jobs have forced about 5,000 Malaysians to work and live illegally in South Korea, suffering human rights  abuses and even denial of wages, many left to fend for themselves after suffering workplace accidents and getting fired.

Apart from the question as to what the Malaysian Embassy in Seoul is doing to look after the interests of these 5,000 illegal Malaysians in South Korea, the question we must ask is why these 5,000 Malaysians have gone to  South Korea?

Just like the some two million Malaysians who have emigrated to foreign lands in the past half a century to help develop and modernize foreign countries, whether Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom, United States and closer home, Singapore, they went in search of a Malaysian Dream – for a better life for themselves.

The 5,000 illegal Malaysians in South Korea and the two million Malaysians who have emigrated to other countries in the past half a century have created, not a Malaysian Chinese Diaspora or a Malaysian Indian Diaspora, but a Malaysian Diaspora comprising Malaysians of all races and religions.

They belong to the best and brightest in the country and should  seek the Malaysian Dream inside Malaysia, but  they were forced to leave our  shores to seek the Malaysian Dream overseas.

Malaysia has failed them.

We have lost our way in the past six decades with countries more economically, educationally and politically backward than Malaysia having overtaken us on all these fronts, becoming not only richer and more developed and prosperous, but more democratic and more respectful of the principles of good governance and the rule of law.

We have fallen down the ladder of nations  in human excellence, achievements and accomplishments in the past half century.

This is best illustrated by the Transparency International (TI) Corruption Perception Index (CPI) 2017, where Malaysia  plunged to the lowest ranking in 23 years.

The Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Paul Low, came out with the ridiculous statement  that the string of high-profile arrests over the past year was  the likely cause for Malaysia’s drop in rankings on Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index (CPI).

This was totally contradictory to the assessment by the Transparency International Malaysia (TI-M) President, Datuk Akhbar Satar that Malaysia’s TI CPI ranking would have gone lower below No. 62 out of 180 countries “if not because of the MACC aggressiveness in conducting investigation and making arrests to deter corruption in the country”.

The Malaysian Government and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) seemed to think that both the Malaysian and international community were  so gullible that they could be misled by the MACC campaign of “shock and awe” of arrests and charges, which obediently avoided the “sharks” of corruption but tasked with a special agenda to tar and stain Pakatan Harapan leaders, to believe that the MACC is empowered to combat corruption regardless of rank or station.

Akhbar Satar is right. If not for the MACC’s “shock and awe” tactics of arrests and charges, Malaysia’s TI CPI 2017 would have sunk lower, and be in the company of countries like Bulgaria, South Africa, Vanuatu, Burkina Fako, Lesotho and Tunisia with CPI scores of 42-43/100.

To restore public confidence and MACC credibility in the fight against corruption, the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Paul Low, MACC Chief Commissioner Tan Sri Dzulkifli Ahmad and the 20-odd members of the five bodies which monitor the MACC should collectively resign over their dismal failure highlighted by TI CPI 2017 which saw Malaysia plunge to lowest TI CPI ranking in 23 years – 62 out of 180 countries with TIP score of 47/100.

These five bodies are the Anti-Corruption Advisory Board, the Special Committee on Corruption, the Complaints Committee, the Operations Review Panel, and the Corruption Consultation and Prevention Panel.

It is great shame that the Transparency International Malaysia should suffer the shame, dishonour and indignity of two of its Presidents ending up as political mercenaries of the-powers-that-be, serving as apologists and defenders of MO1, the international multi-billion dollar 1MDB money-laundering scandal and Malaysia as a global kleptocracy.

What has happened to all the boast of Malaysia being ranked among the 30 top least corrupt nations by 2020, when the shoreline of this target is getting further and further away?

It would appear that the MACC Chief Commissioner had not expected Malaysia’s TI CPI to improve in the next three years, but did he expect a plunge to the lowest point of 62 out of 180 countries?

He has even now come up with the idea of MACC creating its own corruption index, which would have no credibility except in UMNO and Barisan Nasional.

China and Indonesia are poised to overtake Malaysia in the TI CPI series if these two countries improve their TI CPI ranking and score at their pace in the past 23 years, while Malaysia stagnates, with China overtaking Malaysia in eight years’ time in 2015 and Indonesia in 14 years’ time in 2031.

China and Indonesia would overtake Malaysia in an even shorter period if Malaysia continues to regress, as happened during the nine-year premiership of Najib.

What is the Parliament and MACC doing with regard to this shocking possibility?

Before the establishment of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission in 2009, Malaysia scored the best TI CPI ranking of 23 under premiership of Tun Dr. Mahathir and No. 39 under Tun Abdullah Badawi, as compared to the best TI CPI ranking of No. 50 under Najib; with the worst TI CPI ranking of No. 37 under Mahathir and No. 47 under Abdullah as compared to No. 62 under Najib.

I commend to Ministers, Deputy Ministers, Members of Parliament as well as the top public officials, whether the Chief Secretary, the Attorney-General, Inspector-General of Police, the Chief Justice, the Auditor-General, the MACC Chief Commissioner to read the memoir of Malaysian tycoon, Robert Kuok, who was recently demonized and subject to a four-day gratuitous, baseless, malicious and savage UMNO attack over the false accusation that Robert Kuok had funded the DAP against the Barisan Nasional.

Robert Kuok cannily pinpointed in his memoir the reasons why Malaysia had lost its way in the last six decades degenerating from a country respected and admired by the world into one which is scorned and held in increasing contempt because we have become a shameless global kleptocracy.

Read Robert Kuok’s Memoir, in particular Chapter 22 on “Strength of Culture” in final Part VII on “In Closing”, where he pinpointed two factors deciding the rise and fall of nations:

– A nation with moral compass; and

– Rule of Law.

Robert Kuok said:

“The leaders must be politician-statesmen willing to put the good of their nations and the people above their individual self-interest. I recoil from politicians who are there for fame and glory, or to line their pockets. True leaders are those who come out of the community and govern to raise the people to greater heights.”

Robert Kuok’s memoir also said:

“A moral society cannot be attained through policing. You must begin at the beginning, and infuse the young with a strong sense of morality from a young age, both at home and at school.”

He said:

“It is a basic principle of the rule of law that everyone is equal before the law. In China today we have rule by man. Under the rule of law, even the General Secretary of the Communist Party is not above the law.”

If Malaysia has not lost its moral compass and the rule of law had not deteriorated because of the creeping loss of the independence, impartiality and professionalism of the key national institutions, the Malaysian Dream which had motivated all Malaysians six decades ago would not have been dimmed or Malaysians have to leave our shores to seek greener pastures overseas – including Robert Kuok.

On the gratuitous, baseless, malicious and savage UMNO attack on Robert Kuok  over the false accusation that he  had funded the DAP against the Barisan Nasional, the Prime Minister and the UMNO/BN Government owe Robert Kuok a public apology, and I ask the Prime Minister to officially and publicly tender this public apology to Robert Kuok in Parliament next week during the Ministerial winding up of the debate.

This is my tenth term as a Malaysian Member of Parliament since 1969 with a break in the 10th Parliament from 1999 – 2004.

Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, MP for Gua Musang, is the only other MP who had served in Parliament for ten terms from 1974, although in total I have served longer in Parliament than Tengku Razaleigh.

Malaysians must have a Parliament which they can feel proud – a Parliament which understands the Malaysian Dream of all Malaysians and not one which is like the traditional three moneys, eyes that see not, ears that hear not and mouth that speaks not.

I am not proud to be a MP of the 13th Parliament, which has become quite a laughing stock of world Parliaments.

Motions on 1MDB are introduced or debated in Parliaments of other countries, but not in Malaysia.

For instance, in  the House of Commons in United Kingdom, where British Labour  MP  for Cynon Valley, Ann Clwyd had introduced an early day motion (EDM) in July last year, which read:

“That this House is alarmed about allegations of the misappropriation of billions of dollars from 1Malaysia Development Berhad, a state-owned investment firm intended to promote economic development in Malaysia, including by the current Malaysian Prime Minister, Najib Razak.

“The EDM notes the ongoing investigations in a number of countries, including the US and Switzerland and further notes the statement by the FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe, in connection with the largest single action so far by the US Department of Justice’s Kleptocracy Asset Initiative, that the Malaysian people were defrauded on an enormous scale.

“The EDM wants to highlight the continuing restrictions on freedom of expression and of association in Malaysia, as well as the misuse of the Sedition Act, targeted particularly at government critics, including opposition politicians and MPs, such as Anwar Ibrahim, jailed following legal proceedings which fell far short of international standards, and Rafizi Ramli MP.

“It further encourages the government of Malaysia to allow international observers, including from a range of Commonwealth countries, at its upcoming general elections, to demonstrate its commitment to free and fair elections, particularly given that Malaysia will be taking up the Chair-in-Office of the Commonwealth in 2020.”

Or in the Swiss Parliament today, where the Swiss Members of Parliament will debate and vote on a motion  to repatriate RM430 million 1MDB-related funds confiscated from Swiss banks because of money-laundering and other corrupt practices to Malaysia so as  to benefit Malaysians harmed by the international mega 1MDB financial scandal.

The repatriation of corruption money hidden or  stashed away overseas from their country of origin and their use to benefit the nationals harmed by such corrupt practices is a principle which has been accepted internationally as a result of the United Nations Convention Against Corruption 2003, which Malaysia signed in Mexico on 9th December 2003 and officially ratified on 24th Sept. 2008.

The motion  before the Swiss Parliament in the name of  Carlos Sommaruga of the Social Democratic Party (SP) of Switzerland,  reads:

“The Federal Council (cabinet) is instructed to repatriate to its country of origin, at least in part, profits unlawfully obtained in third party countries by the Federal Prosecutor’s Office and the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) in accordance to the procedures of the Illegally Acquired Assets Act (SR 196.1) in the countries concerned.”

The Government and 1MDB have sought to pull the wool over the people’s eye by claiming that the Swiss motion is not specific to 1MDB, and that “any allegations of its assets being embezzled or misappropriated, either domestically or overseas, were simply not true and politically motivated”

In the United States, the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs held a hearing on  “Combating Money-laundering and other forms of illicit finance” in January this year where the US Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney-General, Criminal Division, M. Kendall Day testified and made the following statement with regard to the 1MDB scandal:

“Between 2009 and 2015, those corrupt officials and their associates took more than $4.5 billion from the development fund in four phases.

“These funds were laundered through a complex web of opaque transactions and fraudulent shell companies with bank accounts in countries around the world, including Switzerland, Singapore, Luxembourg, and the United States.”

But in the Parliament of Malaysia, MPs cannot ask questions or even move motions about the 1MDB scandal, which has given Malaysia the 3Is – Infamy, ignominy and iniquity of being regarded world-wide a global kleptocracy.

For UMNO/BN leaders, propagandists and the army of quinoa cybertroopers who believe that 1MDB could be dismissed as an major election issue in the imminent 14GE, I commend business journalist  P. Gunasegaram’s recent article in Malaysiakini, 1MDB very much a major election issue” where he said that he refused to believe that any Malaysian, rural or urban, is unconcerned that effectively as much as over RM40 billion was stolen from 1MDB and of this, over RM30 billion was borrowed money.

But horror of horrors, Malaysia seems heading towards  not just towards to 3Is of a global kleptocracy, but reaching greater heights or depths to be a global double kleptocracy.

On Tuesday,, the DAP MP for Taiping, Nga Kor Ming, offered Najib free legal services to sue international news weekly, the Economist, for its 8th March, 2018 article: “Stop, thief! Malaysia’s PM is about to steal an election”.

I fully endorse this offer of free legal services from DAP, and Najib can choose anyone of the DAP lawyers to defend his reputation and that of the nation.

But  it is  a full week, and there has been thunderous silence from Najib, with no response whatsoever  from Najib on the Economist’s article calling him a thief who is to steal the 14th General Election – or the MSNBC television host Rachel Maddow who called Najib a thief in the Rachel Maddow Show programme on March 9 because of the international multi-billion 1MDB money-laundering scandal.

I want to ask Najib a direct question – why speak on a multitude of issues in the past week but keep silent on the allegations of global double kleptocracy?

I had  said ten days ago  that the 1MDB money-laundering scandal had literally been “raining cats and dogs” worldwide with bad news  for Najib,  the Malaysian government  and people since the seizure of the Bombadier jet in Singapore early February, followed by the following events::

•	the seizure of Equanimity luxury super-yacht  in Bali at the  end of February;

•	the CNBC special programme on “What happened to Malaysia’s 1MDB money” on March 1;

•	report that the “Wolf Of Wall Street” producers agreed to pay US$60 million to US Department of Justice (DoJ) in kleptocratic lawsuit settlement;

•	report that the son of the Australian Prime Minister, Alex Turnbull, was a victim of 1MDB scandal as he was sidelined from his executive position at Goldman Sachs after acting as a whistle-blower on allegedly shady deals involving billions between the global investment bank and 1MDB;

•	report that  a top  Republican fundraiser close to President Donald Trump had asked as much as US$75 million (RM295 million) from Jho  Low to  get the United States Department of Justice (DoJ) to stop investigating the 1MDB scandal;

•	Malaysian officials including  Ministers, Deputy Minister and even the Inspector-General Police rushing to defend Jho Low and the 1MDB scandal like the IGP claiming that there is “nothing to link Jho Low with 1MDB” and the Communications and Multimedia Minister, Datuk Seri Salleh Said Keruak claiming that there was no evidence the luxury  superyacht seized by Indonesian authorities and FBI  is owned by Jho Low;

•	and the two international media organizations, the Economist and MSNBC  publicly calling Najib a “thief” transforming Malaysia into a global double kleptocracy;

•	the Swiss Parliament debate on the motion today  on the repatriation of funds to the people of Malaysia of some RM400 million 1MDB-linked funds confiscated from Swiss banks in the 1MDB money-laundering scandal.

But the “rain cats and dogs” have not stopped.

Two days ago on Monday, the international human rights and anti-corruption NGO, Global Witness, released a 26-page report, entitled “The Real Thieves of Wall Street” in its campaign to get the UK financial regulator, Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), to investigate Royal Bank of Scotland and Standard Chartered for handling more than US$2 billion of allegedly embezzled funds from 1MDB.

Global Witness said in its  26-page report that the 1MDB affair was “a clear failure” by the banks because they “ignored the rules, turned a blind eye, kept profitable clients and continued handling billions of dollars of dirty money despite clear warning signs”.

The Global Witness report quoted the United Nations estimates that law enforcement seize and freeze less than 1% of criminal funds laundered through the international financial system.

It said: “Behind every flow of laundered funds lies a crime, and those crimes have victims”

“It now appears likely that 1MDB will fail to repay its debts, given the scale of embezzlement alleged to have taken place. If that happens the Malaysian government will face a bill greater than the country’s annual healthcare budget. In the end, the people of Malaysia will pay the price.”

The government however is in the centre of a conspiracy to make Malaysians believe that the 1MDB scandal is a victim-less crime, in fact, that it is all fake news and simply did exist.

I am ashamed to be a MP for a Parliament which is in the thick of this conspiracy where the 1MDB scandal has been elevated into a taboo subject, where questions cannot  be asked and motions moved.

This is probably the last fortnight for the present Parliament.

Malaysians must have a Parliament which they can feel proud of – a Parliament which understands the Malaysian Dream of all Malaysians and not one which is like the traditional three monkeys, eyes that see not, ears that hear not and mouth that speaks not.

I do not know whether I will be back in the 14th Parliament, but I hope to see a Parliament elected that can give space  to the Malaysian Dream of all Malaysians – one where the Damansara Utama Assemblywoman who will leave Klang Valley to the frontline battle front of the 14GE in Johore can take her rightful place.

Let me outline my three basic principles in my 52 years of political commitment:

Firstly, I am in politics because of the Malaysian Dream, which I believe is shared by many Malaysians down the decades who have undivided love and loyalty to Malaysia – to build a nation where all Malaysians, regardless of their different racial, religious or regional backgrounds, are united and feel as one because they are Malaysians and proud to be a Malaysian, and where Malaysia can leverage on the best of the diverse races, cultures, religions and civilizations which meet in confluence in Malaysia, to be a top world nation in different fields of human endeavour.

Secondly, DAP has always been a party for all Malaysians and never a party for any one race. DAP leaders, who come from diverse ethnic and religious groups, never aspire to be leaders of only one ethinic or religious group, as we always see ourselves as representing all Malaysians regardless of race, religion or region.

No person can be a Malaysian leader if he or she is against any one race or religion or concerned only about the rights and interests of only one community – as Malaysian leaders, we  must set an example of rising above the racial, religious and regional differences in the country to serve the common national weal.

Thirdly, Malaysian who had supported DAP loyally and consistently in the past half a century did so not because they want a Chinese Malaysian or an Indian Malaysia, as they know that DAP never advocated a Chinese Malaysia, Indian Malaysia or Malay Malaysia, but because of the Malaysian Dream to build a Malaysia where all citizens, regardless of race, religion or region, have a rightful place under the Malaysian sun.

Let all Malaysians, whether in Malaysia and the Diaspora, heed the call to Save Malaysia in the 14th General Election  by resetting nation-building directions and policies to achieve the Malaysian Dream of excellence, justice, integrity, freedom and harmony so that the country can be “a beacon of light in a disturbed and distracted world”.

(Speech in Parliament on the Royal Address debate on Thursday, 15th March 2018)

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Wee should spell out the “larger picture” of MCA – whether it is continue to be UMNO’s catspaw like what the MCA Deputy President is doing to blacken Penang Pakatan Harapan state government’s reputation to distract attention from 1MDB scandal and Malaysia’s global kleptocracy?

MCA Deputy President Datuk Seri Wee Ka Siong should spell out what is the “larger picture” he wants ordinary MCA members to look at – whether it is for MCA leaders to continue to be UMNO’s catspaw like what Wee is doing to blacken Penang Pakatan Harapan state government’s reputation so as  to distract national and international attention from the multi-billion dollar 1MDB money-laundering scandal and Malaysia’s global kleptocracy?

Wee today asked MCA party members to look at the bigger picture amid a revolt in Alor Gajah following an attempt to field Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak’s aide in the parliamentary constituency in the coming polls.

Wee should spell out this “bigger picture”, whether the MCA members must agree that UMNO President can override the MCA President in the nomination of MCA candidates for the 14th General Election?

If so, the present MCA national leadership would be creating another MCA history – after creating history where the three top MCA national leaders, the MCA President, Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai, the MCA Deputy President, Datuk Seri Wee Ka Siong, and the MCA Secretary-General Datuk Seri Ong Ka Chuan dare not contest in Chinese-voter majority seats but must depend on UMNO’s Malay votes to win in Parliament and get into Cabinet?

(Media Statement in Parliament on Thursday, 15th March 2018)

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Challenge to Najib to hold a freewheeling “Answer All on 1MDB” media event in Sydney to reply to 1MDB queries and issues which he had been avoiding and evading for the past three years

Before I left Kuala Lumpur this morning for Gelang Patah, I had issued a media statement asking whether the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak would be going to Sydney to attend the ASEAN-Australia Special Summit for this weekend, as the two issues of 1MDB scandal  and Malaysia as a global kleptocracy had been dogging him in his international itinerary.

Since then, Putrajaya has issued a statement confirming that Najib would be going to Sydney for the ASEAN-Australian Special Summit.

I challenge Najib to hold a freewheeling “Answer All on 1MDB” media event in Sydney to reply to 1MDB queries and issues which he had been avoiding and evading for the past three years.

When Najib visited US President Donald Trump at the White House last September, it was quite unprecedented as  there was no joint media conference involving  Najib at all – although the international press must be very eager to ask the Malaysian Prime Minister  questions about the 1MDB scandal and Malaysia as a global kleptocracy!

Would Najib meet the media in Sydney or would he again give it a miss?

If Najib again avoid the international media in Sydney, this would be most extraordinary indeed – creating the spectacle of a Malaysian Prime Minister who is afraid to have a freewheeling media conference with the international press.

Let Najib hold the freewheeling “Answer All on 1MDB” media event in Sydney as a first step  of an international campaign by Malaysia to cleanse and purge Malaysia of the 3Is – infamy, ignominy and iniquity – of a global kleptocracy!

(Speech (3) at a DAP kopitiam ceramah at Pekan Nenas, Johor on Friday, March 16, 2018 at 2 pm)

                This entry was posted on Friday, 16 March 2018, 5:47 pm and is filed under
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Is Wee Ka Siong the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department performing the role as UMNO’s “Ninja assassin” to assassinate Penang Pakatan Harapan State Government’s reputation and integrity?

In the past month, the MCA Deputy President Datuk Seri Wee Ka Siong had been very busy, making almost daily attacks on the Penang Pakatan Harapan State Government with wild allegations that it is utterly corrupt over the undersea tunnel project.

If Wee has a reputation as an anti-corruption warrior in Malaysia, this would be understandable, but the reverse is actually  the case.

Over the past three years when Malaysia had been rocked by the international multi-billion dollar 1MDB money-laundering scandal, which had stained and tarnished Malaysia’s international reputation as it is regarded world-wide as a global kleptocracy, there was not a word of concern or query from Ka Siong and the MCA Ministers and leaders.

Instead, since June 2014, although the MCA had been reduced into a 7/11 political party in the 2013 General Election, Wee together with two other MCA leaders had enjoyed the perks and privileges of  Cabinet Ministers of a kleptocracy under Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

Malaysians must ask whether Wee has in fact become the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department whose most important assignment is to perform  the role as UMNO’s “Ninja assassin” to assassinate Penang Pakatan Harapan State Government’s reputation and integrity with wild allegations as if the Penang Pakatan Harapan State Government is utterly corrupt and decadent.

This will help to deflect the kleptocratic reputation of the Najib government over the 1MDB scandal  which had earned for Malaysia the three 3Is of infamy,  ignominy and iniquity of being regarded worldwide  as a global  kleptocracy!

(Speech at the DAP kopitiam dialogue in Pekan Nenas, Johor on Friday, March 16, 2018 at 1 pm)

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Will Najib back out of the ASEAN-Australia Special Summit as he is again dogged by the 3Is – infamy,  ignominy and iniquity –   1MDB scandal and Malaysia as a global kleptocracy

Will the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak back out of the ASEAN-Australia Special Summit in Sydney this weekend as he is again  dogged by the 3Is – infamy, ignominy and iniquity – of the international multi-billion dollar 1MDB money-laundering scandal and Malaysia as a global kleptocracy?

Although the Swiss Parliament yesterday rejected the motion  seeking the repatriation of the Swiss government’s seizure of some RM430 million of 1MDB-embezzled funds from Swiss banks to the people of Malaysia, Najib and the Malaysian Government  have not come out of the Swiss Parliamentary motion and scrutiny smelling like roses.

The Swiss motion by Swiss Social Democratic Party (SP) MP, Carlo Sommaruga was defeated by 138 votes against it and 53 vote for it.

But it was not defeated  because the Swiss government rejected the principle of the repatriation of corruption money hidden or  stashed away overseas from their country of origin and their use to benefit the nationals harmed by such corrupt practices – a principle accepted internationally as a result of the United Nations Convention Against Corruption 2003.

Article 35 of the UN  Convention Against Corruption upheld the principle that “entities or persons who have suffered damage as a result of an act of corruption have the right to initiate legal proceedings against those responsible for that damage in order to obtain compensation”.

The Swiss motion was defeated in the Swiss Parliament because, as stated by the Swiss Foreign Minister, the motion was too “open” raising issues on the separation of powers.

While the Swiss government recognizes the principle of restitution of confiscated assets from corruption, embezzlement and money-laundering if the origin of the assets was located outside Switzerland, the Swiss government criticized the formulation of the motion as “quite open, quite general” and suggested that a new motion which is more focused be presented.

Peter Hug, the international secretary of the Swiss Social Democratic Party (SP) which tabled the motion, has said that “final word” on the restitution of the  confiscated 1MDB-linked assets had not been made, and that the “big mobilization in Malaysia” had its effects and should be maintained.

Hug said: “I am quite optimistic that in the end, the confiscated 1MDB assets shall be restituted to the Malaysian people. This is the aim of the Social Democratic Party of Switzerland and we shall do our best to succeed.”

The funds in question were seized by the Swiss government from three banks – BSI Bank, Coutts & Co and Falcon Bank – after they were implicated in the laundering 1MDB-linked monies. The banks are appealing the seizures in the Federal Administration Court.

Swiss Finance Minister Ueli Maurer said previously that the funds seized have since flowed into the Swiss Federal Treasury because there were no claimants.

The repatriation of the RM430 million illicit funds confiscated by the Swiss financial regulator will remain a live subject in Switzerland, and if  Pakatan Harapan takes over Putrajaya in the 14th General Election, expected to be held within 60 days, the new Pakatan Harapan Federal Government will lodge an official claim with the Swiss Government for the RM430 million illicit funds.

In Australia, itself, there  is the latest expose that the son of Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, Alex Turnbull, was a victim of the 1MDB scandal when he was sidelined when he acted as “whistle blower” to expose misconduct in Goldman Sachs in Singapore in its dealings with 1MDB.

Alex Turnbull was  working for the global investment bank Goldman Sachs in Singapore in 2012 and 2013 and had raised concerns about a deal that raised around US$6 billion in loans for 1MDB.

The deals brought in US$593 million for Goldman Sachs and were part of a scheme in which, according to the United States Justice Department, Malaysian figures including Prime Minister Najib Razak illegally received billions of dollars from the state fund.

Will the latest 1MDB scandal  developments, whether the motion in the Swiss Parliament yesterday or the expose of the Australian Prime Minister’s son, feature in the ASEAN-Australia Summit in Sydney tomorrow and Sunday, or at least in the bilateral meetings between Najib and  Malcolm Turnbull.

Or will Najib make a last-minute decision to back out of the ASEAN –Australia Special Summit and send his deputy instead to attend the Sydney Summit?

If so, this will not be the first time, and unlikely to be the last time, of Najib making a last-minute pull-out from an international conference because of the 1MDB scandal.

The first time Najib made a last-minute pull-out of an international conference was in his home turf  in Putrajaya, – the 16th International Anti-Corruption Conference (IACC) in September 2015, where the Transparency International Chairman Jose Ugaz spoke about Malaysia facing a corruption crisis because of the 1MDB scandal.

Some 30 months have passed since the infamous  16th IACC in Putrajaya, but despite Najib’s undertaking to some 1,000 UMNO divisional leaders and selected representatives of NGOs that the 1MDB scandal would  be resolved by the end of 2015, 1MDB scandal has continued to escalate  in magnitude  in international forums and conferences, dogging Najib’s international itinerary.

May be Najib should ask for a meet-up in Sydney with Australian supermodel, Miranda Kerr,who made international headlines with American actor Leonardo DiCaprio last year in handing over their multi-million US dollar gifts from  1MDB mastermind Jho Low to the US Department of Justice (DOJ).

The American actor turned over an Oscar won by Marlon Brando to US investigators probing money laundering by 1MDB as well as initiated the return of other, unidentified items that the actor said he accepted as gifts for a charity auction and which originated from the international 1MDB money-laundering scandal.

In its additional kleptocratic litigation filing on 15th June 2017, the US DOJ moved to seize artwork by Picasso and Basquiat that it said had been purchased with laundered Malaysian money and gifted to DiCaprio by associates of Red Granite.

The latest DOJ filing also sought to seize the assets of two other Red Granite produced films which US investigators alleged were financed by money from the 1MDB fund – the 2014 comedy “Dumb and Dumber To” starring Jim Carrey, and 2015 comedy “Daddy’s Home” starring Will Ferrell.

Melinda Kerr on her part, transferred the gifts given to her by Jho Low but which were diverted and misappropriated from 1MDB  to DOJ agents from her safe-deposit box in Los Angeles.

Among the presents were  an 11.72 carat heart-shaped diamond valued at US$1.29 million and a US$3.8 million 8.88 carat diamond pendant.

The heart-shaped diamond pendant was gifted to Kerr by Jho Low on Valentine’s Day 2014 while the heart-shaped necklace came from New York-based designer Lorraine Schwartz.

The DoJ had filed three civil suits to seize assets, including Kerr’s jewellery, allegedly bought with money siphoned off 1MDB.

Other assets include Low’s US$250 million yacht, real estate in London, New York and Los Angeles, artworks and the gifts to “wife of MO1” – including a US$27.3 million 22-carat pink diamond necklace and 27 different 18-carat gold necklaces and bracelets worth US$1.3 million.

It was reported by the Australia media at the time that in August 2014,  Kerr and her Californian-based agent Kristal Fox, enjoyed Low’s hospitality aboard his $250 million superyacht Equanimity while it was bobbing off the idyllic coastline of Corfu.

The billion-ringgit Equanimity superyacht were impounded by the Indonesian authorities early this month to be handed to the US authorities targeting assets bought with money siphoned from 1MDB.

Fresh from splitting with her husband Orlando Bloom, Kerr was spotted in Corfu at the time and even made the local press, but it was her host who is raising eyebrows three years later as the central figure in a corruption scandal that has engulfed Malaysia’s powerful elite.

More than nine months have passed since the US DoJ’s new revelations about Jho Low’s gifts to the “wife of MO1”,  diverted and misappropriated from 1MDB funds, such as the US$27.3 million 22-carat pink diamond necklace and 27 different 18-carat gold necklaces and bracelets worth US$1.3 million.

Malaysians and the world have yet to hear whether the “wife of MO1” would emulate Miranda Kerr and Leonardo DiCaprio to hand over to the US DOJ investigators all these multi-million US dollar worth of jewellery gifts from Jho Low as they had been diverted and misappropriated from 1MDB funds.

May be Najib can use his Sydney trip to the ASEAN-Australia Summit to begin to answer the myriad questions about the 1MDB scandal, which he had been dodging in the past three years, although 1MDB scandal continues to dog him wherever he goes, whether nationally or internationally.

But first question first – is Najib flying to Sydney for the ASEAN-Australia Summit?

(Media Statement in Kuala Lumpur on Friday, 16th March 2018)

                This entry was posted on Friday, 16 March 2018, 8:56 am and is filed under
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Wong Nai Chee should advise Najib to tender public apology to Robert Kuok in Parliament next week or resign as Prime Minister’s political secretary and refuse to be a MCA candidate in the 14GE if his advice is not accepted

MCA Alor Gajah has questioned where Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak’s political aide Wong Nai Chee was, when Malaysian tycoon Robert Kuok was subject to a gratuitous, malicious, baseless and savage attack by UMNO leaders recently in their opposition to Wong’s candidacy as Barisan Nasional parliamentary candidate in Alor Gajah in place of the current incumbent Koh Nai Kwong.

I am very interested in the question as to what are Wong’s political contributions in the past, when MCA Alor Gajah asked what right Wong had to contest in the Alor Gajah parliamentary seat.

During my speech in Parliament yesterday in the debate of thanks  on the Yang di Pertuan Agong’s Royal Address, I specifically referred to the recent four-day UMNO bashing of Malaysian tycoon Robert Kuok, where he was subjected to four days of demonization and gratuitous, baseless, malicious and savage UMNO attacks over the false accusation that he had funded the DAP to topple the Barisan Nasional.

I had called on the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, to tender an official and public apology to Robert Kuok in Parliament during the Ministerial winding-up of the debate next week for the gratuitous, malicious, baseless and savage attacks which UMNO leaders had made on Robert Kuok recently.

As Wong is Najib’s political secretary, Wong should advise Najib to tender the  public apology to Robert Kuok in Parliament next week or resign as Prime Minister’s political secretary and refuse to be a MCA candidate in the 14GE if his advice is not accepted.

(Speech (2) at the DAP kopitiam dialogue in Pekan Nenas, Johor on Friday, March 16, 2018 at 1 pm)

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DAP will  field more youths and women as parliamentary and state assembly candidates and I look forward to Yeo Bee Yin and Hannah Yeoh as new DAP MPs in new Parliament

DAP will field more youths and women as parliamentary and state assembly candidates in the 14th General Election and I look forward to Yeo Bee Yin and Hannah Yeoh as among the new DAP MPs in the new Parliament.

I asked just now how many are older than me, and two persons  identified themselves by a show of hands.

Three of us are the oldest in this gathering, but although we are septuagenarians or octogenarians (and Tun Mahathir is a nonagenarian, who will be 93 years  old in another four months’ time), Malaysians in their seventies, eighties and even nineties, just like new generation of young Malaysians whether in their teens, twenties or thirties, have a Malaysian Dream we want to fulfill – not for the sake of ourselves  as far as the septuagenarians, octogenarians and nonagenarians are concerned, but for our children and children’s children and for the country.

We all want Malaysia to be more united, harmonious, tolerant, developed, progressive, prosperous and democratic, a country where all Malaysians, regardless of race, religion, politics or class can feel proud of the country because it is a top world-class nation in every field of human endeavor.

But this is not the case, for after six decades of nation building, Malaysia has failed Malaysians and we have fallen down the ladder of nations in human excellence, achievements and accomplishments.

We have lost our way in the past six decades with countries more economically, educationally and politically backward than Malaysia having overtaken us on all fronts of human endeavor, becoming not only richer and more developed and prosperous, but less corrupt and more democratic and more respectful of the principles of good governance and the rule of law.

The 14th General Election will be the occasion for Malaysians, regardless of race, religion, politics or age to set things right in the country  by re-setting nation-building policies and directions and by returning  to the fundamental principles of harmony, tolerance, moderation and checks-and-balance to make Malaysia a top world-class nation in every field of human endeavor instead of becoming a global kleptocracy  scorned and mocked by other nations!

(Speech at the DAP kopitiam ceramah at Stulang, Johor Baru on Saturday, March 17, 2018 at 1 pm)

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Greatest feat of Ka Siong as UMNO’s “ninja assassin” is to concoct  a RM20 billion Penang undersea tunnel scandal out of nothing – to distract attention from Najib’s RM50 billion 1MDB scandal

The greatest feat of MCA Deputy President Datuk Seri Wee Ka Siong as UMNO’s “ninja assassin” to assassinate DAP and Pakatan Harapan’s reputation and integrity is to concoct  a RM20 billion Penang undersea tunnel scandal out of nothing – to distract attention from Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s RM50 billion 1MDB scandal, which is acknowledged all over the world and “shot” Malaysia in a matter of three years into a global kleptocracy!

I am utterly shocked that Wee has so lost his moral compass – which Malaysian tycoon Robert Kuok has emphasized in his Memoirs as one of the two factors which decided the rise or fall of nations – that he could so brazenly and irresponsibly concoct a RM20 billion Penang undersea tunnel out of nothing.

In what is probably my last speech in the present 13th Parliament on Thursday – I expect Parliament to be dissolved as early as in a fortnight’s time – I had commended Robert Kuok’s Memoirs as a “must” reading for all Malaysian leaders, in particular all Ministers, Deputy Ministers, Members of Parliament as well as the top public officials, whether the Chief Secretary, the Attorney-General, Inspector-General of Police, the Chief Justice, the Auditor-General, the MACC Chief Commissioner, to learn about Robert Kuok’s view of the two factors deciding the rise  or fall of nations.

One is for a nation to have a moral compass and the other is the rule of law.

Has Wee read Robert Kuok’s memoirs and does he understand what Robert Kuok is saying?

In my 52 years of politics, I have met and dealt with virtually all MCA Presidents and Deputy Presidents except for founding MCA President Tun Tan Cheng Lock, but I have yet to across one who is so devoid of moral compass like Wee who is prepared to play the role of UMNO’s “ninja assassin” to assassinate DAP’s reputation and integrity by  concocting  a RM20 billion Penang undersee tunnel  corruption scandal  out of completely nothing!

How low could Wee go?

Is this the MCA of tomorrow?

It is reported that Wee is poised to take  his RM20 billion tunnel war to Penang on 30th March in a MCA forum in Bagan.

So far, Wee is the only person not only in MCA, but in Barisan Nasional or in Malaysia who knows anything about the RM20 billion Penang tunnel corruption scandal. I wait for the second person who can understand and endorse Wee’s RM20 billion Penang tunnel fable.

Since Wee is so obsessed with the non-existent RM20 billion Penang tunnel scandal, why don’t he take the issue to Penang and stand as a candidate in Penang in the 14GE?

MCA faced DAP in three parliamentary constituencies in Penang – Bagan, Bukit Mertajam and Bukit Glugor.

He can pick anyone of the three parliamentary constituencies in Penang, which DAP had won with majorities ranging from over 34,000 votes to over 43,000 votes in the 2013 General Election, to personally contest and peddle his “fantasy of the century” – the RM20 billion Penang undersea tunnel corruption scandal.

With his active propagation  of the non-existent RM20 billion Penang undersea tunnel corruption scandal, Wee’s total silence in the past three years on Malaysia’s greatest financial scandal is quite deafening.

Can Wee explain why he had not dared to breathe a single word about the 1MDB scandal in Parliament or Cabinet in the past three years, or even inside the safety of MCA, although the 1MDB scandal – unlike his phantom of  RM20 billion Penang undersea tunnel – is real and true, acknowledged both inside the country and internationally.

In fact, the whole world has now regarded Malaysia as a global kleptocracy because of the 1MDB scandal.

If Wee has such strong stand against corruption and financial scandals, can he explain why he continues to be a Minister of a government which is regarded as a kleptocracy by the world?

(Speech at the DAP kopitiam ceramah in Johor Jaya on Saturday, 17th March 2018 at 10 am)

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 17 March 2018, 10:12 am and is filed under
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I fully support UMNO veterans who declare that it is treason to defend Jho Low who had caused Malaysia to be scorned worldwide as a global kleptocracy

I fully support UMNO veterans who declare that it is treason to defend 1MDB scandal mastermind Jho Low who had caused Malaysia to be scorned worldwide as a global kleptocracy.

The question is whether the Prime Minister and UMNO President Datuk Seri Najib Razak support this view.

Recently, we have the Minister for Communications and Multimedia, Datuk Salleh Said Keruak who said that there is no evidence the billion-ringgit luxury superyacht Equanimity seized by the Indonesian authorities in Bali recently  is owned by Jho Low and the Inspector-General of Police, Tan Sri Fuzi Harun who made an even more startling statement that there is “nothing to link Jho Low with IMDB”.

Umno Veterans Club secretary Mustapha Yaakub has  said that a sane Umno leader would never support Jho Low, much less “love” the man.

According to Sinar Harian Onlne today, the UMNO Veterans Club is of the view that it is  treason to defend  Jho Low because the businessman is at the root of the 1Malaysia Development Bhd scandal and has caused the government to be dragged into the mud.

Would the UMNO Veterans Club declare the Communications and Multimedia Minister and the Inspector-General of Police as “traitors” because of the statements they made about Jho Low?

(Media Statement in Gelang Patah on Saturday, 17th March 2018)

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 17 March 2018, 5:41 pm and is filed under
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No “comfort zone” for DAP leaders, who must be prepared to take risks so that Pakatan Harapan can succeed in its mission to  create a national “political tsunami” in the 14GE to Save Malaysia from kleptocracy

Two nights ago,  the DAP Selangor State Assemblywoman for Damansara Utama, Yeo Bee Yin, announced that she was responding to the DAP’s call to contest in Johor in the imminent 14th General Election, as Parliament could be dissolved as early as in a fortnight’s time.

This is a very bold, courageous and selfless decision, for Bee Yin would be leaving the Damansara Utama state assembly seat, which she won with the biggest majority of all Selangor state assembly seats  five years ago  – a huge majority of 30,689 votes, having polled 37,303 votes as against her MCA opponent who polled 6,614 votes in the 2013 general elections.

She entered the Selangor State Assembly in 2013  as the youngest legislator in the 56-member legislature.

Why is  Bee Yin leaving Damansara Utama which she won with 30,680-vote majority, instead of staying behind in Selangor in the very comfortable State Assembly seat?

Bee Yin is following the example of DAP leaders, like Liew Chin Tong the DAP Johor Chairman and MP for Kluang  and Teo Nie Ching, the MP  for  Kulai to leave comfortable and safe seats in Penang or Selangor  for the unknown in Johor, facing high risks of whether she would get elected or not, because for DAP leaders worth their salt,  there can be no “comfort zones” as they must be prepared to take risks so that Pakatan Harapan can succeed in its mission to create a national political tsunami in the 14th General Election to save Malaysia from kleptocracy.

I said in Parliament yesterday in what was probably my last speech in the 13th Parliament, I do not know whether I would be  back in Parliament in the 14th General Election, but Malaysians must have a Parliament which they can feel proud of – a Parliament which understands the Malaysian Dream of all Malaysians  for Malaysia to be  top world-class nation and dares to address the great Malaysian issues of the day, like the 1MDB scandal,  and not one which is like the traditional three monkeys, eyes that see not, ears that hear not and mouth that speaks not.

I expressed the hope that the new Parliament to be elected in the 14th General Election would be one which can give space to the Malaysian Dream of all Malaysians, regardless of race or religion, and one where more young Malaysians like Bee Yin can take their rightful places in the Malaysian Parliament.

Tonight, we see history being made in Gelang Patah, Johore and Malaysia – as what was unimaginable in the past is now taking place before our eyes.

We have PPBM from Gelang Patah and Johore with us, on the eve of the Ayer Hitam gathering on Sunday when the Chairman of Pakatan Harapan Tun Mahathir Mohamad  will announce the Pakatan Harapan candidate for the parliamentary seat for Ayer Hitam.

Let all parties in Pakatan Harapan – DAP, PKR, AMANAH and Bersatu – work hard and in unison to create history in Johor and Malaysia and  for the first change of Federal Government in the 61 year history of the nation’.

Let all Pakatan Harapan leaders and activists  be prepared to make great personal sacrifices to create history in Malaysia, like Bee Yin is doing.

One of the first things a new Pakatan Harapan Federal Government in Putrajaya will do is to submit formal claims to the United States, Switzerland and other countries to ask for the repatriation of “dirty money” linked to the 1MDB scandal which have found their way to their shores – like the RM430 million 1MDB-linked funds in Switzerland and the US$1.7  billion of 1MDB-linked assets which the United States Department of Justice (DoJ) is targeting in its forfeiture action under the Kleptocratic Assets Recovery Initiative in the American courts.

The Najib government is not laying any claim for these 1MDB-linked billions in foreign countries, on the pretence  that there is no 1MDB scandal and that 1MDB had not lost any monies at all.

The Najib government has to take this ridiculous stand because of its denial complex although the whole world knows about the 1MDB scandal, which has made Malaysia suffer the 3Is of infamy, ignominy and iniquity  of being regarded worldwide as a global kleptocracy.

But the new Pakatan Harapan Federal Government in Putrajaya will immediately abandon this charade and  ridiculous stand.

We will appoint an Attorney-General and heads of national institutions to actively pursue the repatriation of these 1MDB billions from other countries to Malaysia, apart from uncovering the crimes of  corruption, embezzlement and money-laundering in the 1MDB scandal and bringing the 1MDB criminals to book.

The RM430 million 1MDB-linked funds in Switzerland, the billion-ringgit Equanimity luxury superyacht impounded in Bali early this month, the US$35 Bombardier jet seized in Singapore last month, and the billions of US dollars worth of 1MDB-linked assets like the hotels and real estate including New York’s Park Lane Hotel, the US$30 million penthouse at Time Warner Center in New York, the US$107 million interest in EMI Music Publishing, the strings of million-dollar jewelleries, films and paintings, all belong to the people of Malaysia – and the Pakatan Harapan Federal Government will officially lay claim to them  with the other governments on our entering Putrajaya!

(Speech at the DAP Gelang Patah ceramah on Friday, March 16, 2018 at 10 pm)

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 17 March 2018, 7:57 am and is filed under
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I have been a victim of UMN/BN “fake news” for the last four decades  – UMNO leaders accuse me of being anti-Malay while MCA leaders accuse me of being anti-Chinese and had  sold out the rights of the Chinese to the Malays

“Fake News” is the latest fashion of the day. The present preoccupation with fake news was started by Donald Trump, the President of United States, and it has been taken up with gusto by the Prime Minister of Malaysia, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, not so much to combat fake news, but to provide the circumstances  and wherewithal  to concoct and peddle fake news with immunity and impunity while suppressing truth and embarrassing news emanating from the Opposition and civil society.

What Najib, just like Trump, is doing is to launch a “fake anti-fake news” campaign!

I have myself been a victim of UMNO/BN “fake news” for the last four decades –  UMNO leaders accused me of being anti-Malay and anti-Islam while MCA leaders accuse me of being anti-Chinese and sold out the rights of the Chinese to the Malays!

How a person can be both anti-Malay and anti-Chinese I do not know.

DAP and I have also been accused of wanting to do away with Islam as the official religion and bring about a Christian Malaysia.

How is this possible when I am not even a Christian beggars belief.

DAP’s position on Islam as the official religion is clear and unequivocal, as we have many a time expressed full support for the basic constitutional provisions in the country.

It has always been my life-long  political creed that no responsible political movement in Malaysia can be  against any race or religion, that we must not  be anti-Malay, anti-Chinese or anti-Indian, anti-Kadazan or anti-Iban, but must be pro-Malaysian and support the basic rights and interests of all Malaysians, regardless of race, religion, region or even politics.

UMNO leaders are trying to create fear among the Malays, warning the Malays of the “Chinese peril” and that the Malays would lose  all their rights if UMNO is defeated in the forthcoming general election.

Is this true? Will the Malay lose all their rights if UMNO is defeated in the 14GE to be held within 60 days?

National Laureate, Pak Samad, can never understand how Malays will perish if UMNO loses in elections.

No UMNO leader had been able to answer the two questions posed by the National Laureate Pak Samad to expose such fake news and political lies, viz:

*How are Malays under threat? How can religion (Islam) and Malays be threatened when those in power have been Malay for six decades?

*What have they (Malay leaders) been doing in six decades (if Malays can be under threat)?”

The fears that UMNO leaders have been generating to keep themselves in power – that if UMNO is defeated in a general election, Malays will lose political power and become strangers in their own land – is a great  double lie, for the Malays will not lose political power if UMNO is evicted from Putrajaya.

Three  demographic factors, and even more important, a critical electoral factor, will prove that UMNO leaders were spouting lies and falsehoods when they try to panic Malays into thinking that without UMNO, Malays will perish.

The incontrovertible fact is that Malays will not lose political power whatever happens to Najib or to UMNO in the next general election.

In 1957, Malaya’s population comprised 49.8% Malays, 37.2% Chinese, 11.1% Indians and 2% Other.s

In 1970 Malaysia’s population comprised 44.32% Malays, 34.34% Chinese, 8.99% Indians, 11.89% non-Malay Bumiputeras, 0.67% others.

In 2010, the percentage of Malays in the Malaysian population increased to 55.07%, Chinese reduced to 24.34%, Indians dropped to 7.35%, non-Malay Bumiputeras maintained at 11.94% and 1.3% others.

The  Malaysian Chief Statistician has predicted that the Chinese percentage of the population would shrink to 19.6% in 2030 and 18.9% in 2035.

Why then are the UMNO leaders continue to beat the drum of the “Chinese peril” in Malaysia?

During the 13th general election, 52.63% of the voters were Malays, 29.68% Chinese, 7.31% Indians, 8.96% non-Malay Bumiputeras and 1.43% others.

Out of the 165 Parliamentary seats in Peninsular Malaysia, 114 are Malay majority seats representing some 70%, 22 Chinese majority seats (13%) and 29 mixed seats. There is not a single Indian majority seat.

These triple demographic factors, which will be a continuing trend in the coming years, establish the overwhelming Malay predominance in the Malaysian political scene and why there is no way the Malays can lose political power if UMNO is defeated in a general election!

But apart from these three demographic factors, there is the critical democratic factor which will ensure that the Malays will not lose their rights and become strangers in their own land as warned by UMNO leaders.

We in Pakatan Harapan wants to win not just the 14th General Election, but also future general elections – the 15th, 16th and others thereafter.

A Pakatan Harapan Federal Government which wants its government mandate to be renewed in subsequent General Elections must be able prove in the next five years before the 15GE that  a Pakatran Harapan Government in Putrajaya is better than UMNO/BN government for all Malaysians, whether Malays, Chinese, Indians, Kadazans, Ibans or Orang Asli or be voted out of Putrajaya in the 15th General Election in five years’ time.

The three demographic factors together with this critical electoral factor are  the surest guarantee that the UMNO threat that Malays will perish if UMNO is defeated is an empty one, with  no basis or truth whatsoever.

(Speech at the DAP warong dialogue at Kampong Dato Sulaiman Menteri, Johor Baru on Saturday, 17th March 2018 at 10 pm)

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 18 March 2018, 7:23 am and is filed under
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If Pakatan Harapan can win Ayer Hitam parliamentary seat, it has two important implications: Pakatan Harapan can form the Federal Government in Putrajaya and the Johor State Government in Nusajaya

All eyes not only in Johor, but the whole of Malaysia, are on Ayer Hitam tomorrow, where Pakatan Harapan Chairman Tun Mahathir Mohamad will announce the Pakatan Harapan candidate for the Ayer Hitam parliamentary constituency and take on the Deputy MCA President and Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Wee Ka Siong.

Up to now, national attention is focused on personalities – who will contest against Wee in the Barisan Nasional safe seat and where Wee had been MP for three terms since the 2004 General Election.

But  even more important than the battle of the candidates, of who versus who, is the meaning of the battle of the  Ayer Hitam constituency in the 14th General Election.

If Pakatan Harapan can win the Ayer Hitam parliamentary constituency, it has two important implications: firstly, that Pakatan Harapan can form the Federal Government in Putrajaya in the 14th General Election with Tun Mahathir as Malaysia’s seventh Prime Minister and Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim as Malaysia’s eighth Prime Minister; and secondly, that Pakatan Harapan can also form the new Johore State Government in Nusajaya or Iskandar Puteri.

Malaysia will then, after six decades of nation-building, join  the rank of normal democracies like India, South Korea, Japan, the Philippines and even Indonesia, where voters can peacefully and democratically exercise their constitutional right to change the government whether at the Federal or State level without any threat, dire warning or occurrence of chaos or catastrophe!

Malaysia becoming a and normal and mature democracy is  more important from the national historical perspective, although the issue of personalities, as to which candidate will emerge triumphant in the titanic electoral battle in Ayer Hitam will the capture the imagination of the peoples in the 14th General Election and be the national cynosure  in the great electoral battle in the next 60 days.

(Speech at the DAP kopitiam dialogue at Pengkalan Rinting, Johor Baru on Saturday, 17th March 2918 at 8 pm)

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 18 March 2018, 7:13 am and is filed under
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All the eleven previous MCA President would not do what Liow Tiong Lai had done, losing all moral compass as to stoop so low and  tell baldfaced  lies which confirm his epithet as “Tung Shin Liow”

All the eleven previous MCA Presidents and Acting Presidents  would not do what the current MCA President, Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai, did in Johor Jaya yesterday, losing all  moral compass as to stoop so low and  tell bald-faced lies which confirm his epithet as “Tung Shin Liow”.

According to the MCA’s Star, Liow unleashed an attack on DAP, accusing the DAP of taking the Chinese support for granted after getting huge support  from the Chinese community in garnering 85% of the Chinese votes in the last general election.

At the MCA 14TH General Election mobilization rally in Johor Jaya, Liow said the DAP could not and would not defend the rights and interests of the community, declaring: “The DAP says it does not represent the Chinese community after winning big in the last elections.”

I do not believe that the  previous 11 MCA Presidents and Acting Presidents, namely  Tun Tan Cheng Lock, Tun Lim Chong Eu, Cheah Toon Lok, Tun Tan Siew Sin, Lee San Choon, Neo Yee Pan, Tan Koon Swan, Tun Ling Liong Sik, Ong Ka Ting, Ong Tee Keat and Dr. Chua Soi Lek would have given credence to any equating  an MCA President with  a “Tung Shin Liow”  telling bald-faced lies like Liow in Johor Jaya yesterday.

The DAP had never said that it does not represent the Chinese community. We declare we do not just represent the Chinese community, but also all Malaysian communities as well, as we represent and speak for all Malaysians, regardless of race, religion or region.

Is such a statement too difficult for the 12th MCA President to understand?

If so, I am prepared to come to Wisma MCA to give Liow a free tuition. Just name the date and time.

What Liow did in Johor Jaya yesterday is the latest classic two-faced hypocrisy of Barisan Nasional leaders – with MCA leaders accusing the DAP of having betrayed the Chinese while the UMNO leaders keep up their barrage of demonization, lies and fake news about the DAP being anti-Malay, anti-Islam and wanting to establish a Christian Malaysia.

Can Liow explain how I could be anti-Chinese and anti-Malay at the same time; or how I could be anti-Islam and want to establish a Christian Malaysia, when I am not a Christian in the first place?

Liow has created at least three new “history” as MCA President.

Firstly, although MCA claims to be a party representing the Chinese in Malaysia, under Liow, history was made with the three top MCA leaders, the MCA President, the MCA Deputy President and the MCA Secretary-General all contesting in constituencies with Malay voters in the majority – raising the question whether they represent the Chinese in Cabinet or represent the UMNO leadership to the Chinese community!

Secondly, this is the first time that a MCA Deputy President is acting as UMNO’s “ninja assassin” to character-assassinate the reputation and integrity of DAP Chief Minister of Penang, Lim Guan Eng, and create a RM20 billion Penang undersea tunnel corruption scandal from nothing, just to divert attention from Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s RM50 billion 1MDB scandal, which had caused Malaysia to be regarded worldwide as a global kleptocracy.

Has Liow created a third “history” as MCA President?

Let us hear from Liow.

I would recommend Liow to read Robert Kuok’s Memoirs where the Malaysian tycoon  stressed that one of the two factors causing the rise or fall of nations, which applies to individual political leaders, is the loss of moral compass.

Has Liow lost all moral compass that he has forfeited the ability to distinguish right from wrong, as to allow him to tell barefaced lies?

(Media Statement in Parliament on Monday, March 19, 2018)

                This entry was posted on Monday, 19 March 2018, 9:23 am and is filed under
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Will the rumblings in the deep bowels of UMNO and Malay society against the global shame of 1MDB scandal lead to a revolt against Najib and UMNO in the 14th General Election?

Will the rumblings in the deep bowels of UMNO and Malay society against the global shame of the international 1MDB money-laundeirng scandal lead to a revolt against the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak and the UMNO in the forthcoming 14th General Election?

The question becomes imperative with signs of such rumblings in the deep bowels in UMNO and Malay society against the 1MDB scandal, as illustrated by the following:

· Former information minister Tan Sri Rais Yatim sticking to his guns in his criticism of UMNO Ministers and leaders becoming apologists and defenders of 1MDB scandal and the 1MDB  mastermind Jho Low, in particular his tweet why the Minister for Communications and Multimedia, Datuk Seri Salleh Said Keruak was so hasty in defending Jho Low instead of defending justice with regard to the recent seizure of the billion-ringgit luxury superyacht Equanimity by the Indonesian authorities and FBI.

· Former International Trade and Industry Minister Tan Sri Rafidah Aziz lamenting about the Malaysian government  becoming the modern-day Malaysian “Emperor with New Clothes”, asking why the Malaysian authorities had not been able to find 1MDB mastermind Jho Low’s billion-ringgit luxury superyacht when she herself could spot it while on a diving trip in Thailand.

· UMNO Veterans Club secretary Mustaha Yaakub’s denunciation of the supporters of  Jho Low as those who betrayed the coutnry and UMNO, as he was responsible for the 1MDB scandal and action should be taken against him.

UMNO Ministers can either be apologists of Jho Low or 1MDB, or keep an inelegant silence; while an MCA Minister can do his utmost tto be UMNO’s “ninja assassin” to character-assassiate Penang DAP State Government’s integrity and good governance, even concocting a RM20 billion Penang undersea tunnel corruption scandal to distract national and interntional attention from the RM50 billion 1MDB scandal; but there is simply no way in this age of information where information travels at the speed of light to suppress news and facts about the 1MDB scandal occurring non-stop for over the past three years.

I fully agree with Malaysiakini contributor, P. Gunasegaram who recently opened  his article “1MDB very much a major election issue” with the following statement: “They say rural Malays and other deprived Malaysians don’t care about 1MDB and that their major concern is only with the higher cost of living. I say, utter rubbish.”

(Media Statement in Parliament on Monday, 19th March 2018)

                This entry was posted on Monday, 19 March 2018, 6:12 pm and is filed under
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Call on Najib and UMNO/BN leaders to heed the cries from the heart of UMNO veterans like Rais Yatim and Rafidah

There is great rumbling in the deep bowels of UMNO and Malay society that things are not right with Malaysia, especially with regard to the great shame that the international multi-billion dollar 1MDB money-laundering scandal has brought to Malaysia by giving the nation a virtual instant epithet of  a global kleptocracy.

These rumblings  first surfaced publicly early this month after the seizure of 1MDB mastermind Jho Low’s  billion-ringgit luxury superyacht Equanimity by the Indonesian authorities and FBI in Bali at the end last month.

Former International Trade and Industry Minister Tan Sri Rafidah Aziz broke the ice when publicly lamented in her FaceBook about the Malaysian government  becoming the modern-day Malaysian “Emperor with New Clothes”, asking why the Malaysian authorities had not been able to find 1MDB mastermind Jho Low’s billion-ringgit luxury superyacht when she herself could spot it while on a diving trip in Thailand.

This was followed by the tweet of the former Information Minister, Tan Sri Rais Yatim asking why the Minister for Communications and Multimedia, Datuk Seri Salleh Said Keruak was so hasty in defending Jho Low instead of defending justice with regard to the  seizure of the luxury superyacht Equanimity.

UMNO Veterans Club secretary Mustaha Yaakub joined in the public rumbling, declaring that the supporters of  Jho Low as those who betrayed the country and UMNO, as Jho Low was responsible for the 1MDB scandal and that action should be taken against him.

The public rumbling and cries from the heart from the deep bowels of UMNO and Malay society elicited not sympathy and concern from those in power in UMNO and Barisan Nasional, but led to a spate of savage and malicious attacks (reminiscent of the recent attacks on Malaysian tycoon Robert Kuok) by  UMNO/BN propagandists and quinoa cybetroopers.

But this has not cowed either Rais or Rafidah who stuck to their guns in their criticism  of UMNO Ministers and leaders for becoming apologists and defenders of 1MDB scandal and the 1MDB  mastermind Jho Low.

In his latest interview with Malaysiakini, Rais reminded his critics that he has a doctorate in law and as such had valid personal concerns over the apparent disregard for principles of law on issues related to Jho Low and 1MDB.

He said:

“When I see that no investigations have been carried out against him, (I question) why not? We have an international network.

“At the very least we can announce an investigation. Successful or not, that it is up to the system. But no file has been opened but yet we can say ‘there is no link’ (between Jho Low and 1MDB).

“This (refusal to investigate) raises questions within myself, a person who is quite familiar with the administration of the law.”

Rais pointed out that an ordinary person if cited by certain parties over any case or mentioned in a police report would have been swiftly investigated.

“But this one (Jho Low) they (the authorities) did not want to (investigate). So there is a conflict with Article 8 of the Federal Constitution whereby everyone is equal under the law.

“That does not apply here. And that was my query,” he said in pointing out how multiple foreign jurisdictions were currently probing the 1MDB scandal.

Alluding to various foreign media reports on the 1MDB scandal, Rais further said it would be impossible for him to remain silent on the matter.

“We (critics from within Umno) must find a way to correct the situation.

“We are not claiming that the Equanimity belongs to Jho Low. We just want to know, please investigate, where did this yacht come from? Why was it such a big issue (overseas)?” he said.

“Malaysia’s reputation is being soiled. That (to restore it) was my intention,” he stressed.

But Rafidah must take the cake for being most forthright and outspoken in her latest FaceBook posting.

She cautioned Malaysians not to vote for corrupt politicians, as that would be tantamount to an endorsement of their wrongdoings.

She  warned Malaysians would be “accomplices” to acts of corruption and treachery if they wilfully voted for corrupt politicians.

I call on the Prime Minster and UMNO President, Datuk Seri Najib Razak and the UMNO/BN leadership to heed the cries from the heart of UMNO veterans like Rais Yatim and Rafidah.

(Media Statement in Parliament on Tuesday 20th March 2018)

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 20 March 2018, 3:08 pm and is filed under
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Will the 14th General Election again fall on May 5 for Malaysians to finally fulfill their Malaysian Dream to have an united,  clean, just, forward-looking, progressive and prosperous Malaysia

The Dewan Negara sitting has been moved forward so that it will end on the same day as the Dewan Rakyat on April 5, the latest indication that Parliament will be dissolved after the end of the Parliamentary meeting on April 5.

If Parliament is dissolved on  April 6,  two possible dates for Polling Day, if the traditional Saturday is observed, will be April 28 or May 5, the latter the same day as the 13th General Election five years ago in 2013.

Johore will be the front-line state in the 14th General Election. Yesterday, at the 52nd DAP anniversary celebrations in Ayer Hitam in Johor, the titanic battle  for the parliamentary constituency of Ayer Hitam was launched with the announcement of the DAP-Pakatan Harapan candidate, Liew Chin Tong, the Johore DAP Chairman and current MP for Kluang. He will be contesting against the MCA Deputy President and Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Wee Ka Siong, who had been three-term MP for Ayer Hitam since 2004.

Although the Liew Chin Tong-Wee Ka Siong electoral battle has captured the imagination of Malaysians, as it is a classic “David vs Goliath”, what is even more significant is not who will eventually triumph as the MP for Ayer Hitam for the 14th Parliament, but the implications of the Ayer Hitam battle.

There is no doubt that if DAP and Pakatan Harapan can win the Ayer Hitam parliamentary constituency, it will have  two important implications: firstly, that Pakatan Harapan can form the Federal Government in Putrajaya in the 14th General Election with Tun Mahathir as Malaysia’s seventh Prime Minister , Datuk Seri Dr. Wan Azizah Wan Ismail as Deputy Prime Minister and Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim as Malaysia’s eighth Prime Minister; and secondly, that Pakatan Harapan can also form the new Johore State Government in Nusajaya or Iskandar Puteri.

Malaysia will then, after six decades of nation-building, join the rank of normal democracies like India, South Korea, Japan, the Philippines and even Indonesia, where voters can peacefully and democratically exercise their constitutional right to change the government whether at the Federal or State level without any threat, dire warning or occurrence of chaos or catastrophe!

Malaysia becoming a and normal and mature democracy is more important from the national historical perspective, even more important than the issue of personalities.

Malaysia has failed Malaysians, regardless of race, religion or region, since the attainment of Merdeka in 1957.

We have lost our way in the past six decades with countries more economically, educationally and politically backward than Malaysia having overtaken us on all these fronts, becoming not only richer and more developed and prosperous, but more democratic and more respectful of the principles of good governance and the rule of law.

We have fallen down the ladder of nations in human excellence, achievements and accomplishments in the past half century.

This is best illustrated by the Transparency International (TI) Corruption Perception Index (CPI) 2017, where Malaysia plunged to the lowest ranking in 23 years and was ranked No. 62 out of 180 nations.

Economically, we failed to become an Asian dragon while educationally, we lose out not only to the education power-houses of Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea, Japan and Taiwan we also lose out to other countries like Kazahtan and Iceland.

But horror of horrors, Malaysia seems heading towards not just towards to 3Is of a global kleptocracy, but reaching greater heights or depths to be a global double kleptocracy.

Can we save Malaysia from the trajectory of a failed, rogue and kleptocratic state we heading towards?

The answer is Yes, and the time is the 14th General Election.

I believe every Malaysian, regardless of age, race, religion or region, has a Malaysian Dream for Malaysia to become a  world-class nation which could  leverage on the best qualities and values of the diverse races, religions, languages and cultures which meet in confluence in Malaysia.

But in recent years, with Malaysia becoming overnight a kleptocracy, Malaysians dare not dream the Malaysian Dream, which  seems utterly forelorn and hopeless,with the rise of extremism, intolerance and hatred in our public and political arenas.

The formation of Pakatan Harapan, and the opening salvo of the 14th General election battle in Ayer Hitam yesterday is a call to arms to all patriotic Malaysians to dare to dream again the Malaysian Dream  and to strive to achieve the great challenge for Malaysia to be a show-case to the world of an united, successful, progressive, prosperous, plural nation of diverse races, religions, languages and cultures.

In my 52 years in political commitment, I have always been guided by three political beliefs, viz;

Firstly, I am in politics because of the Malaysian Dream, which I believe is shared by many Malaysians down the decades who have undivided love and loyalty to Malaysia – to build a nation where all Malaysians, regardless of their different racial, religious or regional backgrounds, are united and feel as one because they are Malaysians and proud to be a Malaysian, and where Malaysia can leverage on the best of the diverse races, cultures, religions and civilizations which meet in confluence in Malaysia, to be a top world nation in different fields of human endeavour.

Secondly, DAP has always been a party for all Malaysians and never a party for any one race. DAP leaders, who come from diverse ethnic and religious groups, never aspire to be leaders of only one ethnic or religious group, as we always see ourselves as representing all Malaysians regardless of race, religion or region.

No person can be a Malaysian leader if he or she is against any one race or religion or concerned only about the rights and interests of only one community – as Malaysian leaders, we  must set an example of rising above the racial, religious and regional differences in the country to serve the common national weal.

Thirdly, Malaysians who had supported DAP loyally and consistently in the past half a century did so not because they want a Chinese Malaysian or an Indian Malaysia, as they know that DAP never advocated a Chinese Malaysia, Indian Malaysia or Malay Malaysia, but because of the Malaysian Dream to build a Malaysia where all citizens, regardless of race, religion or region, have a rightful place under the Malaysian sun.

For DAP leaders worth their salt,  there can be no “comfort zones” or “safe harbours”  as they must be prepared to take risks so that Pakatan Harapan can succeed in its mission to create a national political tsunami in the 14th General Election to save Malaysia from becoming a failed, rogue and  kleptocratic state.

I have had been Member of Parliament of five states, starting in Malacca (Bandar Melaka) in 1969; (Kota Melaka) 1974 and 1982; MP in Selangor (Petaling) in 1978; MP in Penang (Tanjong) in 1986, 1990, 1995; MP for Perak (Ipoh Timor)  in 2004 and 2008 and MP for Johor  (Gelang Patah) in 2013.

Every time I moved from one parliamentary seat to another, from one state to another, it is not because I was seeking a safer seat but to take on a greater challenge and encounter a greater risk. I have been fortunate to succeed  except once  in 1999 to move from Tanjong to  save the Bukit Bendera parliamentary seat in Penang, where I lost by 104 votes and was out of Parliament for one term from1999 – 2004.

When I moved from Malacca to Penang to contest in Tanjong in 1986 to spearhead the campaign to make Penang the front-line state for political change in Malaysia, there was concern whether I would be able to win and enter Parliament from Penang. I won in Tanjong but we failed to capture Penang State to make Penang the front-line state for political change until in 2008, when DAP led Pakatan Rakyat to form the Penang State Government in 2008.

Similarly, when I contested in Ipoh Timor in 2004, there was concern whether I could win as the DAP had been wiped out in the Ipoh and Menglembu areas in the 1999 general election,  which was a bad general election for DAP in Perak as  the DAP was wiped out in the whole of Perak state except for the Batu Gajah parliamentary seat.

My move in 2013 from Ipoh Timor to Gelang Patah, facing the Johor Mentri Besar, was regarded as the height of folly, causing nationwide concern whether it would be my Waterloo.

Johor is now the front-line state for political change in the 14th General Election.

Yesterday, we saw Liew Chin Tong,  demonstrating for the third time the DAP spirit that there is no “comfort zone” or “safety harbour” for a DAP leader, who must always be prepared to take great personal political risks to break new  ground for political change and improvement for all Malaysians.

A Subang Jaya boy, Chin Tong contested in the Bukit Bendera constituency in the 2008 General Election and defeated the Gerakan Deputy Minister and Secretary-General when nobody expected him to win.  In 2013 General Election, he contested in Kluang and defeated a MCA deputy minister and he is now contesting in Ayer Hitam for the 14th General Election against  the MCA Deputy Preisdent and Minister – which would be his most “impossible” task in his political career.

DAP can last 52 years and stand tall – unlike MCA leaders who continue to dishonour MCA with three of its top leaders now depending on UMNO’s Malay votes to get into Parliament and Cabinet – because of this spirit of DAP leaders who are prepared to sacrifice themselves for the larger good of the party and the people of Malaysia.

We not only have Liew Chin Tong, but in the last general election, Teo Nie Ching  moved from her Serdang Parliamentary seat to Kulai, which had never been won by the DAP before; and Yeo Bee Yin, who is leaving her sure-win Damansara state assembly seat in Selangor, which she had won with a gigantic majority of over 30,000 votes in the 2013 General Election to an unknown terrain and future  in Johore.

DAP leaders must be like the candles, who burn themselves  to bring light to others; unlike MCA leaders who are even prepared to be UMNO’s “ninja assasins” to character-assassinate the reputation and integrity of DAP leaders and snuff out  the candles to bring light to the world.

(Speech at the DAP Pandamaran election preparation dinner held HokKien Association premises in Klang on Monday, 19th March 2018 at 9 pm)

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 20 March 2018, 8:09 am and is filed under
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