Four conditions for the ousting of Najib as Prime Minister and the toppling of the UMNO coalition’s 60-year rule in Malaysia in the 14th General Election

At a time when there is widespread disappointment and disillusionment that the electoral process could bring about the long-waited far-reaching political changes in Malaysia, with predictions that voters’ turnout at the forthcoming 14th General Election would be much lower than the 13GE, there is no doubt that the Prime Minister , Datuk Seri Najib Razak and the top UMNO leadership do not share these concerns as they are grappling with the fear that they may be elected out of office and lose Federal power in the 14GE.

This is the reason why I had suddenly become such a “famous” character in the UMNO-owned and controlled mainstream media in the past three months, with articles (which are mostly lies and falsehoods or in Najib’s own words “fake news”) appearing together with my pictures almost daily either in Utusan Malaysia, New Straits Times, Berita Harian or TV3, when for the past fifty years, I was blacked out in these UMNO mainstream media and my pictures not allowed to be published, as if I had become a “non-person” as happened in Stalin’s Soviet Union.

What has happened? Why have I become a daily staple diet in the UMNO media, although the subject of “fake news”?

This is because Najib and UMNO leaders know that the 14GE is a “do or die” battle for them – but it is a “Do and Die” battle not only for Najib and UMNO, but also for the people of Malaysia, as to whether Malaysians could Save Malaysia from a global kleptocracy and hurtling towards a failed and rogue state.

The outcome of the 14GE is not all that certain and foregone, and this is why Najib and the UMNO leadership are so desperate to want to influence a positive outcome for UMNO in the 14 GE, from gerrymandering with the redelineation of parliamentary and state assembly constituencies to resort to the politics of lies, hatred and fear to frighten the Malay voters with the falsehood that if UMNO loses power, the Chinese will assume political power leading to the damnation of the Malays.

In the process, DAP and I are demonized as if I a devil, an hantu, puaka or even jembalang, as if I breathe fire or eat babies for breakfast, that I am anti-Malay, anti-Islam, that I was the cause of the May 13 racial riots in 1969 although I was never in Kuala Lumpur after the May 10, 1969 general elections and was in Kota Kinabalu on that tragic day of May 13, 1969.

The intensification and escalation of the demonisation of DAP and myself is because the UMNO leadership is increasingly afraid that they are losing Malay political support, and they have to resort to lies, falsehoods and “fake news” against DAP leaders and myself to frighten the Malay voters to preserve and save their political power.

I do not believe that the Malay masses are so gullible as to believe UMNO lies and falsehoods that DAP is anti-Malay and anti-Islam, as for the past 51 years DAP has proved that it is a Malaysian party with Malays and Muslims, as well as non-Malays and non-Muslims among our ranks and our objective is to serve the interests of all Malaysians, and not just one racial, religious or cultural group.

Furthermore, the Malays and Muslims can see for themselves whether, despite all the lies and falsehoods of UMNO propaganda, the Malays and Islam in Penang under a DAP-led State Government are being oppressed or are getting better treatment as compared to the previous five-decades of UMNO/BN rule!

There are four conditions to oust Najib as Prime Minister and end the UMNO coalition’s 60-year rule in Malaysia in the 14GE, viz:

Firstly, to preserve and sustain the electoral support for reform from the Malay, Chinese, Indian, Kadazan and Dayak voters for DAP and PKR in the 13th General Election.

Secondly, to reach out and win over the 3.5 million UMNO members and UMNO voters to support the Save Malaysia Campaign in the battle between “Democracy versus Kleptocracy”.

Thirdly, to reach out and win over the million PAS members and voters to support the Save Malaysia Campaign to ensure the victory of democracy and the defeat of kleptocracy in the 14th General Election.

Fourthly, to win majority support in Sabah and Sarawak in the 14 GE.

If we can achieve these four objectives in the 14GE, then Malaysia can be saved and we can look forward to a new dawn in Malaysia with institutional and systemic reforms to ensure that Malaysia will never return to the trajectory of a kleptocracy and a failed and rogue state.

(Speech at the DAP Senawang Solidarity Dinner in Senawang, Negri Sembilan on Saturday, 11th March 2017 at 9 pm)

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 12 March 2017, 7:52 am and is filed under
DAP
,
Elections
,
UMNO
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.


If 45 non-UMNO BN MPs withdraw support from Najib because BN has changed character from a coalition based on consensus into one under UMNO hegemony, PAS’ 14MPs would not be enough to save Najib’s premiership and government

The central issue today is not whether PAS President Datuk Seri Hadi Awang’s private member’s bill motion to amend RU355 would be supported in the present meeting of Parliament, and the merits and demerits of Hadi’s private member’s bill, but whether Barisan Nasional has changed character from a coalition of 13 political parties based on consensus into a coalition under UMNO hegemony, where the other 12 non-UMNO parties do not matter at all as “what UMNO wants, UMNO gets”.

All the leaders and even Ministers from the other 12 non-UMNO parties in the Barisan Nasional have expressed their opposition to Hadi’s private member’s bill, including the entire Sarawak state government with the Sarawak Chief Minister, Datuk Abang Johari Openg directing the four PBB Muslim Ministers and all the 25 Sarawak BN MPs to reject Hadi’s private member’s bill motion.

I want to specifically ask Hadi and the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Jamil Khir Baharom whether they dare to say that the PBB President, Abang Openg, the four PBB Muslim Ministers – Nancy Shukri, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department; Datuk Fadillah Yusuf, Minister for Works; Datuk Wan Junaidi, Minister for Natural Resources and Environment; and Rohani Abdul Rahman, Minister for Women, Family and Community Development  – and all 25 Sarawak BN Members of Parliament are  anti-Islam as they are committed to  reject Hadi’s private member’s bill motion?

Can Hadi and Jamil Khir explain why there are so many Ministers and MPs in Barisan Nasional who are anti-Islam?

Or could Hadi and Jamil Khir be in the wrong, in wrongly accusing those who reject Hadi’s private member’s bill as anti-Islam?

In the 13th General Election, with 47% of the popular vote but unfair gerrymandering of the electoral constituencies, Barisan Nasional secured 60 per cent of the 222 parliamentary seats – 88 UMNO seats and 45 non-UMNO BN seats.

The number of UMNO parliamentary seats have since fallen to 86 with the sacking  of Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin and resignation of Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal.

Abang Openg has directed the 25 Sarawak BN MPs to reject Hadi’s private member’s bill motion.  The rest of the 20 non-UMNO MPs – made up of seven from MCA, four from MIC, one from Gerakan, and eight from the non-UMNO parties in Sabah BN – have  also declared that they opposed Hadi’s private member’s bill motion.

This means that there is no consensus whether in the Barisan Nasional Supreme Council or the Cabinet for the  Federal government to give priority for Hadi’s private member’s bill motion in Parliament  or for the Federal government to take over Hadi’s private member’s bill after Hadi’s motion had been passed in Parliament.

This could only mean that if Hadi’s private member’s bill motion is given priority to be debated and voted on in the present meeting of Parliament, it is not because of  Barisan Nasional consensus whether in Cabinet or the BN Supreme Council but only because of  UMNO hegemony in BN.

In such circumstances, there is a complete change in the character of the Barisan Nasional from a coalition of 13 parties based on the principle of consensus into a coalition which is solely based on the hegemony of UMNO, where the relationship purportedly of “equal” parties has been transformed into one with UMNO as the “master” and the other 12 BN parties are mere serfs and subordinates.

In such a total change in the character of BN, if the 45 non-UMNO MPs withdraw their support for Najib as the Prime Minister, Najib’s government will collapse immediately.

This is because UMNO has only 86 MPs out of a total of 222 MPs in Parliament. Even the 14 PAS MPs will not be enough to give Najib a simple majority in a 222-strong Parliament (which requries at least 112 MPs)  to continue as Prime Minister.

With the withdrawal of support of the 25 Sarawak BN MPs and the rest of 20 BN MPs, there will be a political and constitutional crisis in Malaysia

The solution is for the formation of a new government and a new Prime Minister who respects principle of consensus and rejects the principle of UMNO hegemony, or the 14th General Elections would have to be held early to resolve the constitutional crisis.

Will such a political scenario take place  in Malaysia?

(Speech at the DAP Segamat launch of “Voters Registration” campaign in Segamat on Sunday, March 12, 2017 at 10 am)

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 12 March 2017, 3:00 pm and is filed under
DAP
,
Elections
,
Islam
,
PAS
,
UMNO
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.


Pro-BN Swiss PR guy fired by University arm in Geneva

The Independent

Singapore

March 11, 2017

Nicolas Giannakopoulos got fired, said Swiss newspaper Le Temps, which also said the former deputy director of the University Security Observatory in Geneva (OUS) is being investigated for his role in a pro-1MDB seminar held in Geneva.

The focus of the enquiry is the origin of the funds he invested in a seminar on Malaysia’s scandal rigged 1MDB, which is considered the biggest financial scandal of the decade.

Giannakopoulos, who is also the President of the Observatory of Organized Crime (OCO), claimed to Sarawak Report that he organised the event to discuss the real issues behind the 1MDB and that he is working for the Office of the Swiss Attorney General (OAG).

In an email response to The Independent a couple of days ago, the OAG said it does not deal with individuals who are irrelevant to the 1MDB or to any other investigation it is engaged in.

“I take the questions posed on the margins of this seminar very seriously, and I have asked the person concerned to stay in the background while I conduct a close examination,” confirms Prof. Frédéric Esposito, the direct supervisor of Nicolas Giannakopoulos at the OUS.

The Swiss based newspaper said the decision to suspend Giannakopoulos is the result of an article by the British journalist Clare Rewcastle Brown, questioning the role of the Geneva researcher in a meeting organized by the latter in October 2016.

The event was placed under the aegis of the University of Geneva.

Nicolas Giannakopoulos, suspected of being an agent of the Malaysian government and responsible for collecting sensitive information concerning the 1MDB investigation, defended himself from any ties with the authorities in Kuala Lumpur, via a press release issued last Tuesday, said the paper.

Sarawak Report claimed the funding for the event came from an obvious client of Giannakopoulos, that is the Malaysian government and said the event in Geneva turned out to be a ‘black ops’ to test the waters on 1MDB among opponents to Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak.

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 12 March 2017, 6:26 am and is filed under
Corruption
,
Financial Scandals
,
Najib Razak
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.


Sarawak Report tricked into BN’s ‘Black Ops’ PR stint?

The Independent

Singapore

March 9, 2017

Sarawak Report, the blog that officially broke the scandalous 1MDB story said yesterday that it might have been the victim of a Malaysian government’s ‘Black Ops’ in England.

Along with the blog’s editor Claire Rewcastle Brown, the major opposition parties in Malaysia was also conned believing an event held in Switzerland was an open forum to discuss critical issues related to 1MDB and its harmful impacts.

In a lengthy detail of the what it called the ‘undercover ops’ headed by a PR firm close to the Barisan Nasional (BN) government in Malaysia, the Sarawak Report editor narrates the facts and pins the blame on Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak.

It said the stint took place at the University of Geneva in Switzerland, and was hosted by its ‘Observatory on Security” (OUS), part of the university’s Global Studies Institute.

The blog said what was supposed to. be a public seminar on the troubled 1MDB, turned out to be a bogus event in which the organisers tried to persuade the attendants on how the money seized by Switzerland could be put to the good cause.

It was also an attempt to coerce the participants to believe that 1MDB was not a destabilising factor, with the organiser of the event the Vice-President of OUS, Nicolas Giannakopoulos angrily arguing about Malaysia’s stability and that he was working for the Swiss Attorney General

Clare Rewcastle Brown, Editor of Sarawak Report; Muhyddin bin Yassin, Former Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia and Nurul Izza Anwar – Member of the Malaysian Parliament for Lembah Pantai were all confirmed as speakers at the event.

Sarawak Report said the event was a pro-BN stint, in which dubious film makers were allowed to attend in a bid to record conversations

Giannakopoulos were having with the attendats.

The aim, the blog said, was to produce a film that would dispell the 1MDB scandal, perhaps as a preview to the upcoming elections?

The organisers also said the invited attendance will be mostly officials from the Swiss Dept. of Foreign Affairs, the Public Ministry and Federal Dept. of Justice”, continued the official invitation, which bore the University of Geneva logo and stamp at its heading.

Sarawak Report said its editor turned out at the event, but the Yassin and Anwar Ibrahim’s daughter Nurul Izzah were absent, and obviously, there were no Swiss officials.

However, the crowd was composed of members of the opposition parties and NGO’s that battled it out to expose the 1MDB scandal.

The only other Swiss in the room were three campaigners already known to be openly engaged on Malaysian corruption issues, namely the Director of the Swiss Bruno Manser Fund, Pascal Najadi (son of the murdered AmBank founder) and Laura Justo, wife of the then still imprisoned whistle-blower on 1MDB, Xavier Justo.

Salt Lick Films and Roast Beef Productions!

The organisers also broke their promises of a no-media-event, inviting people linked to a UK production company called Salt Lick Films, which has spent the last two years filming a documentary about the 1MDB investigation (the project was later extended into a co-production with another UK company, Roast Beef Productions).

Sarawak Report said it had also started to obtain further information indicating that at least one member of Salt Lick’s production team has been in regular contact with Prime Minister Najib Razak’s private circle and communications team over the previous many months of extensive filming in Kuala Lumpur.

Besides these discrepancies, Giannakopoulos appeared to have lied to the crowd present on his links with the Swiss Attorney General, whom he suggested was willing to impart useful updates to him about the 1MDB investigation privately.

At one point, Giannakopoulos started to attack Open Society and what he described as “destabilising” forces and that “they have funded American shit all over the planet during years.”

He later said he was ‘helping’ the Swiss AG and wanted Malaysia to remain a stable country.

Sarawak Report also suggested that the most likely source of the money to finance the bogus seminar would in fact appear to be one of Giannakopoulos’s private clients, since alongside his academic/NGO role he owns two private investigations companies.

“We suggest the most likely client to be interested in such intelligence is the Government of Malaysia, which has also been identified as receiving information from Salt Lick Films, which so clearly has ties to Giannakopoulos.

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 12 March 2017, 5:59 am and is filed under
Corruption
,
Financial Scandals
,
Najib Razak
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.


The next two weeks is the last chance for over four million unregistered eligible voters to register so that they can vote in 14GE which may be held in September

The next two weeks is the last chance for over four million unregistered eligible voters to register so that they can vote in 14th General Election which may be held in September.

Since I first elected in Parliament in 1969, one of the issues I had raised was for the automatic registration of voters, which is quite commonplace in other countries but seems impossible in Malaysia.

Some 48 years have passed since I was  first elected to Parliament to represent Bandar Melaka, but automatic registration of voters is still as distant as ever.

It would appear that we have one of the most incompetent and inefficient Election Commissions in the world which is incapable of have an efficient and up-to-date voters’ registration system.

Other countries can have a system where a voter can register today and vote tomorrow, but in Malaysia, the Election Commission needs some six months before it could process the registration and allow a voter to cast his or her vote.

This means that over four million Malaysians, who had not registered as voters, must register by the next fortnight if they are to be able to exercise their constitutional right to vote if Parliament is dissolved for the 14th General Election to be held in September, after the government had generated nation-wide “feel good” factor with big celebrations for the 60th National Day celebrations on August 31, 2017.

I still cannot understand why it is not possible for the Election Commission to have an efficient and up-to-date voters’ registration system whereby a person can vote after one week, or at least after one month, of registration – instead of taking six long months.

There are still 19 days before the end of March. Why then am I saying that the next two weeks may be the last chance for them to register if they are to be able to vote if 14GE is held in September?

This is because the registration after the next two weeks may not be taken into account for the final revision of the electoral roll  to qualify to vote in September.

I had wanted to have the opportunity to meet the Election Commission Chairman and officials to find out why the Election Commission could not have a system where voters can vote after registering for one week, or at most after one month, and not six months at present, before they could cast their vote.

But the Election Commission Chairman is one of the most unco-operative Election Commission Chairman in Malaysian history, as the request of DAP MPs to have a meeting and discussion with him and other Election Commission officials on the electoral system  have been turned down.

The Election Commission seems to be the most busy institution in the country, where they don’t even have time to meet MPs and Opposition parties.

I do not know whether the Election Commission Chairman will tell the Prime Minister or UMNO Ministers and leaders that he is too busy to meet them.

No Election Commission Chairman in the past had  refused to meet DAP leaders and  MPs to discuss the Election Commission’s constitutional duties on the conduct of elections, which is most regrettable, for it seems to indicate that the 14GE is going to be most unfair and undemocratic in the nation’s history.

(Speech in Bukit Gambir, Johor during a one-day visit to Northern Johor to promote “Voters Registration in next  two weeks” on Sunday, March 10, 2017 at 3 pm)

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 12 March 2017, 4:00 pm and is filed under
Elections
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.


If UMNO is toppled in 14GE, Malays will not suffer – on the contrary, a new Federal Government comprising Pakatan Harapan parties including DAP, PKR and Amanah plus Pribumi Bersatu will compete with UMNO’s 60-year record to demonstrate we can better serve Malays and all Malaysians

Yesterday, I covered three states in one day – in Teluk Datuk in Selangor in the morning, Senawang in Negri Sembilan in the evening, and Johor at night.

This the fifth parliamentary constituency I am visiting today in my lightning tour of Northern Johor in my “Voters’ Registration Within Two Weeks” as the next two weeks may be the last chance for eligible but unregistered voters to register on the electoral roll if they are to be able to cast their vote if the 14th General Election is held in September this year.

I started in Segamat parliamentary constituency this morning, then visited Labis, Ledang, Bakri and am now the Muar parliamentary constituency.

Everybody is talking about the next 14th General Election.

When will it be held?

It is very near, as the Information Department has confirmed that it has issued a circular freezing applications for personal or unofficial trips overseas from May 1, because of the impending 14th general election. In fact, I will not be surprised if similar circulars are being sent out by the police and all government departments who will be involved in the 14GE.

However, I don’t think even the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak knows when Parliament will be dissolved for the holding of the 14GE, for he must be toying with various dates and possibilities.

Will it be September, or even earlier in May or July or much later than September?

As at present, I think the most likely date is September – especially after the big 60th National Day Anniversary nation-wide celebrations, creating “feel good’ factor among Malaysians before calling the 14th General Election.

There are those who predict that general election might be held in May or July, but I think this is improbable as the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib

Razak would want the new redelineation of electoral constituencies to be used in the next general election as it will involve more gerrymandering of the electoral constituencies which is beneficial to Najib and UMNO but unfavourable to  the Pakatan Harapan parties and Pribumi Bersatu.

This is why the Election Commission is rushing headlong to complete the redelineation of electoral constituencies, even resorting to the most unconstitutional gambit of a second display of  new redelineation  of electoral constituencies in Malaya (minus Selangor) because of a court challenge by Selangor state government – although the Federal Constitution regards all the states of Malaya as one unit, which means Selangor cannot be excluded by the Election Commission!

As Parliament must approve any redelineation of electoral constituencies, the earliest the  Election Commission can submit  its final report on redelineation of constituencies is the July meeting of Parliament – or even longer, if the courts uphold a constitutional challenge to the  second display of the new redelineation of electoral constituencies for the states of Malaya, minus Selangor.

In the circumstances, the most likely date for the dissolution of Parliament for the holding of 14 GE falls on September  – before the end-of-the-year budget Parliamentary meeting which is scheduled to meet for 25 days from 23rd October to 30th November 2017.

The next commonest question is whether Najib and UMNO/BN can be toppled in the 14GE.

There are those who think that the 13GE in 2013, where the slogan is “5th of May,  Change Government” is the high-water mark of the “change government” campaign, and that such a target is no  more achievable  in the foreseeable future – especially with the break-up of Pakatan Rakyat and the disunity of the Opposition parties.

Apparently, the UMNO President Datuk Seri Najib Razak does not think so, for he and his UMNO “braintrust” are clearly frightened that UMNO/BN could be toppled from Putrajaya in the 14GE.

This is why there is the strange phenomenon where in the past three months, I have suddenly become a  very “famous” character in the UMNO-owned and controlled mainstream media,  with articles (which are mostly lies and falsehoods or in Najib’s own words “fake news”) appearing together with my pictures almost daily either in Utusan Malaysia, New Straits Times, Berita Harian or TV3, when for the past fifty years, I was blacked out in these UMNO mainstream media and my pictures not allowed to be published, as if I had become a “non-person” as happened in Stalin’s Soviet Union.

What has happened? Why have I become a daily staple diet in the UMNO media, although the subject of “fake news”?

The reason is simple – Najib and his UMNO “braintrust” strategists and advisers are worried that UMNO/BN  can lose the 14GE, and they are doing their utmost to frighten the Malay voters from supporting the DAP, Pakatan Harapan and Pribumi Bersatu by escalating and intensifying their demonization of DAP and myself.

I am described as  a devil, an hantu, puaka or even jembalang, as if I breathe fire or eat babies for breakfast, that I am anti-Malay, anti-Islam, that I was the cause of the May 13 racial riots in 1969 although I was never in Kuala Lumpur after the May 10, 1969 general elections and was in Kota Kinabalu on that tragic day of May 13, 1969.

If Najib and his UMNO advisers are fully confident that they will win in the 14GE, there is no need for them to manufacture fake news and escalate and intensify their demonization of DAP and myself, to the extent of reversing their 50-year policy of blackout of all references to me and the use of my pictures in UMNO-owned/controlled media to one of daily publication of fakes news and lies about me.

In my 51 years of politics,  I have not come across such widespread restiveness and unhappiness with the UMNO leadership, even among the Malay population and the 1.6 million civil servants and I will not be surprised if the majority of the 1.6 million civil servants  vote for Pakatan Harapan and Pribumi Bersatu and against UMNO/BN in the 14GE.

The third question is whether the Malays will be oppressed and marginalized if UMNO is toppled from Putrajaya.

Even Najib has personally alleged, for instance in his UMNO Presidential speech on Nov. 30, 2016, that institutions like MARA, FELDA, RISDA, FELCRA and TERAJU will “become and disappear” if UMNO loses and the DAP, PKR, AMANAH and  Pribumi Bersatu win the next general election.

In Pahang yesterday, Najib said that if UMNO loses the next general election and DAP is in power, the Malays and bumiputeras will lose out in education and economic opportunities for advancement.

In fact, Najib had as good as said that if UMNO loses power, I will become the Prime Minister!

All these are untrue. Firstly, if UMNO loses, the Prime Minister will continue to be a Malay and Muslim as that is the political reality in Malaysia.

Let me use this venue to declared that if UMNO loses in the 14GE and Pakatan Harapan comprising DAP, PKR and Amanah together with Pribumi Bersatu form the new government, we will compete with UMNO’s 60-year record to demonstrate that the new government can do better to serve Malays and all Malaysians – that we can do more to uplift the educational and economic positions of the Malays, Chinese, Indians, Kadazans and Ibans, i.e.e  all Malaysians than the UMNO/BN coalition in the past 60 years.

If DAP, PKR, Amanah and Pribumi-Bersatu fail to show we can do better than the UMNO/BN coalition in uplifting the economic and educational standards of Malays, Chinese, Indians, Kadazans and Ibans, we will be voted out of Putrajaya five years later in the 15th General Election as every five years, the government must go back to the electorate for a fresh new mandate.

The possibility that the Malays will be oppressed and marginalized does not exist at all, as  the government that replaces the UMNO/BN government would want to continue to be re-elected to Putrajaya and not just be a one-term Federal Government – which means we must be able to prove to all Malaysians, whether Malays, Chinese, Indians, Kadazans  or Dayaks, that we are a better government than UMNO/BN!

(Speech at the Parit Jawa DAP Branch “Voters Registration Within Two Weeks” coffee-shop talk at Restoran Makanan Laut, Parit Jawa on Sunday, March 12, 2017 at 7.30 pm)

                This entry was posted on Monday, 13 March 2017, 9:05 am and is filed under
DAP
,
Elections
,
Malays
,
Pakatan Harapan
,
UMNO
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.


Why must every Minister in Najib’s Cabinet end up making dumb and asinine statement like the one by second  Finance Minister Johari on Mahathir-Nazri debate on 1MDB scandal?

One question which has been bugging today is why every Minister in Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s Cabinet must end up making dumb and asinine statements like the one by the  second Finance Minister, Datuk Seri Johari Abdul Ghani on the Mahathir-Nazri debate on the 1MDB scandal.

Firstly, how can Johari claim that the Mahathir-Nazri debate on the 1MDB scandal has “nothing to do” with the government?

It is precisely because of the 1MDB scandal which has caused Malaysia to be ridiculed world-wide as a global kleptocracy, making Malaysians ashamed when abroad to declare that they are Malaysians as other questions like, who is MO1 and why the Malaysian government is doing nothing  about the international 1MDB money-laundering scandal, will follow suit.

Secondly, how can Johari say that that the 1MDB scandal had been “debated extensively in Parliament” when MPs are not even allowed to ask questions about the 1MDB scandal, when almost every other day, the 1MDB scandal is continuing to make headlines in other countries almost every other day?

For the record, Parliament has never conducted any debate on the 1MDB scandal.

Yes, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) had conducted a probe into the 1MDB, but this was before the PAC had access to the latest information about the 1MDB scandal, in particular the US Department of Justice (DOJ) largest kleptocratic lawsuits to forfeit over US$1 billion 1MDB-linked assets in the United States, United Kingdom and Switzerland from over US$3 billion ill-gotten gains from 1MDB international money-laundering.

Malaysian Parliament was never given an opportunity to debate the PAC report on 1MDB.

The Auditor-General’s Report on 1MDB had also  been classified under the Official Secrets Act and denied access to all MPs, except PAC  members.

Furthermore, the PAC recommendations based on preliminary investigations into the 1MDB scandal had been ignored for almost a whole year – and the PAC Chairman dared not pursue the matter. Why?

I welcome the Mahathir-Nazri debate on the 1MDB scandal. I will personally attend the debate, even if it is held in Padang Rengas.

This debate will break the enforced firewall to prevent a healthy and democratic debate and people’s demand for accountability for the mother of all government scandals in the nation’s history.

(Speech at the Bakri DAP Branch “Voters Registration Within Two Weeks” coffee-shop talk in Bakri, Muar on Sunday, March 12, 2017 at 5 pm)

                This entry was posted on Monday, 13 March 2017, 10:06 am and is filed under
Corruption
,
Financial Scandals
,
Parliament
,
UMNO
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.


Umno accuses Mahathir of being my stooge while MCA/Gerakan accuse me of becoming Mahathir’s puppet – can they make up their mind as to who is whose stooge and puppet?

UMNO accuses Tun Dr. Mahathir of being my stooge while MCA/Gerakan accuses me of being Mahathir’s puppet.

Can UMNO/Barisan Nasional make up their mind as to who is whose stooge and puppet?

Tun Dr. Mahathir  is over 91 years ago and had been Prime Minister of Malaysia for over 22 years. Why should be he become my stooge, and how have I suddenly become so powerful as to become the “king-maker” in Malaysian politics, directing the actions and thoughts of former Prime Minister Mahathir, former Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, and other political leaders including Opposition Leader and PKR President Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail and Amanah President, Mat Sabu?

I am 76 years old, dedicated myself to 51 years of full and active involvement in Malaysian politics because of my love for Malaysia to ensure that the country can become a model  prosperous  and democratic plural nation for the world. I have been twice detained under the Internal Security, hauled to court countless times on trumped-up charges, my son Lim Guan Eng  had been detained under the ISA and gone to jail and lost his position as Member of Parliament to defend an  underaged Malay girl. Why should I become a puppet of Mahathir?

Both Mahathir and I have strong views and opinions.  Mahathir is not my stooge and I am not his puppet.  We co-operate as patriotic Malaysians who feel that we have to work together to Save Malaysia from becoming a global kleptocracy and hurtling towards a failed and rogue state.

The present batch of UMNO/BN leaders just do not understand that in politics, there are roles apart from being a stooge or a puppet.

UMNO/BN leaders, propagandists and cybertroopers are now drowned in a sea of lies, falsehoods about DAP leaders, but there seems to be a change of tactics.

For some 50 years of my political life, I have virtually been blacked out in the UMNO-owned and controlled mainstream media, whether New Straits Times, Utusan Malaysia, Berita Harian or TV3, becoming a “non-person” like Stalin’s Soviet Union.

But in the past three months, a new phenomenon occurred in the Umno owned/managed mainstream media, where I appear almost daily, if not in New Straits Times, then in Utusan, Berita Harian or TV3, even with pictures although for the past few decades there had been a standing directive in the UMNO/BN mainstream media not to use my photograph – but there were no  news, facts  or truth, but downright lies, falsehood and fake news to demonise me, describing me as a devil,  an hantu, puaka or even jembalang, as if I breathe fire or eat babies for breakfast, that I am anti-Malay, anti-Islam, that I was the cause of the May 13 racial riots in 1969 (exactly 48 years ago)  although I was never in Kuala Lumpur during that period and was in fact in Kota Kinabalu on that tragic day of May 13, 1969.

What was the reason for this new phenomenon, to change tactics from “blacking out” all  references including photograph of me in the UMNO mainstream media to daily staple of lies and falsehoods about DAP leaders and me?

The reason is simple – Najib and his UMNO “braintrust” strategists and advisers are worried that UMNO/BN  can lose the 14GE, and they are doing their utmost to frighten the Malay voters from supporting the DAP, Pakatan Harapan and Pribumi Bersatu by escalating and intensifying their demonization of DAP and myself.

If Najib and his UMNO advisers are fully confident that they will win in the 14GE, there is no need for them to manufacture fake news and escalate and intensify their demonization of DAP and myself, to the extent of reversing their 50-year policy of blackout of all references to DAP leaders and myself to one of daily publication of fakes news and lies about DAP leaders and me.

But Najib and the UMNO propagandists and strategists are out on a fools’ chase, for it would benefit them more if they address the real political and economic reasons why there is such a great and unprecedented restiveness and unhappiness  among traditional UMNO ground and even among  the 1.6 million government servants because of the corruption, misconduct and abuses of power of UMNO national and state leaders.

In fact, I will not be surprised if for the first time, the majority of the civil servants vote against UMNO in the 14th general election, although publicly they must be seen as faithful supporters of UMNO.

For instance, who is the  second Finance Minister, Datuk Seri Johari Abdul Ghani trying to bluff when he said that  the Mahathir-Nazri debate on the 1MDB scandal has “nothing to do” with the government?

It is precisely because of the 1MDB scandal which has caused Malaysia to be ridiculed world-wide as a global kleptocracy, making Malaysians ashamed when abroad to declare that they are Malaysians as other questions like, who is MO1 and why the Malaysian government is doing nothing  about the international 1MDB money-laundering scandal, to follow suit.

Johari cannot be more wrong when he clamed that 1MDB scandal had been “debated extensively in Parliament” when MPs are not even allowed to ask questions about the 1MDB scandal although almost every other day, the 1MDB scandal is making headlines in other parts of the world!

For the record, Parliament has never conducted any debate on the 1MDB scandal.

Yes, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) had conducted a probe into the 1MDB, but this was before the PAC had access to the latest information about the 1MDB scandal, in particular the US Department of Justice (DOJ) largest kleptocratic lawsuits to forfeit over US$1 billion 1MDB-linked assets in the United States, United Kingdom and Switzerland from over US$3 billion ill-gotten gains from 1MDB international money-laundering.

Even on the PAC Report, Members of  Parliament was never given an opportunity to debate it in Parliament.

The Auditor-General’s Report on 1MDB had   been classified under the Official Secrets Act and denied access to all MPs, except PAC  members.

Furthermore, the PAC recommendations based on preliminary investigations into the 1MDB scandal had been ignored for almost a whole year – and the PAC Chairman dared not pursue the matter. Why?

I welcome the Mahathir-Nazri debate on the 1MDB scandal. I will personally attend the debate, to be held in Padang Rengas on March 25.

This debate will break the enforced firewall to prevent a healthy and democratic debate and people’s demand for accountability for the mother of all government scandals in the nation’s history.

[Speech at the dialogue with Pakatan Harapan Youth + Pribumi Bersatu Youth (Armada) before launching of Secretariat of Pemuda Pakatan Harapan + Armada Pandan at Taman Mega Ampang, Selangor on Monday, 13th May 2017 at 10 pm]

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 14 March 2017, 12:06 pm and is filed under
DAP
,
Mahathir
,
Pakatan Harapan
,
UMNO
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.


Election Commission Chairman and Members should have their salaries and perks slashed by 25 per cent as they are unable to register 25% of the eligible voters on the electoral roll

The Election Commission Chairman Datuk Seri Mohd Hashim Abdullah said in Lundu, Sarawak on Sunday the Election Commission is always ready to hold a general election.

He said this when commenting on a viral message on the social media that  the Information Department had issued a circular freezing leave for personnel and personal trips abroad from May 1  because of impending 14th General Election.

How can the Election Commission claim that it is ready to hold the 14GE when some 25 per cent of the eligible voters are not registered on the electoral roll and cannot cast their vote in the 14GE if held  in September unless they register as voters in the next fortnight – making the current voters’ registration the final voters’ registration  exercise if the 14GE is held by September as the Election Commission requires some six months before they could process  and finalize    a voter on the electoral roll?

There are 17.6 million eligible voters but over four million of them are not registered on the electoral roll which comes to some 25 per cent of the eligible voters not able to cast their vote if  14GE is held  in September unless they are registered in the next two weeks.

The Election Commission Chairman and Members should have their salaries and perks slashed by 25 per cent as they are unable to register 25% of the eligible voters on the electoral roll. This is indeed shocking incompetence and ineptitude.

Since I was first elected into  Parliament in 1969, one of the issues I had raised was for the automatic registration of voters, which is quite commonplace in other countries but seems impossible in Malaysia.

Some 48 years have passed but automatic registration of voters is still as distant as ever.

It would appear that we have one of the most incompetent and inefficient Election Commissions in the world which is incapable of have an efficient and up-to-date voters’ registration system.

Other countries can have a system where a voter can register today and vote tomorrow, but in Malaysia, the Election Commission needs some six months before it could process the registration and placed on the electoral roll to allow a voter to cast his or her vote – resulting in a scandalous situation where over four million out of 17.6 million  eligible  Malaysian voters are not on the electoral roll with the right  to vote in elections.

I  cannot understand why it is not possible for the Election Commission to have an efficient and up-to-date voters’ registration system whereby a person can vote after one week, or at least after one month, of registration – instead of taking six long months.  This should be the KPI for the appointment of Chairman and members of the Election Commission.

I had wanted to have the opportunity to meet the Election Commission Chairman and officials to find out why the Election Commission could not have a system where voters can vote after registering for one week, or at most after one month, and not six months at present, before they could cast their vote.

But the Election Commission Chairman is the most unco-operative Election Commission Chairman in Malaysian history, as the request of DAP MPs to have a meeting and discussion with him and other Election Commission officials on the electoral system have been turned down.

The Election Commission seems to be the most busy institution in the country, where they don’t even have time to meet MPs and Opposition parties – but they are unable to register over four million eligible Malaysian voters!

I do not know whether the Election Commission Chairman will tell the Prime Minister or UMNO Ministers and leaders that he is too busy to meet them.

No Election Commission Chairman in the past had refused to meet DAP leaders and MPs to discuss the Election Commission’s constitutional duties on the conduct of elections, which is most regrettable, for it seems to indicate that the 14GE is going to be most unfair and undemocratic in the nation’s history.

(Speech at the coffee-shop ceramah at Kajang  to promote “Voters Registration in next two weeks” on Tuesday, March 14, 2017 at 8 pm)

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 15 March 2017, 5:42 am and is filed under
Elections
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.


Is Sarawak Chief Minister, the four Sarawak PBB Malay-Muslim Federal  Ministers and 25 Sarawak MPs anti-Islam  because they reject Hadi’s private member’s bill?

In Parliament earlier today, during the parliamentary debate on the Royal Address, I specifically asked whether the Sarawak Chief Minister, Datuk Abang Johari Tun Openg, the four Sarawak PBB Malay-Muslim Federal Ministers – Nancy Shukri, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department; Datuk Fadillah Yusuf, Minister for Works; Datuk Wan Junaidi, Minister for Natural Resources and Environment; and Rohani Abdul Rahman, Minister for Women, Family and Community Development – and the 25 Sarawak Members of Parliament are anti-Islam because they reject PAS President Datuk Seri Hadi Awang’s private member’s bill?

If the answer is in the positive, are we saying that we have an anti-Islam Sarawak State Government? This is clearly unthinkable, unbelievable and impossible.

If the answer is no, why are people going around hurling the epithet of “anti-Islam” against all and sundry for rejecting Hadi’s private member’s bill?

The position of the Sarawak Chief Minster and the Sarawak Barisan Nasional is very clear.

In a news report dated Feb. 16, 2017,  Abang Johari was  quoted as saying that he would repeat former Sarawak Chief Minster, Adenan Satem’s directive to the 25 Sarawak Barisan Nasional MPs to reject Hadi’s private member’s bill.

Abang Johari said after chairing his first cabinet meeting: “That is the stand of Tok Nan before and we will follow that stand.”

He said the bill would cause the state’s peaceful multi-ethnic and multi-faith society to be undermined and it conflicted with the terms of the Malaysia Agreement 1963, which declared Sarawak to be a secular state.

In my speech in Parliament earlier today, I urged all Malaysians, including political  and civic leaders, to take the first steps to regard themselves as Malaysians, and not to regard themselves  just as Malays, Chinese, Indians, Kadazans or Dayaks as the nation achieved Independence 60 years ago and Malaysia was established 57 years ago.

I recalled that it was 66 years ago when Datuk Onn Jaafar, the founder-president of UMNO was told of being “too ahead of the times” when he left UMNO on 26th August 1951 after his proposal for  UMNO to open its membership to other races was rejected.

Fifty-one years ago, DAP was told of being “too ahead of the times” when we formed and registered as a political party in 1966 dedicated to towards the  goal of a democratic, prosperous and just Malaysia for all Malaysians, regardless of race, religion or region.

I can still remember that 30 years ago, I was again told that the DAP leaders and I were “too ahead of the times” when I was visited by a top official at the Batu Confinement Centre in December 1987 where I was held in solitary confinement for 60 days during the ISA custodial detention under Operation Lalang.  I was told that the DAP principles and polices might be right and correct for Malaysia, but we were “too ahead of the times” – although they might be acceptable by  the next generation of Malaysians. As a result, I would be  formally detained for a second time under the ISA and would be sent to Kamunting Detention Centre.

This is 2017 when we will be celebrating the 60th National Day anniversary.  Sixty-six years ago, Datuk Onn was too head of the times. Fifty-one years ago, DAP was too ahead of the times. Thirty years ago, I was again told that the DAP was too ahead of the times.

Isn’t it time that NOW, 60 years after the attainment of Merdeka on August 31, 1957, all Malaysians should  stop thinking of themselves just  as Malays, Chinese, Indians, Kadazans and Ibans and to start thinking of themselves also  as Malaysians and to stop throwing  freely and unthinkingly allegations that others are anti-Malay, anti-Chinese, anti-Indian, anti-Kadazan, anti-Iban or anti-Islam, anti-Christianity, anti-Buddhism or anti-Hinduim as every Malaysian must welcome and accept Malaysia as a nation where there is a confluence of diverse races, religions, languages, cultures and civilisations?

This diversity and pluralism are in fact Malaysia’s unique strength and assets!

If we accept Malaysia as a  plural society, then there is no room for any patriotic Malaysian to be anti any race, anti any religion or anti any culture.

Hence, no one, whether Muslim or non-Muslim,  should be accused of being anti-Islam whether he or she  supports or rejects Hadi’s private member’s bill.

(Speech at the teh-tarik dialogue with youths in Subang, Selangor on Wednesday, 15th March 20176 at 8.30 pm)

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 16 March 2017, 12:44 pm and is filed under
Islam
,
nation building
,
Sarawak
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.


Call on all Malaysian youths, regardless of race or religion, to lead a “Malaysia Reset” national movement on the 60th Merdeka celebrations to make the country a world-class nation

This year Malaysians celebrate the 60th National Day anniversary to mark the historic day on August 31, 1957 when Malaya achieved Independence and set out as an independent and sovereign nation in the international community, leading to the formation of Malaysia 57 years ago on Sept. 16, 1963.

Malaysia was second after Asia in terms of prosperity and income when we achieved independence in 1957. Had we built on our advantages, assets, resources and talents  in the last sixty years?

Malaysia achieved global prominence on the occasion of our 60th National Day anniversary – when  we achieved the infamy of becoming a global kleptocracy.

In the November meeting of Parliament, I asked Barisan Nasional MPs whether they know the meaning of “kleptocracy”. I said “kleptocracy” is a government of 3Ps – Pencuri, Perompak and Penyamun.

Former Prime Minister, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad said there is a fourth P – Penyangak.

What is most shocking is that the Najib Government has put up a great pretence –  becoming a “Great Pretender” – that the international multi-billion dollar 1MDB  kleptocratic money-laundering scandal does not exist although almost every other day, it is making waves and world headlines in other parts of the world with new developments and angles of the largest kleptocratic money-laundering in recent times.

As I said in Parliament yesterday, just google “1MDB” on any browser on the Internet, and you will get millions of results on the seacrh for “1MDB” within seconds.

This the gravity and enormity of the 1MDB scandal in Malaysia and the world.

In recent times, there has been another incident which  reminded Malaysians of the regression Malaysia had undergone in the past 60 years.

Last Friday in South Korea, the Constitutional Court of eight judges unanimously endorsed the impeachment motion of the South Korean President to remove President Park Geun-hye from office over a graft scandal involving the country’s conglomerates.

Sixty years ago, when our country set out on our independent nationhood, we were well ahead of South Korea both economically and politically, with per capita GDP of South Koreans about one-third of the per capita GDP in Malaya.  At that time, there was no democracy in South Korea and scant respect for human rights.

Today, South Korea is one of the richest and most developed countries in the world – with per capita GDP several times that of Malaysia.  Democracy and human rights are given top priority in South Korea, to the extent that the South Korean Parliament could impeach the South Korean President, and  upheld unanimously by eight judges of the South Korean Constitutional

Court.

Could Malaysians hold the top political leaders in the country to accountability and could Parliament and the Judiciary in Malaysia fearlessly uphold the rule of law, Constitutional integrity and the doctrine of separation of powers and good governance?

These are two of many reasons why Malaysia must “reset” our national policies on the 60th National Day anniversary – keeping policies and measures which are good for the country, but abandon and correct policies and measures which have caused Malaysia to lose out to countries which were behind us, both politically and economically six decades ago.

On kleptocracy, we must abandon polices which allow such a monstrous scandal to develop  and bring the 1MDB scandal to an end so that Malaysia ceases to be a global kleptocracy in the eyes of the  world.

This is why I call on all Malaysian youths, regardless of race or religion, to lead a “Malaysia Reset” national movement on the 60th Merdeka celebrations to make the country a world-class nation – keeping policies in the last six decades which are good for the country but abandoning and correcting policies which have caused  political, economic, environmental and nation-building damages to the country.

(Speech in the “face-to-face” dialogue with youths at Bandar Sungai Long, Selangor on Thursday, 16th March 2017 at 5 pm)

                This entry was posted on Friday, 17 March 2017, 8:46 am and is filed under
Constitution
,
Corruption
,
Financial Scandals
,
nation building
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.


Conspiracy by MCA, Gerakan, MIC and other 12 BN parties to hide the “elephant in the room” – that  National Front has changed its character from a 13-party coalition of equals based on consensus to a coalition  based on UMNO hegemony and UMNO wishes where no consensus from the other 12 parties are needed?

Is there a political conspiracy by MCA, Gerakan, MIC and the other 12 Barisan Nasional parties to hide the “elephant in the room” – that the National Front has changed its character from a 13-party coalition of equals based on consensus to one  based on UMNO hegemony and UMNO wishes where no consensus from the other 12 parties are needed?

Is this  why MCA, Gerakan, MIC and other non-UMNO Ministers from Sabah/Sarawak BN parties are at a loss,  for they have no idea when PAS President Datuk Seri Hadi  Awang’s private member’s bill motion  would  be given priority in Parliament to be debated and voted, although there is no consensus whether in the Cabinet or BN Supreme Council for the Barisan Nasional Federal Government to give priority to Hadi’s private member’s bill motion in Parliament or for the Federal Government to takeover Hadi’s private member’s bill after Hadi’s motion is adopted by Parliament.

I had asked MCA, Gerakan, MIC and all the other 15 non-UMNO Ministers to  force an issue at the Cabinet as there is no consensus for the government to give priority to Hadi’s private member’s bill or for government takeover of Hadi’s private member’s bill, but there is so far, only thunderous silence from the Cabinet.

When the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak visited  Sabah last week, he boasted that the Barisan Nasional had achieved consensus among its 13 component parties.

Had the MCA, Gerakan, MIC and the Sabah/Sarawak BN parties secretly given agreement and consensus to UMNO on Hadi’s private member’s bill motion?

Malaysians are entitled to an explanation whether Barisan Nasional has totally changed character from a  coalition of equals based on consensus by the 13 BN component parties to a coalition  based on UMNO hegemony and wishes where no consensus from the other 12 parties are needed, or whether MCA, Gerakan, MIC and the Sabah/Sarawak BN parties had secretly given agreement and consensus to UMNO.

(Speech at the DAP Voters’ Registration Campaign at Taman Makhota Cheras,  Selangor on Thursday, 16th March 2017 at 9.30 pm)

                This entry was posted on Friday, 17 March 2017, 12:36 pm and is filed under
Islam
,
MCA
,
Parliament
,
UMNO
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.


Let Najib show Malaysians the money trail of RM2.6 billion “donation” into his personal banking account – where the monies came from and where they  have gone to – during Ministers’ Winding up in Parliament next week

The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak said in Parliament yesterday that Saudi Arabian King Salman’s visit to  Malaysia had put to rest lies about Malaysia.

I do not know what Najib was  referring to, but there is no doubt that to the 31 million Malaysians, the most important question which King Salman could have cleared up and “put to rest” and which he failed to do, is about the RM2.6 billion “donation” deposited into Najib’s personal banking accounts before the 13th General Election in March 2013.

The Prime Minister had said that the extraordinary amount of RM2.6 billion was a “donation” from the Saudi Arab royal family, although this is doubted not only by informed opinion in Malaysia but the whole wide world as well.

When I spoke in Parliament yesterday in the royal address, I said that UMNO Ministers and leaders have been trying to exploit the four-day visit of King Salman of Saudi Arabia to Malaysia as proof that there was nothing hanky-panky about the RM2.6 billion in Najib’s personal banking account in 2013, and even claiming that Salman’s silence could only mean confirmation that the RM2.6 billion in Najib’s personal banking account had come from Saudi Arab royal circles.

I had in Parliament  described such  claims are “nonsensical and preposterous”.

I reiterated in Parliament that the most significant thing about King Salman’s visit to Malaysia was not what was said or done by the Saudis, including the signing of the US$7 billion (RM31 billion) agreement by Saudi Aramco to take a 50 per cent stake in Petronas’ Refinery and Petrochemical Integrated Development (RAPID) project in Pengerang but what was not said about the RM2.6 billion “donation” in Najib’s personal bank accounts.

I told Parliament that the reason why Salman could not say RM2.6 billion in Najib’s personal banking account was his donation was very simple – the Saudi Arabian king knew that the US Department of Justice (DOJ) legal suit to confiscate US$1 billion 1MDB-linked assets, is a public document in black and white, and it had traced in detail the “to and fro” “money trail” of the RM2.6 billion “donation”, establishing beyond a shadow of doubt that they could not be a donation from Saudi Arabian royal circles.

I even referred to the sections, naming the paragraphs and pages, of the 126-page 512-paragraph of the US DOJ kleptocratic lawsuits to seize US$1 billion of 1MDB-linked assets in the United States, United Kingdom and Switzerland, which outlined the three “phases” of the “criminal conduct” of the international multi-billion dollar 1MDB money-laundering –  divided into the “Good Star” first phase at the beginning of 1MDB in 2009 involving more than US$1 billion; the “Aabar-BVI” second phase involving approximately US$1.367 billion in 2012; and the “Tanore” third phase involving some US$1.26 billion in 2013.

I told Parliament yesterday that the US DOJ lawsuits gave in detail the “money trail” of the RM2.6 billion “donation” into Najib’s personal bank accounts – that the monies came from 1MDB, transferred to the Tanore Account in Singapore, i.e.  in March 2013,  US$681 million were transferred  into Najib’s personal banking accounts from Tanore Account in Singapore, and on or about August 26, 2013, about US$620 million was returned to the Tanore Account.

There was nothing to show that the US$681 million (or RM2.6 billion) originated from Saudi Arabia or that any amount from this sum had been returned to someone in Saudi Arabia.

The whole of next week in Parliament will be the Ministerial winding-up of the seven-day debate on the Yang di Pertuan Agong’s Royal Address at the official opening of Parliament on 6th March.

Let Najib show Malaysians the money trail of RM2.6 billion into his personal banking accounts – where the monies came from and where they  have gone to – during the Ministers’ Winding up in Parliament next week.

I hope Najib will not evade and avoid answer of this important question of the “money trial” of the RM2.6 billion “donation” – where they came from and where they have gone to.

If Najib avoids or evades answer on the 1MDB scandal, in particular the key question of the money trail of the RM2.6 billion “donation” – where they came from and where they have gone to – then we can only hope that the answer to this question could be found in the Mahathir-Nazri debate on 1MDB scandal in Kuala Kangsar on March 25.

(Speech at the DAP Voters’ Registration Campaign at Balakong, Selangor on Thursday, 16th March 2017 at 8 pm)

                This entry was posted on Friday, 17 March 2017, 11:33 am and is filed under
Corruption
,
Financial Scandals
,
Najib Razak
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.


10 areas where a  “Malaysia Reset” must be undertaken, but only  if Najib, UMNO and BN are toppled in the 14GE

Fifty one years ago, when the DAP was formed, nobody would have expected that we would be so  strong, confident and even formidable as evidenced by the high-spirited turn-out of DAP leaders and activists from the various parliamentary constituencies in Penang for the launch of the Penang DAP election machinery for the next general election today – all ready for the great electoral battle in the 14GE, expected to be held in September this year.

If the recent publicity offensives of the  UMNO/BN leaders, propagandists and cybertroopers are to be believed, DAP should today be a very disunited, dispirited and diffident party in the midst of a national crisis and  on the verge of disintegration and disaster – and we would never have been able summon such a large turnout of highly-spirited and highly-motivated DAP leaders and activists all ready for the 14GE, whenever it is held.

In the first general election contested by DAP in 1969, DAP secured 286,000 votes which was increased six times to 1.7 million votes in the 2013 General Election,  which was one-third of the total of 5.6 milllion votes secured by Pakatan Rakyat, while the  UMNO/Barisan coalition secured only a minority popular vote of 47%.

This is not a record of a political party on the verge of disaster,  disintegration or  decline, but a party which has reasons to be confident of achieving greater political changes in Malaysia because of the strong and sustained  support of Malaysian voters.

This year Malaysians will be celebrating our 60th National Day to commemorate the nation’s attainment of Independence on August 31, 1957.

In the past six decades, Malaysia  failed to live up to the promises of Merdeka in 1957 for  the country to be an example and showcase to the troubled  world as to how diverse races, languages,  religions, cultures and civilisations could successfully co-exist and integrate to build  a united, harmonious, purposive, democratic, just, progressive and prosperous nation.

The 60th National Day anniversary is a fit and proper moment for the nation to undertake a “Malaysia Reset” movement, where we keep policies and measures which had done good to the country but correct or even abandon policies and measures detrimental to the nation or  which had damaged the nation building process.

The incumbent UMNO/Barisan Nasiuonal government will not conduct any such  “Malaysia Reset” Movement, as  a new political coalition in Putrajaya is a precondition for any “Malaysia Reset” movement and transformation in Malaysia.

Here, let me touch on 10 areas which should be the subject of a “Malaysia Reset” operation:

1.	The ruling coalition of political parties in Putrajaya must be a coalition of equals, and not a “master-servant” coalition. The Alliance of Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tan Cheng Lock and V.T. Sambanthan started as a coalition of equals, and so was the National Front when it was started in the early seventies by Tun Razak, together with Tan Siew Sin, Sambanthan and Dr. Lim Chong Eu. But the National Front today is a very different creature if we  go by the announcement of Deputy Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Zahid Hamidi yesterday that the government will take over PAS President, Datuk Seri Hadi Awang’s private member’s bill to amend the Syariah Courts (Criminal Jurisdiction) Act 1965 (or Act 355). There is no need here to go into the merits or demerits of Hadi’s private member’s bill motion. What is clear is that there is no consensus whether in the Cabinet or the Barisan Nasional Supreme Council for any Barisan Nasional Government take-over of Hadi’s private member’s bill, and if a Deputy UMNO President can disregard the stand and position of the other 12 non-UMNO Barisan Nasional parties, then the National Front coalition has changed it character from a coalition of equals into one where UMNO exercises hegemony in unilaterally deciding what should be the National Front stand on any issue.

2.	Malaysia should become a normal democratic country, where the voters can peacefully and democratically change the  Federal government through the ballot box, as in countries recognized as normal democracies, whether United Kingdom, European countries, United States, Australia or even Asian countries like India, South Korea and Japan.  The voters should not be threatened with chaos, riots or undemocratic and authoritarian measures to frustrate the democratic will of the people expressed in a general election, as is the case in Malaysia today. Will the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak announce that he will unconditionally accept the democratic verdict of the people in the 14GE, and that he regards Malaysia becoming a normal democratic country where the voters can peacefully and democratically change the Federal government through the ballot box as even more important than his continuing as Prime Minister?

3.	Parliament must be restored as the highest legislative and political chamber in the land, in accordance with the constitutional doctrine of separation of powers among the Executive, Legislature and Judiciary.  At present, Parliament is a mere appendage of the Executive, and there are even important national issues which are banned from questioning or debate in Parliament, like the 1MDB scandal, when there are no ways to stop the questioning or debate of 1MDB outside Parliament, whether inside or outside the country.

4.	Restoration of the independence, impartiality and professionalism of the Judiciary. In South Korea, eight judges of the Constitutional Court could unanimously uphold the impeachment of the South Korean President by the South Korean Parliament on charges of corruption and cronyism.  Is it thinkable that such a thing could happen in Malaysia?  This speaks volume about public confidence in the independence, impartiality and professionalism of the Judiciary in Malaysia.

5.	An independent, non-partisan, professional and efficient Election Commission. This is sorely lacking at present.  It is an indictment on the competence, efficiency and professionalism of the Election Commission that on the eve of the impending 14GE which may be held in September, over four million eligible voters representing some 25 per cent of some 17.6 million eligible total electorate had not registered on the electoral roll as to qualify them to cast their vote in  an election. Should the salaries and perks of the Election Commission Chairman and Members be slashed by 25% for such incompetence and gross dereliction of duty?

6.	A new Federal government in Putrajaya will commission a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the international multi-billion dollar 1MDB money-laundering scandal which has caused Malaysia to be ridiculed world-wide as a “global kleptocracy”.

7.	An important objective of “Malaysia Reset” must involve an all-out war against corruption, cronyism and abuses of power. During Saudi Arabia King Salman’s visit to Jakarta, the Saudi visitors lavished multi-million ringgit worth of gifts on Indonesian officials, ranging from customized Arabian sabres, Rolex watches, gold ballpoint pens and diamonds rings. Indonesia’s Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) has given all Indonesian officials 30 days to report such presents. Why is the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) not  doing the same in requiring all Malaysian officials to declare the gifts they received  during the Saudi Arabian  visit of the Salman delegation to Malaysia?

8.	Malaysia should become a country where the talents and expertise of all Malaysians can find fulfilment so that  the nation realise the full potential in its development in all spheres of human endeavour. Sixty years ago,   South Korea was both politically and economically much more backward than Malaysia, with a per capita GDP in South Korea less than half of our country when we achieved Merdeka in 1957. Today, South Korea is one of the richest and most developed countries in the world,  whose human rights and democracy have reached a stage where a South Korean President could be impeached and removed.  Where did Malaysia go wrong?

9.	The fulfilment of aspirations of the people of Sabah and Sarawak for an equal place under the Malaysian sun, as spelt out in the 1963 Malaysia Agreement.

10.	Instead of being a show-case to the world of a successful and harmonious plural nation which is the confluence of the greatest religions, cultures and civilisations in the world, Malaysia has never been so polarized and divided than today. Sixty-six years ago in 1951, the founder of UMNO Datuk Onn Jaafar was told that he was “too ahead of his times” when he left UMNO because his proposal to UMNO to open its doors to non-Malays and end the race-based communalist politics was rejected. Fifty-one years ago, on 18th March 1966, DAP was told that we are “too ahead of our times” when we formed  a political party dedicated  towards the goal of a democratic, prosperous and just Malaysia for all Malaysians, regardless of race, religion or region. Thirty years ago, in December 1987, a top official visited me somewhere in Batu where I was held in solitary confinement for  60 days during the ISA custodial detention in my second ISA detention under Operation Lalang, and I was told that I would be formally detained and  be sent to Kamunting Detention Centre, because  the DAP was “too ahead of the times” although DAP principles and polices are  right and good for the country – that it might take another generation for them to become generally acceptable.  This is 2017, sixty years after Merdeka in 1957 and 57 years after the formation of Malaysia –  after three generation of Malaysians. A “Malaysia Reset” is imperative for all Malaysians to stop thinking of themselves merely as Malays, Chinese, Indians, Kadazans and Ibans and to start thinking of themselves  as Malaysians!

There are more than 10 reasons why there should be “Malaysia Reset” transformation after sixty years of Merdeka and 57 years of establishment of Malaysia  – but such a “Malaysia Reset” is only possible if Najib, UMNO and BN in Putrajaya are ousted by Pakatan Harapan and Pribumi Bersatu in the 14GE.

(Speech  at DAP 51st anniversary celebration and launching of the Penang DAP 14GE election machinery Komtar, Penang on Saturday, 18th March 2017 at 11 am)

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 18 March 2017, 5:20 pm and is filed under
Corruption
,
Judiciary
,
Najib Razak
,
nation building
,
Parliament
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.


Call on voters of Malacca to continue their historic role  to provide leadership to  demand for a “Malaysia Reset” of national policies which is only possible if there is a change of Federal government in Putrajaya

My message tonight to the voters of Malacca is to continue their historic role to provide leadership in Malaysia, and in the current challenge and context, to demand for a “Malaysia Reset” of national polices to keep what is good but to  correct or abandon policies which are detrimental to the rights and interests of Malaysians.

Without going into history going back to 600 years ago, Malacca’s important role in modern nation-building in Malaysia was clear and evident even before the nation achieved Merdeka on August 31, 1957.

On February 20, 1965, Tunku Abdul Rahman who was then Chief Minister chose Malacca to announce that Malaya would achieve independence on August 31, 1957.

Before I came to the dinner, I visited the YSG Gallery at Jalan Tun Tan Cheng Lock, and it brought back memories for it was at Jalan  Tun Tan Cheng Lock where I held the first of many  public rallies in my  campaign for the Bandar Melaka parliamentary constituency in 1969.

I have been MP for Malacca town for three terms, from 1969 – 1978 and 1982-1986.

I remember three outstanding matters when I was MP for Malacca town.

The first took place within days of my election as MP for Bandar Melaka on May 10, 1969.

I was speaking at a public rally and  campaigning for an independent parliamentary candidate in Kota Kinabalu on May 13, 1969, when someone conveyed information that “trouble had broken out in Kuala Lumpur” – we did not know at the time the severity of the “trouble”, but it was later to be known as “May 13, 1969 Incident”.

On the morning of 14th May, Sabah immigration officers visited me at the hotel I was staying with the expulsion order from the then Sabah Chief Minister, Datuk Mustapha, who acted on immigration powers vested in him –  nothing to do with the “May 13” troubles  in Kuala Lumpur, but for my criticisms of him at the Kota Kinabalu public rally the previous night.

I left Sabah on 15th May 1969, and as the Subang Airport and Kuala Lumpur area was under curfew, I was in Singapore for three days from May 15 to May 18.

During that period, I spoke to DAP leaders and my wife and they advised me not to return as I was on the “wanted” list for Internal Security Act detentions. Guan Eng at that time was eight years ago.

However, not returning to Malaysia  was never an option for me, as it would be going against every grain that I stood for.  I had just been elected as MP by the voters in Bandar Melaka – how, in such circumstances, can one run away or stay away from the country when the people had problems or troubles after I had asked them to elect me to be their MP  and to have confidence in my leadership?

I flew from Singapore to Subang and to my first ISA detention on May 18, 1969.

The second “highlight” of my parliamentary terms representing the Malacca town were my two exposes about the mass deaths in the Malacca Hospital: the first time in 1972 because of the breakdown of the hospital’s autoclave, i.e. sterilization plant, leading to blood and saline poisoning of the patients; the second time in 1973, when there was an unusually high rate of infant mortality.  kicked up a big fuss over these two issues in Parliament.

The third “highlight” during my parliamentary tenure in Malacca was the “Save Bukit China” campaign – a multi-faceted campaign to save and preserve a 500-year-old cemetery hill – not for the Chinese alone but for all Malaysians, regardless of race or religion, as it symbolized the multi-racial, multi-lingual, multi-religious and multi-cultural character and basis of Malaysia.

There was a 300,000-mass signature campaign, numerous gatherings and ceramahs,  a thousand-mile marathon walk to Bukit China from three points of Alor Setar, Kuantan and Johor Baru, etc.

There were threats of  police arrests and prosecutions against those involved in the “Save Bukit China” campaign, but finally, truth and justice prevailed, and Bukit China cemetery hill remains today for visit by Malaccans and Malaysians, as well as by tourists all over the world.

As over the past five decades, the voters of Malacca town were in the forefront for change and reform in Malaysia, I call on them to remain as the vanguard for positive change and reform in Malaysia.

The greatest challenge today is to demand a  “reset” of our national policies on the 60th National Day anniversary this year – keeping policies and measures which are good for the country, but correct or abandon policies and measures which have caused Malaysia to lose out to countries which were behind us, both politically and economically six decades ago.

Malaccans in particular should lead Malaysians to demand an end to  kleptocracy, which have brought so much shame, infamy and ignominy to Malaysia, whether in or out of the country.

Let the voters of Malacca, regardless of race or religion, lead a “Malaysia Reset” national movement on the 60th Merdeka celebrations to make the country a world-class nation.

(Speech at DAP Malacca Solidarity Dinner held at Pay Fong Secondary School Hall, Malacca on Friday, 17th  March 2017 at 9 pm)

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 18 March 2017, 7:20 pm and is filed under
Corruption
,
DAP
,
Parliament
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.


1MDB Dormant Amid Global Probe

finews.com

16 March 2017

1MDB: The Year of Reckoning

As the international investigation into the billion-dollar graft scandal at 1MBD deepens, the Malaysian fund itself is remarkably calm. The country’s political opposition faces an uphill battle to change that.

1MDB, which is ultimately under the purview of Prime Minister Najib Razak, has been an island of calm amid a sprawling investigation which has shuttered two banks in Singapore, jailed and barred bankers, and revealed an asset haul including a now-grounded private jet and financing for a Hollywood blockbuster co-produced by the PM’s stepson.

The fund’s board hasn’t met in nearly one year, nor validated any profit-and-loss accounts for a whopping five years, Tony Pua, a spokesman for Malaysia’s opposition, said in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday, according to «Sarawak Report».

Razak and Malaysia have insisted that 1MDB didn’t suffer any damages, a view that is echoed among legally-minded bankers in Singapore. This view is difficult to reconcile with the depth, scale and detail of the U.S. probe, the largest kleptocracy investigation in the country’s history.

North Korean Crisis

More recently, Najib has been absorbed after the apparent killing of would-be North Korean leader Kim Jong Nam at Kuala Lumpur airport last month. Kim’s death has sparked a diplomatic crisis between North Korea and Malaysia, one of the few countries to maintain ties with the largely isolated state.

Najib is working to release 11 Malaysians now stuck in North Korea, seemingly in retaliation for a Malaysian investigation into Kim’s death.

Late last year, 1MBD got a helping hand with its debts to Abu Dhabi – from China – in what appears to be an assets against financing swap.

The only sign at the fund that something might be amiss is with its outside auditors: three of the Big Four seem to have backed away from the work they did for 1MDB, most recently Deloitte last summer. The fund has since appointed London-based Parker Randall as its new auditor.

«Malaysian Official 1»

Najib isn’t named in U.S. documents detailing the case, but his step-son Riza Aziz and close associate Jho Low are.

However, descriptions and identifying details of an unnamed «Malaysia Official 1,» or MO1, match Najib’s position at 1MDB. He has kept a lid on the scandal domestically, thanks in part by squelching investigation of it at home as well as due to an ineffectual Malaysian opposition.

Najib is also expected to call snap elections sometime this year, a litmus test which will show whether his popularity has been affected by his involvement in the scandal.

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 19 March 2017, 2:31 am and is filed under
Corruption
,
Financial Scandals
,
Najib Razak
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.


I do not endorse Kuan Yau’s language on his Facebook which is vulgar, vituperative and vitriolic but it is no crime and no basis to arrest him or to deploy scarce police resources against him

I was shocked to  learn of “Superman” Hew Kuan Yau’s arrest by the police in Penang on my way from Parliament to Malim Nawar, on the basis of a police report by Johor Jaya MCA branch.

He will be brought down from Penang to Johor Baru by the police for investigations against him.

I visited Kuan Yau’s Facebook as it was the subject of Johor Jaya MCA police report report against Kuan Yaw.

I do not endorse Kuan Yaw’s language on his Facebook which is vulgar, vituperative and vitriotic but it is no crime, and definitely no basis to arrest him or to deploy scarce police resources against him.

On the way here, I read of the Open Letter by the second Finance Minister, Datuk Seri Johari Abdul Ghani to DAP MP for PJ Utara, Tony Pua, calling for “ceasefire” on the 1MDB scandal and suggesting that everybody should give the 1MDB scandal a “rest”.

While I look forward to Tony Pua’s reply to Johari tomorrow, I do not think that national interests will be served by giving a “rest” to the 1MDB international money-laundering scandal when every day the 1MDB scandal is making waves and news headlines all over the world – as it is the largest kleptocratic scandal in the world in recent times.

Last week, Johari said that the government could not press charges on the 1MDB scandal without a full picture.

I am shocked that the second Finance Minister is so naïve as to make such a statement.

The 1MDB is fully-owned by the Finance Ministry, which means everything known by the 1MDB must be known by the Finance Ministry.

Malaysians do not have the full story of the international multi-billion dollar 1MDB money-laundering scandal, but a fairly full story is available to the whole world since July last year through the US Department of Justice (DOJ) 126-page largest kleptocratic lawsuits to confiscate US$1 billion 1MDB-linked assets in the United States, United Kingdom and Switzerland arising from the US$3 billion 1MDB interntional money-laundering scandal.

I concede that as second finance minister, Johari may not have the full story of the 1MDB scandal. However, the Prime Minister and Finance Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak has the full story of the 1MDB scandal. Or is Najib prepared to deny this?

But is Johari prepared to confront Najib that as second finance minister he should be told the full story of the 1MDB scandal, or he would submit his instant resignation from the Cabinet?

Let Johari answer!

The next  week is the last chance for over four million unregistered eligible voters to register so that they can vote in 14th General Election which may be held in September.

Since I first elected in Parliament in 1969, one of the issues I had raised was for the automatic registration of voters, which is quite commonplace in other countries but seems impossible in Malaysia.

Some 48 years have passed since I was  first elected to Parliament to represent Bandar Melaka, but automatic registration of voters is still as distant as ever.

It would appear that we have one of the most incompetent and inefficient Election Commissions in the world which is incapable of have an efficient and up-to-date voters’ registration system.

Other countries can have a system where a voter can register today and vote tomorrow, but in Malaysia, the Election Commission needs some six months before it could process the registration and allow a voter to cast his or her vote.

This means that over four million Malaysians, who had not registered as voters, must register by the next week  if they are to be able to exercise their constitutional right to vote if Parliament is dissolved for the 14th General Election to be held in September, after the government had generated nation-wide “feel good” factor with big celebrations for the 60th National Day celebrations on August 31, 2017.

I still cannot understand why it is not possible for the Election Commission to have an efficient and up-to-date voters’ registration system whereby a person can vote after one week, or at least after one month, of registration – instead of taking six long months.

There are still 10 days before the end of March. Why then am I saying that the next  week may be the last chance for them to register if they are to be able to vote if 14GE is held in September?

This is because the registration after March 27 may not be taken into account for the final revision of the electoral roll  to qualify to vote in September.

I had wanted to have the opportunity to meet the Election Commission Chairman and officials to find out why the Election Commission could not have a system where voters can vote after registering for one week, or at most after one month, and not six months at present, before they could cast their vote.

But the Election Commission Chairman is one of the most unco-operative Election Commission Chairman in Malaysian history, as the request of DAP MPs to have a meeting and discussion with him and other Election Commission officials on the electoral system  have been turned down.

What has he got to hide?

No Election Commission Chairman in the past had  refused to meet DAP leaders and  MPs to discuss the Election Commission’s constitutional duties on the conduct of elections, which is most regrettable, for it seems to indicate that the 14GE is going to be most unfair and undemocratic in the nation’s history.

(Speech in a “Last Week of Voters’ Registration for 14GE” campaign in Malim Nawar, Perak on Monday, March 20, 2017 at 5 pm)

                This entry was posted on Monday, 20 March 2017, 5:34 pm and is filed under
Corruption
,
Financial Scandals
,
Najib Razak
,
Police
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.


Malaysia is  deeply mired in a “kleptocratic culture” when a person removed as Minister for money politics and corruption could be appointed FELDA Chairman for five years

Malaysia is deeply mired in a “kleptocratic culture” when a person removed as a Minister  for money politics and corruption could be appointed FELDA Chairman for five years.  And he is still today the top man of a key FELDA conglomerate!

It is this kleptocratic culture,  unknown in Malaysia under the first five Prime Ministers of the country, which has plunged the country into the infamy and ignominy of being regarded and ridiculed worldwide as a “global kleptocracy”.

There had been problems of good governance and democracy in the relationship between the Felda settlers and the Felda bureaucracy in the early years of Felda, and I had spoken on these Felda ssues in Parliament  in the very  first year that I entered Parliament 45 years ago in  1972, but Felda problems and grievances  never reached the kleptocratic level as in the past several years.

This is clear and evident when we see Felda brought low by a sea of problems, not only with many important Felda officials arrested and charged for corruption by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (which is probably only the tip of the iceberg of the problem of kleptocracy in Felda) but the slew of FELDA problems besetting Felda settlers, whether concerning Felda Global Ventures (FGV), Perumahan Generasi Kedua, GSA, education, etc.

Sixty years after Merdeka in 1957, the time is ripe and opportune for a “Malaysia Reset”  of nation-building direction and national policies, as  the country has been overtaken both politically and economically by other countries.

South Korea, we see eight judges of the South Korean Constitutional Court the previous Friday unanimously endorsing the impeachment of the South Korean President by South Korean Parliament for corruption and cronyism last December.

Sixty years ago when we achieved Independence, South Korea was a poor and backward country, whose per capita GDP was less than half of ours,  where human talents and democracy were non-existent.

Today, South Korea has not only economically left us far behind, becoming one of the richest and most developed countries in the world, human rights and democracy are regarded seriously to the extent that the South Korean Parliament could impeach the South Korean President for corruption and cronyism and  eight judges of its Constitutional Court could unanimously endorse the impeachment of the President by the South Korean Parliament!

Can Malaysians envisage such events taking place in Malaysia with the Malaysian Parliament impeaching the Prime Minister for  the biggest international money-laundering scandal in the world  and  Malaysia’s top  judges unanimously endorsing  such an  impeachment?

Such a question should be asked and answered by  every Malaysian, for its shows how lowly we have fallen in the progress of nations in the past six decades.

This year, we are celebrating the 60th anniversary of National Day and the 57th anniversary of Malaysia Day.

There is no better way to mark these two important national milestones than to conduct a “Malaysia Reset”  of nation-building direction and national policies which have seen the country being overtaken both politically and economically by other countries.

We should keep nation-building direction and national policies which are good for the country, but dare to correct and even abandon polices which are detrimental to the development of an united,  successful, just, democratic, progressive and prosperous plural society.

One  deleterious nation-building mindset which must be the subject of “Malaysia Reset” is the bane of the culture of kleptocracy which has crept into the higher levels of leadership in our country.

A “Malaysia Reset” after 60 years must involve the eradication of kleptocracy and and  the kleptocratic culture, not only in Felda but at all levels of government and society, whether MARA, Tabung Haji and all  GLCs (Governmen-linked companies) but  even the highest echelons of government, including full accountability for the 1MDB scandal.

Last Friday, Finance Minister II Johari Abdul Ghani asked how the government could press charges on the 1MDB scandal without a full picture.

I am shocked that the second Finance Minister is so naïve or capable of telling such falsehoods, which don’t even qualify to be “white lies”.

The 1MDB is fully-owned by the Finance Ministry, which means everything known by the 1MDB must be known by the Finance Ministry.

Malaysians do not have the full story of the international multi-billion dollar 1MDB money-laundering scandal, but a fairly full story is available to the whole world since July last year through the US Department of Justice (DOJ) 126-page  largest kleptocratic lawsuits to confiscate US$1 billion 1MDB-linked assets in the United States, United Kingdom and Switzerland arising from the US$3 billion 1MDB interntional money-laundering scandal.

I concede that as second finance minister, Johari may not have the full story of the 1MDB scandal. However, the Prime Minister and Finance Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak has the full story of the 1MDB scandal. Or is Najib prepared to deny this?

Is Johari prepared to confront Najib that as second finance minister he should be told the full story of the 1MDB scandal, or he would submit his instant resignation from the Cabinet?

Let Johari answer!

It is impossible to expect the incumbent UMNO/BN coalition  to conduct any reset of nation-building directions and national polices, as they are responsible for the grave perversion of nation-building directions and national policies.

A new Federal Government in Putrajaya, formed by Pakatan Harapan parties PKR, Amanah and DAP together with Pribumi Bumiputra is the only coalition capable of undertaking a “reset” of nation-building directions and national policies after six decades – keeping what is good for the country but correcting and abandoning what is deleterious and detrimental to our plural nation.

If there is a new Federal Government and new Parliament, there will be  Royal Commissions of Inquiry into the 1MDB scandal and the Felda woes – and there will be Parliamentary Select Committee on Good Governance with powers to call up government departments and entities which violate the principles democratic accountability, transparency and good governance.

The country must start anew, to fulfill the Malaysian dream when we achieved Merdeka in 1957 and established Malaysia in 1963 – including the eradication of the  kleptocratic culture in Malaysia and Malaysia’s infamy and ignominy as a global kleptocracy so as  to make Malaysia one of the top corruption-free countries in the world.

(Speech at the Pakatan Rakyat Konvensyen Warga Felda held at Dewan Jubli Perak, Shah Alam on Sunday, 19th March 2017 at 4 pm)

                This entry was posted on Monday, 20 March 2017, 7:06 am and is filed under
Corruption
,
Felda
,
Financial Scandals
,
Najib Razak
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.


Do the four MCA/Gerakan Ministers agree with the four-day remand of Kuan Yau for his “vulgar, vituperative and vitriolic” Facebook posting?

I am not surprised by “Superman” Hew Kuan Yau’s arrest by the police, as this had been the yearning  of  MCA and Gerakan leaders since Kuan Yau’s appearance on the ceramah circuit exposing MCA and Gerakan  hypocrisies whether in government or outside.

But I am very surprised and even shocked that Kuan Yaw has remanded for four days for his Facebook posting against the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak and his wife Datin Rosman Mansor.

This is an open-and-shut case which does not justify any single day of remand, unless we have the most inefficient, incompetent and unprofessional police force, which I do not believe.

This leaves only one explanation left – a gross abuse of powers to detain Kuan Yau, a way to punish Kuan Yau for being a fierce and popular critic of MCA and Gerakan in the ceramah circuit in the past few years.

Kuan Yau’s four-day remand may warm the cockles of the hearts of MCA and Gerakan leaders and die-hards, but if they understand justice and fair play, they know it is very wrong to abuse powers just to take vengeance against anybody.

Do the four MCA/Gerakan Ministers – Liow Tiong Lai, Wee Ka Siong, Ong Ka  Chuan and Mah Siew Keong  – agree with the four-day remand for Kuan Yau?

I do not  agree with the language often used by Kuan Yau and Kuan Yau knows about it, and this is the reason why Kuan Yau has resigned from the DAP.

For his latest Facebook posting against Najib and Rosmah, I am quite aghast at the language used, which I have described as “vulgar, vituperative and vitriolic” – but it is not a crime, no justification for police arrest or deployment of scarce police resources, and definitely no justification for four-day remand in police lock-up.

I call on both the Inspector-General of Police, Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar and the Attorney-General Tan Sri Mohamad Ali Apandi to personally look into Kuan Yaw’s four-day remand over a matter which is open-and-shut case whatever the authorities want to do, and no justification for any single-day of remand, and to ensure that Kuan Yau is released henceforth so as not to give rise to public perceptions of abuses of power to “teach a lesson” to Kuan Yaw for criticizing Najib, Rosmah and MCA/Gerakan in his ceramah circuits.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 21 March 2017, 1:04 pm and is filed under
Media
,
Najib Razak
,
Police
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.