Najib should not “hit below the belt” and should engage Mahathir in a public debate instead of deviously attacking him in his budget speech in Parliament where the former Prime Minister could not reply as he is no more a MP

The Prime Minister-cum-Finance Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak should be a gentleman and should not “hit below the belt” but engage Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamed in a public debate instead of deviously attacking him in his 2017 budget speech in Parliament where the former Prime Minister could not reply as Mahathir is no more a Member of Parliament.

In his most unorthodox, unconventional and very Trumpish 2017 Budget speech in Parliament yesterday, Najib explicitly attacked the former Prime Minister by zeroing on him in at least half a dozen times, alleging that Mahathir had made baseless and unfounded allegations against him.

I do not propose defend Mahathir as Mahathir is fully capable of defending himself. In fact, the best person to defend Mahathir is Mahathir himself.

But I would like to see a level playing field where Mahathir could defend himself from Najib’s charges, instead of Najib “hitting below the belt” by launching attacks on Mahathir in Parliament in his 2017 budget speech where Mahathir could not defend himself as Mahathir is no more a Member of Parliament.

Najib said in his 2017 Budget speech that Barisan Nasional is a “brave and bold government, and we never run away from issues”.

He said: “We never betray, never fear failure and never run away from battlefield. To us, Barisan Nasional, failure is not an option, and success is what we strive for.”

Let Najib prove his words by deed. If he wants to attack Mahathir for any unsubstantiated or baseless statements against him, let him do it openly and fairly by engaging the former Prime Minister in a public debate where there is a level playng field for both of them – where Mahathir could respond to Najib’s attacks and where Najib could also answer Mahathir’s attacks.

I have not spoken to Mahathir on such a public debate, but if Najib dares to accept such an encounter through a public debate with Mahathir, I am prepared to chair the debate between Najib and Mahathir.

I do not think Mahathir would be afraid of such a public debate encounter with Najib. The only question is whether Najib is brave enough for such an encounter!

(Speech at the 50th DAP Anniversary Dinner of Segamat DAP in Segamat on Saturday, October 22, 2016 at 8 pm)

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 23 October 2016, 3:49 pm and is filed under
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Support for the appointment of Malanjum as the next Chief Justice, creating history as the first from Sabah/Sarawak to head the Malaysian judiciary in half a century

I support the proposal by the Sarawak PKR chairman Baru Bian for the appointment of Tan Sri Richard Malanjum, the Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak for over a decade since July 2006, as the next Chief Justice.

This  will create history as Malanjum  will be the first Malaysian  from Sabah/Sarawak to head the Malaysian judiciary in half a century.

The present Chief Justice, Tun Arifin Zakaria will end his tenure in March next year after it was extended from October 1  this year.

Malanjum holds the distinction as the longest-serving judge, whether of High Court, Court of Appeal or Federal Court in the country.

I agree with Baru Bian that aside from the fact that Malanjum has the seniority by virtue of his 10-year stint as Chief Judge of the High Court of Sabah and Sarawak, he is eminently qualified  to be the Chief Justice because of his sound and reasoned judgments, as well as his vision to bring about much-needed reform to the judiciary.

(Media Conference Statement after the Opening of Johore State DAP Convention in Kulai on Sunday, October 23, 2016 at 12 noon)

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 23 October 2016, 4:05 pm and is filed under
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UMNO leaders from Najib, Hishamuddin to Khairy should realise that there is nothing more embarrassing, shameful, indecent and unprofessional than to lead Malaysia to a “global kleptocracy”

The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak said that Opposition MPs have embarrassed themselves by staging a walkout during his Trumpish 2017 budget speech in Parliament on Friday.

The Defence Minister, Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein said that the walkout of Opposition MPs from Najib’s 2017 Budget in Parliament was shameful and indecent because never in the history of the country had MPs walked out during the budget presentation.

The Minister for Youth and Sports, Khairy Jamaluddin said it was unprofessional for Opposition MPs to stage a walk-out of Parliament during Najib’s budget speech.

Let me tell UMNO leaders from Najib to Hishammuddin to Khairy that they should realise that there is nothing more embarrassing, shameful, indecent and unprofessional than to lead Malaysia to a “global kleptocracy”.

I am shocked that the Prime Minister and all the UMNO and Barisan Nasional Ministers are completely bereft of shame and outrage that Malaysia is regarded world-wide as a “global kleptocracy” and they could accept such infamy and ignominy to the nation with such equanimity, passivity and peace of mind!

I for one have never felt so ashamed  and outraged as a Malaysian in my 75 years that the country I so loved and for which I am prepared to sacrifice my freedom and liberties have descended so low that it is regarded world-wide as a “global kleptocracy”,  a country ruled by PPP – Penchuri, Perompak dan Penyamun!

If Malaysia does not deserve to be regarded world-wide as a “global kleptocracy”, then Malaysian leaders and institutions, beginning with Parliament, must protest loud and clear for the whole world to hear at such aspersion, stain and defamation of the country’s good name and reputation.

If there is basis for the world-wide infamy of Malaysia as a “global kleptocracy”, then Parliament and all patriotic Malaysians must start the process to cleanse and purge the country of such infamy and ignominy by rooting out from office and the system the persons and officials, regardless of how high or low their positions,  responsible for such national infamy and ignominy!

It is no option for Parliament and the nation to just keep quiet and do nothing at  such world-wide infamy and ignominy of Malaysia as a “global kleptocracy”.

This is why I am shocked that Najib’s 2017 Budget speech which lasted some two hours made no attempt to rebut and refute the world-wide infamy and ignominy of Malaysia as a “global kleptocracy”, but even more shocking, Najib could say and refer to all things under the sun but there is not a word about Malaysia’s fight or commitment to battle corruption!

I am utterly shocked that in the first week of Parliament, MPs were not allowed to ask questions about the US Department of Justice (DOJ) lawsuit to forfeit over US$1 billion of 1MDB-linked assets in the United States, United Kingdom and Switzerland and my two attempts to raise the issue of Malaysia’s infamy as a “global kleptocracy” during the two Minister’s Question Time (MQT) sessions were rejected by the Speaker, Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia.

I am asking the same question to the Prime Minister as to what the government was doing to to cleanse and purge Malaysia’s infamy as a global kleptocracy during the third MQT next Tuesday, and if it is rejected by the Speaker for the third time, Malaysians can conclude that they cannot depend on the present Parliament to clear the nation of the infamy of a global kleptocracy.

Every Malaysian, regardless of whether he or she is a Malay, Chinese, Indian, Kadazan, Iban or Orang Asli, whether Muslim, Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Taoist or Sikh, must show that they are more patriotic than Najib, Hishanmmuddin and Khairy  and  be ashamed and outraged that Malaysia is regarded world-wide as a “global kleptocracy” when during the first two decades of the nation’s history under the premiership of Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Razak and Tun Hussein Onn, corruption was a rare phenomenon as compared to the rampant corruption today with Malaysia reaching the world heights of a “global kleptocracy”.

Clearly, only ordinary Malaysians who love the country can save the nation from the international infamy and ignominy of a “global kleptocracy” as the nation’s leaders in UMNO and Barisan Nasional do not mind Malaysia being regarded as a “global kleptocracy”.

Deepavali celebrates the victory of light over darkness, good over evil, right over wrong, knowledge over ignorance and hope over despair.

It is a reaffirmation of the Hindu belief that good will ultimately triumph over evil.

However, there are times when darkness seem to wipe out the light, when the battle of good over evil seems difficult and even impossible.  These are such times in Malaysia, when it is even more important to have faith, courage and stamina to soldier on to ensure the eventual victory of light over darkness and good over evil.

Happy Deepavali to all Malaysians.

(Speech at the Gelang Patah DAP Deepavali celebrations in Gelang Patah on Sunday, 23rd October 2016 at 9 pm)

                This entry was posted on Monday, 24 October 2016, 10:16 am and is filed under
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Confirmed – Parliament a third-world Parliament with its  charade pretending that Malaysia’s infamy as “global kleptocracy”, US DOJ billion-dollar forfeiture of  1MDB-linked assets and 1MDB scandal  do not exist

It is now confirmed.

The Malaysian Parliament is a third-world Parliament incapable of becoming a first-world Parliament with its  charade pretending that Malaysia’s infamy as a “global kleptocracy”, US Department of Justice (DOJ) billion-dollar forfeiture of  1MDB-linked assets and  the 1MDB global financial scandal  do not exist.

I have given Parliament three opportunities to prove that it is not a third-world Parliament where the majority of MPs are not  in hock to the Prime Minister and the Executive, but I have failed and  Parliament has failed.

It is now clear that  the majority of MPs are in hock to the Prime Minister and the UMNO/BN government of the day as Parliament continues with the  parliamentary charade to prop up the Prime Minister and the UMNO/BN government  by ignoring the  world-wide currents swirling with increasing intensity over Malaysia’s first international financial scandal which has netted for Malaysia the ignominous  epithet of a “global kleptocracy”.

Even the Parliament Speaker has got into the act, with his arbitrary “sub judice” ruling to ban these issues from being questioned or debated in Parliament.

My question on the question of Malaysia as a global kleptocracy was submitted  for the third time for the third Ministerial Question Times (MQT) today, but it  has again been rejected  by the Speaker, Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia.

This is the second week of the 25-day Budget Parliament, and it is as clear as the light of day that Najib’s 1MDB scandal, the US DOJ’s billion-dollar forfeiture lawsuit in California, and Malaysia’s newly-acquired infamy and ignominy as a “global kleptocracy” are not, in the eyes of the UMNO/BN government, issues which should be raised within the four walls of Parliament – relegating the Malaysian Parliament to an even lower status  than third-world Parliaments!

I do not harbour any notion that my question for the third time to the Prime Minister what the government was doing to cleanse and purge the country of the infamy and ignominy of a “global kleptocracy” would see the light of day in today’s MQT, but I thought we should give the Parliament Speaker at least three chances  to prove  that Parliament is incapable of becoming a first-world Parliament, despite all the Speaker’s talk about parliamentary reforms.

DAP MP for Puchong, Gobind Singh Deo has filed a motion last week under Standing Order 43 to review the Speaker’s extraordinary ruling last Monday barring all questions on the DOJ lawsuit filed on July 20 seeking forfeiture of US$1billion 1MDB-linked assets in the United States, United Kingdom and Switzerland from over US$3 billion international embezzlement, misappropriation and money-laundering of 1MDB funds on the ground that it is “sub judice”.

Our Parliament Speaker in making world history for Malaysia, for as far as I know, there is no Parliament in the world, whether during question time or debates, which bar the raising of current issues on the ridiculous ground of “sub judice” because of litigation in an overseas country.

Setting this ridiculous  world parliamentary precedent is not something for which the Speaker or the Malaysian Parliament should  be proud of.

Is there any light at the end of the tunnel to cleanse and purge  Malaysia’s infamy and ignominy as a global kleptocracy, the US DOJ action  and Najib’s 1MDB global  financial scandal so that these issues could be addressed  in the Malaysian Parliament and for answers and full accountability by Najib and his Ministers to be provided or is this only possible if there is a change of Federal Government in the next 14th General Election?

Yesterday’s speech by the MP for Tambun and former Second Finance Minister, Datuk Seri Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah is most remarkable under the circumstances, especially bearing in mind that Husni was appointed the Cabinet Spokesman on the 1MDB scandal in June last year – slightly over a month before Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyddin Yassin and the Minister for Rural and Regional Development, Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal were sacked from the Cabinet by the Prime Minister.

In retrospect, does Husni agree that Najib’s sacking of Muhyiddin and Shafie were high-handed and  unjustifiable, that Muhyiddin and Shafie’s qualms about the 1MDB scandal were completely valid, justified and patriotic, which caused Husni himself to raise in Parliament yesterday, pertinent, pressing and disturbing questions about the 1MDB scandal – which he as  once the Cabinet spokeman for 1MDB is incapable of answering?

Husni stands out as an exception among the BN parliamentary crowd, who are staging an unpatriotic pageant that Malaysia’s infamy as a global kleptocracy, the DOJ suit  and the 1MDB global financial scandal do not exist.

Malaysia is destined to end up as a failed state unless the majority of UMNO/BN MPs are prepared to emulate Husni, like warning that  even if Barisan Nasional wins the next general election, the country can still face grave economic repercussions if the 1MDB scandal is not handled properly.

Or must the UMNO/BN coalition in Putrajaya be replaced in its entirety before there can be light at the end of the tunnel on the 1MDB scandal?

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 25 October 2016, 1:12 pm and is filed under
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All UMNO/BN Ministers and MPs should declare the donations they  received from Najib personal banking accounts for the 13GE, like Shahrir who got RM1 million, and whether this is the reason they are keeping dumb on 1MDB scandal

The Chairman of BN Back Benchers Club and former Cabinet Minister, Tan Sri Shahrir Samad is not doing  his political credibility any  service when he denounced former Cabinet Ministers, Datuk Seri Ahmad  Husni Hanadzlah and Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal for asking questions about the 1MDB global financial scandal in the current debate in  Parliament.

Shahrir should have praised Husni and Shafie for their conviction and  principle for asking in Parliament when they could not get answers in the Cabinet about the 1MDB global financial scandal – which is particularly commendable in the case of Husni, who was appointed the Cabinet spokesman on 1MDB in the middle of last year.

When even the only Minister to be appointed  Cabinet spokesman for 1MDB is in the dark about the many important transactions and decisions taken by 1MDB, is Shahrir seriously suggesting that it is a patriotic  option for Husni to keep silent in Parliament  about his worries, reservations  and concerns about the 1MDB financial scandal?

In fact, the question Shahrir should answer as Chairman of BNBBC, former Cabinet Minister and one of the very few in UMNO/BN who claims to have principles and integrity is why he has not yet  broken his silence on the 1MDB scandal?

Is  Shahrir’s silence  on the 1MDB scandal because he  got doubts about the BBC interview of the Director of Barisan Nasional Strategic Communications Director, Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahlan that “MALAYSIAN OFFICIAL 1” (MO1”) referred to 36 times in the US Department of Justice (DOJ)’s biggest kleptocratic action to forfeit  billion-dollar 1MDB-linked assets in the United States, United Kingdom and Switzerland is none other than the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak – making the Malaysian Prime Minister the newest kleptocrat in the world?

Or is it because Shahrir is a beneficiary of the 1MDB scandal – as he himself had admitted that he had received RM1 million from Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s RM2.6 billion personal accounts for the 13th General Election campaigning!

Would Shahrir agree that all UMNO/BN Ministers and MPs who had benefitted financially from the Prime Minister’s largesse in the 13th General Election should declare how much money they had received from Najib, and whether this was the reason why their mouths are totally clamped on the 1MDB scandal, whether in Parliament or outside?

Let all UMNO/BN Ministers and MPs declare the donations they  received from Najib personal banking accounts for the 13GE, like Shahrir who got RM1 million, and whether this is the reason they are keeping dumb on 1MDB scandal!

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 26 October 2016, 5:21 pm and is filed under
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Parliament has become a national disgrace when after meeting for two weeks,  it is not prepared to do anything to  purge and cleanse the national infamy and ignominy of being regarded world-wide as a global kleptocracy

The Malaysian Parliament has become a national disgrace when after meeting for two weeks, it is not prepared to do anything to purge and cleanse the national infamy and ignominy of being regarded world-wide as a global kleptocracy.

Parliament experimented with parliamentary reforms like the Ministerial Question Time (MQT) intended to make Parliament more relevant by dealing with urgent topical issues, but my question to the Prime Minister asking what the government was doing to cleanse and purge the country of the infamy and ignominy of  being regarded world-wide as a “global kleptocracy” could not see the light of day, although it was submitted three times at each of  the first three MQTs in the past fortnight.

This raises the question whether MQT is capable of making Parliament more relevant by dealing with pertinent national issues like the question of the national infamy and ignominy for being regarded world-wide as a global kleptocracy.

Is there a light at the end of the tunnel  to cleanse and purge  Malaysia’s infamy and ignominy as a global kleptocracy as a result of   the 1MDB global  mega-financial scandal, the US Department of Justice (DOJ)’s  largest single action against  US$1 billion 1MDB-linked assets under the US Kleptocracy Assets Recovery Initiative  and the investigations by regulatory authorities in Switzerland, Singapore, Abu Dhabi, Australia, Luxembourg, Hong Kong and United Kingdom?

Or is there no way the issues of integrity, accountability and transparency in the 1MDB global mega- financial scandal  could be pinned down and dissected  in the Malaysian Parliament for answers and full accountability to be provided  by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak and his Ministers and that such answers and  reforms are only possible if there is a change of Federal Government in the next 14th General Election?

The official reaction to the speech by the MP for Tambun and former Second Finance Minister, Datuk Seri Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah in Parliament on Monday asking  some questions about the 1MDB global mega-financial scandal is no cause for anyone to believe  that the UMNO/BN Government is prepared to “bite the bullet” to allow the full glare of parliamentary scrutiny and accountability over the 1MDB scandal.

UMNO Information chief, Tan Sri Annuar Musa summarily dismissed Husni’s speech and said the  former second finance minister had said nothing new in his torrent of questions regarding the 1MDB scandal.

I am very surprised by Annuar’s comments as I have been following very closely the sad and sorry saga of the 1MDB scandal in the past seven years, and as far as I know, this is the first time that Husni has aired his reservations and concerns about the 1MDB global mega-financial scandal in a public arena.

Husni’s warning that Malaysia might continue to be haunted by the 1MDB scandal and his incisive questions about 1MDB problems arising from the missing US$4 billion in Aabar (BVI), the US$6.5 billion arbitration suit with Abu Dhabi-based International Petroleum Investment Co (IPIC) and the RM4 billion loan from Kumpulan Wang Amanah Pencen (KWAP) to SRC were raised by Husni  for  the first time in a public forum.

Is Annuar suggesting that Husni had made such a warning and asked these grave questions about the 1MDB scandal within the four walls of the government or UMNO before he resigned as Second Finance Minister?

What is even more shocking was Husni’s revelation in his speech in Parliament that although he had been a loyal and  professional  Minister, with a KPI “among the best among Ministers”, he had been defamed and  demonized by UMNO cybertroopers in the social media after he had left the Cabinet.

As Husni said in his speech in Parliament, “…the social media, dua hari selepas saya berhenti, dia punya attacking kepada saya for no reason and I know who the “A”, “B”, “C” yang attack saya. Why play this game? Let us love the rakyat. Kita bekerjalah untuk rakyat.”

Annuar’s attack on Husni  undoubtedly belongs to this genre of very unkind cuts against someone who is still in the same party.

There is a grand charade going on in Parliament and the nation  pretending that the grave problem of Malaysia’s infamy and ignominy being regarded worldwide as a global kleptocracy does not exist – which is the greatest disservice for an MP to Malaysia as it should be the responsibility for all Ministers and  MPs regardless of race, religion, region or political party to unite to cleanse and purge Malaysia’s infamy from being regarded as a global kleptocracy.

Unless the UMNO/BN government has come to the conclusion that it is not possible to cleanse and purge Malaysia of such infamy, and the only option left is to pretend that such infamy and ignominy do not exist.  Has Malaysia reached such a sorry pass?

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 27 October 2016, 3:52 pm and is filed under
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In one of the darkest Deepavali in modern Malaysian history,  all Malaysians of good sense and goodwill  regardless of race, religion or politics should  come together to be the beacon of  light to save Malaysia from  the darkness of kleptocracy, injustice and politics of lies

Deepavali is the victory of light over darkness, good over evil and hope over despair.

This year, Malaysians observe one of the darkest Deepavali in modern Malaysian history and all Malaysians of good sense of good will, regardless of race, religion, region or  politics, should  be the beacon of light to save Malaysia from the darkness of kleptocracy, injustice and the politics of lies.

It is sad  that in this year’s Deepavali, the week started with the tragic fire at the Hospital Sultanah Aminah (HSA)  in Johor Baru, which claimed the lives of six Malaysians seeking a new lease of life at the ICU ward.

The tragic incident at HSA where six patients who sought  a new lease of life at the ICU met  death instead because of systemic, infrastructure and human  failure and negligence should never have been allowed to happen, and it is even more shocking for Malaysians to learn that HSA does not have a fire safety certificate, that the hospital had not conducted a fire drill for its staff for at least two years since 2014, that some 10 days before Tuesday’s blaze that killed six and injured 11 others, that there was a small fire at the ICU and worst of all, that there had been more than seven fires at the hospital in the past four years.

The six ICU deaths in the HSA fire should not die in vain, and this is why there should not only be a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the HSA fire, but the inquiry should be extended to include into the history of fire prevention efforts at HSA and to  all hospitals in the country to ensure that there would be no recurrence of the tragic HSA fire in other hospitals where patients who seek a new lease of life in ICUs are killed by systemic, maintenance, infrastructure or human failures and negligence.

If heads should roll because of the HSA fire, killing six and injuring 11, putting at risk the life and limb of patients, doctors, nurses, the hospital and medical staffs, then let heads roll!

This is not the only dark spot in the national landscape.

For over  three months, Malaysia ascended the international totem pole of a global kleptocracy, with incessant negative reporting in other countries about the international 1MDB money-laundering, producing for the first time in Malaysia history, corruption fugitives hiding from the long arms of the law of various countries.

Malaysians have never been so ashamed to identify themselves as Malaysians  internationally, because of the infamy and ignominy of Malaysia’s unrebutted epithet of of global kleptocracy.

It is a reflection of the growing darkness in the national landscape that Parliament  could meet for two weeks under the great pretence that Malaysia’s infamy and ignominy for being regarded worldwide as a global kleptocracy does not exist.

Is the  government turning its  inability to refute the shame of a global kleptocracy into a virtue that such an international infamy and ignominy does not exist?

Will the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak and the UMNO/BN Ministers and MPs continue in the next four weeks’ of the budget Parliament to pretend that Malaysia’s infamy as a global kleptocracy does not exist, and continue to pretend that there is no need to refute such infamy?

Another darkness descended on Malaysia in the budget speech of the Prime Minister-cum-Finance Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak last Friday.

Without any explanation or justification, Najib as good as repudiated Vision 2020 when he announced Vision 2050 or TN2050  (Transformasi Nasional 2050).

For three decades, Vision 2020 was the beacon of light to illuminate Malaysia’s struggle and progress to a fully developed, democratic and united plural society.

The whole country was cast into the valley of darkness when Najib repudiated Vision 2020 four years before the target date, and substituted instead Vision 2050 or TN 2050  in another 36 years’ time.

Why has Najib repudiated Vision 2020 which had  been the national lodestone for three Prime Ministers through three decades, including Najib himself.

The 11th Malaysia Plan in 2010  was presented by Najib as the final five-year plan to achieve Vision 2020 and the 2016 Budget was announced by Najib as the “last lap” to achieve Vision 2020.

Suddenly, all these national efforts and vision have gone to nought.

Malaysians must be reminded that the darkest hourt is just before dawn.

If light is to triumph over darkness, good over evil and hope over despair, Malaysians must courageously and steadfastly unite against the dark and evil forces of kleptocracy and injustices and in particular the despicable and reprehensible politics of lies and falsehoods to poison national discourses and relations among Malaysians.

I wish all Malaysians Selamat Deepavali with these  sober and sombre thoughts.

(Deepavali Message  in Kuala Lumpur on Friday, 28th October 2016)

                This entry was posted on Friday, 28 October 2016, 1:06 pm and is filed under
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Pandikar undermined  public perception and  image of Speaker’s integrity  and independence from the Executive when he suggested  that the three  former Cabinet Ministers had broken their Cabinet secrecy in  their speeches in Parliament

I was utterly shocked when I read of the comments from the Speaker, Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia yesterday that former cabinet ministers may have broken their oath of  Cabinet secrecy when debating the 2017 Budget in Parliament, referring in particular to former Deputy Prime Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, former Rural and Regional Development Minister, Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal and the former Second Finance Minister, Datuk Seri Husni Hadzlah.

Pandikar told a press conference in Parliament yesterday that when he “heard the other day….that the Cabinet’s decision had not been carried out”, it was “(secret) Cabinet information”.

Pandikar said in his experience of being a former minister himself, cabinet members had to take an oath of secrecy.

He said: “We can’t tell (secrets) to anyone. You can’t whisper it to your wife at night.”

He said he knew a lot of secrets himself, but would not divulge them as those who break their oaths cast doubt on their own integrity and conduct.

I do not know what to make of Pandikar’s comments because they undermined  public perception and  image of the Speaker’s integrity and independence from the Executive when he publicly suggested that the three former Cabinet Ministers had broken their oath of Cabinet secrecy in  their speeches in Parliament.

Is Pandikar subtly suggesting to the Executive and in particular the Attorney-General and the Inspector-General of Police  to initiate actions against Muhyiddin, Shafie and Husni under the Official Secrets Act or  other laws of the land for their alleged breach of  their oath of Cabinet secrecy in  their speeches during the debate on the 2017 Budget?

Is Pandikar not aware of the important doctrine of the separation of powers of the Executive, Legislature and Judiciary, and his special responsibility as the Speaker of Parliament to jealously safeguard the independence and integrity of Parliament from any usurpation or encroachment by the Executive?

Where in the world do we have a Parliament Speaker as good as suggesting to the Executive to charge MPs who are former Cabinet Ministers for their speeches in Parliament for breach of Cabinet secrecy?

Muhyiddin in his speech highlighted how the cabinet was not consulted on the formation of 1MDB, and was kept in the dark about its finances until the scandal broke out.

Is this a State secret when everybody concerned about the 1MDB scandal would have known about it?

Husni, meanwhile, questioned why 1MDB was formed, and asked how its scandals would affect Malaysia’s image.

Is this such a crime that the Speaker should suggest action by the Executive?

These are  only Pandikar’s personal opinions that Muhyiddin, Shafie and Husni had violated their oath of  Cabinet secrecy, but Pandikar should know that although he holds the elevated office of Speaker, he is not a judge in a court of law.

In any event, his view that Muhyiddin, Shafie and Husni had violated their oath of Cabinet secrecy is open to challenge, as I myself cannot see where Muhyiddin, Shafie and Husni had  violated their  oath of Cabinet secrecy.

Furthermore, as MPs, the three former Ministers are protected by parliamentary privilege for what they say in Parliament except in  the rare occasion of violating the ban on  “sensitive” issues under the Sedition Act consequent on an amendment to the Constitution  which would be powerful shields to defend them from criminal charges that might be preferred against them by a government which had lost its democratic principles and moral compass of being able to distinguish right from wrong or what should be the proper order of national priorities.

It is sad and shocking that Pandikar seems to have turned the role of Speaker upside down, as instead of protecting Members of Parliament from any encroachments from the Executive, he seems to be siding with the Executive against Members of Parliament even to the extent of suggesting Executive actions against Members of Parliament.

                This entry was posted on Friday, 28 October 2016, 6:17 am and is filed under
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Corruption in Sabah Water Department  sextupled the “Mr. 10%”  epithet six times to “Mr. 60%” –  a shocking reflection of increasing gravity of  kleptocracy in Malaysia

The country was  recently convulsed by reports of the rampant corruption in the Sabah Water Department, especially the revelation that 60 per cent of the RM3.3 billion earmarked by the federal government to improve water supply to residents, including those in remote areas,  in the Sabah State, had been “siphoned off” by corruption.

As a result, corruption in the Sabah Water Department sextupled the “Mr. 10%” epithet for the corrupt, increasing six times to “Mr. 60” – a shocking reflection of the gravity of the kleptocracy in Malaysia!

In the past three months, Malaysia made an undesirable descent to a “global kleptocracy”, especially after the US Department of Justice (DOJ) action under the US Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative (KARI) on July 20 to forfeit US$1 billion 1MDB-linked assets in the United States, United Kingdom and Switzerland arising from over US$3 billion international  embezzlement, misappropriation and money-laundering of 1MDB finds and actions by investigative and regulatory authorities in  over half-a-dozen countries, including closure of banks and criminal prosecutions.

Sabah’s Water-Gate Corruption Scandal in October, which started with the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) seizure  of more than RM114 million in cash and accounts, 19.3 kg of gold jewellery worth about RM3.64 million, some 97 designer ladies handbags worth RM500,000, nine luxury vehicles and some 127 land titles from the Director and Deputy Director of Sabah Water Department, have certified and confirmed  the “arrival” of Malaysia as “a land of kleptocracy” in the minds of both the  Malaysian and international community.

The “earth-breaking” ceremony for the Impian Sabah Keningau Water Project earlier this evening in Bunga Raya district  only 20 km from  Keningau  (fifth largest township in Sabah) set me thinking as to what could have been achieved for rural Sabah in the past half a century, if the state had good governance instead of “locusts”  for the past five decades.

Impian Sabah’s Keningau Water Project is the most ambitious one so far, costing RM250,000 to build gravity-fed water system  to bring clean piped water to five villagers, which will benefit some 300 households or 1,500 people.

If 60 per cent of the RM3.3 billion – or some RM2 billion –  meant for rural water infrastructure projects had not been stolen by corruption and kleptocracy, it would be able to fund 8,000 projects like Impian Sabah Keningau project to provide gravity-fed water system to bring clean piped water to rural homes for the benefit of 12 million people, i.e. 8,000 x 150 people  (some four times of Sabah’s present population).

There is  no reason whatsoever why almost every household even in the rural areas in Sabah could not be provided with clean piped water, not just in 2016 but some two decades ago by the nineties,  if there is no corruption and kleptocracy in the State.

But rural Sabah must now look to 2050 to get the most basic of rural infrastructure facilities like clean piped water as the Prime Minister-cum-Finance Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak had announced in his Budget 2017 speech in Parliament on Oct. 21 the abandonment of Vision 2020 and replacement with Transformation Nasional Vision 2050.

I call on the people of Sabah, regardless of race, religion or party politics to demand the UMNO/BN government to explain why it had failed to deliver  Vision 2020 to ensure that Malaysia achieve the status of a fully developed state, where even rural households would enjoy the most rural infrastructure facilities like piped water, electricity, roads and basic health care.

Najib was already a senior Cabinet Minister when Vision 2020 was launched by former Prime Minister, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad in 1991.

Najib should explain why the 30-year Vision 2020 had failed under his premiership, when he had promised Malaysians that the 10th Malaysia Plan and  his 2016 Budget speech in October last year would be  the country’s  “final lap” to achieve Vision 2020 as a fully developed state!

Why must the dream of rural Sabah for basic rural infrastructure facilities be postponed for another three decades to 2050?

(Speech  in a talk at Keningau DAP Branch on Friday, 28th October 2016 at 9 pm)

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 29 October 2016, 6:51 am and is filed under
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Malaysia’s Najib Erases Predecessor’s Economic Vision

Asia Sentinel

October 27, 2016

Annual budget focuses too little on money, too much on politics

On Oct. 21, Malaysia’s scandal-hit Prime Minister Najib Razak tabled a RM260.8 billion budget that is not only short on money and long on politics but seeks to obliterate the philosophy behind the economic blueprint of his arch-enemy, former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad.

Najib, also the finance minister, dubbed his 30-year development program “Transformasi Nasional 2050 (National Transformation 2050),” an alternative to Mahathir’s Vision 2020, launched in a landmark Najib’s plan, however, was short on details but long on rhetoric.

“The New Economic Policy under the late Tun Razak was planned to create a successful New Generation within 30 years. So is TN50, which will span three decades, to form a first-caliber nation state as well as with excellent mindset,” Najib said at the end of his budget 2017 speech, recalling his father Abdul Razak Hussein’s affirmative action plan, which was actually a 20-year policy.

One third of the 106-minute speech was devoted to politics and for the first time included a Powerpoint presentation as well as an introduction to leaders of various communities and social workers at the public gallery in parliament.

“Let TN50 bear witness; (let it) be recorded in history that we are responsible citizens and forefathers, to leave behind the best and he greatest legacy to be inherited by future generations.

“From now on, TN50 is our lucky charm. Let the old legacy pass. The future of Malaysia, we will recreate,” he said, in a dig at Mahathir’s Vision 2020 plan.

In an immediate reaction, veteran opposition leader Lim Kit Siang – who has struck a loose alliance with Mahathir – called out Najib’s volte-face of Mahathir’s policies, saying: “It is most shocking that Najib could so cavalierly and unceremoniously repudiated Vision 2020 when only in the last budget presentation last year, he reiterated his commitment to achieve Vision 2020 and the goal of a developed nation status. Has he abandoned both Vision 2020 and its final lap?”

The answer isn’t clear but what is clear about the budget speech was its focus on several demographics that could help Najib keep power in the next general elections, due 2018 but which many believe will be called earlier.

Najib announced he would continue his cash payments for lower-income Malaysians, which first started in 2012, a year before the 2013 polls, in which the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) won fewer parliament seats and also lost the popular vote.

For 2017, Najib said he would further increase the cash payments with RM6.8 billion set aside for the eligible lower income group of seven million out of the 30 million population.

The finance minister also plans to extend tax relief for all taxable income earners – estimated at 2.1 million out of the 14.6 million workers – to include the purchase of smartphones, internet subscriptions and newspapers apart from tax incentives to Islamic banking and allocate funds to invest in potential small-and-mid capitalized companies.

Muslim clerics and village headmen will also get more allowances, in what is seen as a move to shore up support among lower-income Malaysians, especially among the Malay-Muslim community in the rural areas that are a vote bank for Najib’s United Malays National Organization.

There are also more incentives for affordable housing, including renting out 10,000 houses to youths in urban areas but critics say none of the affordable housing has been taken up due to strict lending conditions imposed by the central bank, Bank Negara Malaysia. The plan to build 500,000 houses or 100,000 annually under a scheme has yet to bear fruit although a government minister said it was still an on-going project.

Malaysian academic James Chin, who heads the Asia Institute at Australia’s University of Tasmania, told the Wall Street Journal that the spending blue-print was “an election budget in disguise” and predicted that a general election could be held in 2017.

Most analysts and political observers agree, saying that a fractured opposition and recent UMNO victories in by-elections could spur Najib to hold elections sooner than later. However, Najib is a cautious politician, enmeshed in the 1Malaysia Development Bhd. scandal, in whuch as much as Us$7 billion has gone missing from state-backed coffers. In 2013, he went to the end of his coalition’s last mandate before calling elections.

The extra cash for the lower income Malaysians pales in comparison to the deep cuts in money for state universities and teaching hospitals or the estimated RM40 billion to be collected in 2017 through the controversial Goods and Service Tax (GST) imposed since April 2015.

The fiscal consolidation by the government to achieve its 3 percent fiscal deficit, however, means government-linked companies or Non-Financial Public Corporations (NFPCs) will have to bear the burden of incentives and loans for so-called government projects, which opposition Member of Parliament Tony Pua has described as a “time bomb.”

“In layman’s terms, the government has hidden the bulk of its excessive spending under the NFPCs maintain a semblance of ‘moderate’ budget deficit,” Pua said in a statement. “However, so much spending has now been shifted to these NFPCs, that the NFPC deficit has grown by leaps and bounds to now become even bigger than the federal government deficit!”

Pua noted that in 2013, the NFPC deficit was a modest RM10.6 billion but the NFPC deficit leapt to RM52.3 billion in 2014 and further increased to RM56.9 billion in 2015. The estimated deficit for 2016 is currently RM50.5 billion, he said.

For context and perspective to the scale of these NFPC deficits, he said the BN government budget deficit for 2015 was RM37.2 billion. In 2016, it is estimated to hit RM38.7 billion while the government forecast RM40.3 billion for 2017.

“There is no question that the NFPC deficit is the biggest time bomb to the Malaysian public finances. We can already feel its ticking with the rapidly rising “debt service charges” which the government is forced to bear annually.

“This is caused, in no small part, by the government being obligated to pay for interest and loans that the NFPCs are unable to fulfil,” Pua said.

Despite Pua’s warnings, Najib denied Malaysia is a failed state in economic governance and also forecast that the country’s economy was expected to grow between 4 and 5 percent in 2017, compared with 4 and 4.5 percent in 2016, due to effects of softer global crude prices since mid-2014.

The jury’s out on Najib’s forecast and his ability to win the next elections but his generous handouts and political strategies might still see him keep his job notwithstanding the scandals that have buffeted his political career.

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 29 October 2016, 5:35 am and is filed under
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Call on IGP Khalid to reprimand and  penalise police personnel who abused their powers in arresting Maria Chin and worse, harassing and  intimidating Malaysians for taking Bersih flyers as it constitutes no crime under the law

The excessive and unreasonable action by the police in Kota Marudu to arrest the Bersih chairperson Maria Chin Abdullah for distributing Bersih flyers in Langkon, Sabah to promote the Bersih 5 rally slated on Nov. 19 to call for free, fair and clean elections must be condemned in the strongest possible terms.

Even worse is the police intimidation of members of the public for taking the Bersih flyers, as the  police  taking down the identity card numbers of those who take the Bersih flyers and  police threats to arrest the members of the public concerned  is nothing short of illegal police harassment and abuse of powers.

It is no crime under the law for anyone to take or receive the Bersih  flyers, and the police are doing themselves and public respect for their independence and credibility no service by acting completely outside the province of the law in harassing or  intimidating members of the public for taking or receiving the Bersih flyers.

All responsible political parties and members of the public want to be  friends of the police, for the police  are performing an important national service and function  to uphold the law to maintain order, peace and harmony.

But the police  will forfeit public respect for the police, who will cease to be friends of the people, if the police themselves break the law by indiscriminately and illegally abusing police powers as in case of  the Bersih 5  publicity event in Langkon, Kota Marudu yesterday.

I call on the Inspector-General of Police, Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar  to reprimand and  penalise police personnel who abused their powers in arresting Maria Chin and worse, harassing and  intimidating Malaysians for taking  Bersih flyers as it constitutes no crime under the law.

I hope the IGP will be as “quick on the draw” with the police abuses of powers in the arrest of Maria Chin and the police threats to members of the public for taking Bersih flyers, as he has shown with regard to complaints by members of the establishment against critics of the government.

Yesterday, Khalid  again demonstrated his “quick on the draw” selective propensity when he announced that the police will record statements from three former Cabinet Ministers who are alleged to have revealed government secrets in Parliament.

I feel very sad that my worst fears have come to pass, as  the Speaker of Parliament Tan Sri Pandikar  Amin Mulia  is  seen as an agent of the Executive to remind the Attorney-General and the Inspector-General of Police to take action against former Deputy Prime Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, former Rural and Regional Minister Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal and the former Second Finance Minister Datuk Seri Husni Hanadzlah for breaking the law when they spoke in Parliament in the 2017 Budget.

The Speaker’s ignorance of the law cannot be excuse for the IGP to be ignorant of the law.

Muhyiddin, Shafie and Husni are all protected by parliamentary privilege for what they say  in Parliament, except in the specific case of violating the Sedition Act in questioning one of the four “sensitive” issues entrenched in the Constitution – which neither one of the trio had done.

In fact, the Speaker should come to the defence of the three former Cabinet Ministers for what they speak in Parliament, which Speakers by parliamentary tradition and in  other Parliaments would have done.

I do not understand why Pandikar is breaking with such a parliamentary tradition by being in the forefront  to publicly suggest that the Attorney-General and the Inspector-General of Police should act against the trio.

In fact, the Speaker or Deputy Speaker concerned would have been guilty of gross dereliction of duty in not stopping an MP from abusing his parliamentary privilege.

The IGP should not be so gung-ho in the case of the police reports by UMNO hired-guns against the three former Ministers for their speeches in Parliament, firstly because of the  protection of parliamentary privilege; and secondly, the police will be guilty of violating the law of parliamentary privilege if they proceed to obstruct  MPs  from carrying out their parliamentary duties.

I would advise Muhyddin, Shafie and Husni to take a stand on principle of parliamentary privilege and to inform police officers that they would lodge  police report against them for violating the law on parliamentary privilege if they persist in questioning them about their speeches in Parliament, when they had not transgressed the sole exception where parliamentary immunity is excluded on the questioning on four  entrenched “sensitive” issues.

(Speech at the Kepayang kopitiam ceramah after walkabout in the constituency with DAP State Assemblyman for Kepayang Dr. Edwin Bosi  in Kota Kinabalu on Sunday, 30th October 2016 at 10 am)

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 30 October 2016, 12:16 pm and is filed under
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Sabah’s RM3.3 billion Water Department corruption  scandal latest shocking example explaining  why  in  half  a century, Sabah  has  become one of the poorest states in Malaysia despite its  vast  rich resources

Sabah’s RM3.3 billion Water Department corruption scandal, where 60 per cent of the RM3.3 billion earmarked in the Tenth Malaysia Plan to improve the  supply of clean and treated water in the state, was siphoned off into private pockets of a corrupt few, is the latest mind-boggling  example explaining why in half  a century, Sabah has become one of the poorest states in Malaysia despite its vast rich resources.

In half a century, Sabah has been reduced into  a land of sharp and shocking contrasts – the poorest state,  with  socio-economic conditions of the poor even worse than Kelantan but  yet the most kleptocratic state with among the wealthiest politicians in the country!

I am reminded of my speech in Kota Kinabalu at the 37th DAP anniversary dinner on 4th July 2003 where I said that the  40th anniversary of the formation of Malaysia by Malaya, Sabah, Sarawak and Singapore was an appropriate time for an assessment of the successes and failures of nationhood and political development in the previosu four decades in Sabah.

I had quoted  the following comment by a national leader which I said could serve as a verdict of 40 years of nationhood and development in Sabah:

“The management of Sabah’s resources, civil service and political situation are among the factors contributing to the state’s lackluster economic performance. Sabah was once a wealthy state but it has reached a point of no return and is now in the same economic league as Kelantan.”

In my speech in Kota Kinabalu in 2003, I said:

“This indictment of 40 years of development of Sabah did not come from the DAP or the Opposition but was made by an UMNO national leader who would have been the country’s Finance Minister if he had not lost the 1999 general election – Datuk Mustapha Mohamad, now the National Economic Action Council executive director at a dialogue at Universiti Malaysia Sabah in Kota Kinabalu in February this year!

“Sabah has reached such economic doldrums not because of inefficient and bungling Opposition rule – but after nine years of Barisan Nasional government with its special brand of rotation of the post of Sabah Chief Minister.

“Sabah is a special state and has a long list of ‘firsts’, though many with dubious honour, in Malaysia.

“One such dubious ‘first’ is in having the most number of Chief Ministers in the past 40 years as compared, for instance, with Sarawak – both of which joined together to form Malaysia 40 years ago. In the past 40 years, Sarawak had four Chief Ministers but Sabah had as many as 13 Chief Ministers!

“Having so many Chief Ministers should be a blessing and a boon to the people of Sabah, in particular seven Chief Ministers in the past nine years, if Chief Ministers competed as to who can serve the people and state better – but it would undeniably be a curse for Sabah if so many Chief Ministers in so short a span of time only resulted in the competition as to who could serve themselves and their cronies better at the expense of the people and the state.

“Barisan Nasional’s rotation of the Sabah Chief Minister system has proved to be a double disaster for Sabah. It was introduced by the Barisan Nasional as a gambit to wrest state power from the PBS of Datuk Seri Josteph Pairin Kitingan, allegedly to prove a higher commitment to the principles of multi-racialism and political pluralism.

“It has not worked out as promised as in the past nine years, there had been four Chief Ministers from UMNO, two Chinese Chief Ministers claiming to represent the Chinese community, while the Kadazandusun community had only one Chief Minister who lasted only 14 months!

“The system of rotation of the post of Sabah Chief Minister has left the people and state of Sabah even more worse-off with every rotation.

“When I came to Sabah in the seventies, I highlighted three burning issues close to the heart of the people – the issues of illegal immigrants, corruption and democracy!

“In all these three issues, the situation today is even worse than they were three decades ago. In fact, democracy in Sabah had gone back by some 20 years, with the Sabah State Assembly reduced to a one-party chamber where the voice, grievances and aspirations of the ordinary people could no more be heard! To restore democracy, the people of Sabah have to go back 20 years to the ‘Spirit of Tambunan’ in the Tambunan by-election in 1984 marking the the beginning of an awakening and commitment to end unpopular rule, corruption and misgovernance in the state.”

In my speech 13 years ago, I said:

“A survey and assessment of the political development and nation building of Sabah in the past 40 years reminds one of the imagery of swarm of locusts laying barren a rich and verdant land – that in the past 40 years, Sabah had been had been laid bare by swarms of ‘political locusts’ downgrading it from a ‘once wealthy state to the same economic league as Kelantan’ reaching ‘a point of no return’!”

Since 2003, the rotation of the post of Chief Minister had been  stopped, denying fair play to the Kadazandusun and Chinese communities to have equal chances to the Chief Minister’s post before the end of thel system.

For the past 13 years since 2003, Sabah had Datuk Seri Musa Aman as the Chief Minister.

Has politics  changed in Sabah in the past 13 years, where the welfare of the people of Sabah are the top priorities of the government of the state with an end  to the phenomenon of “political locusts” in Sabah?

If so, Sabah would not have become the poorest state in Malaysia, and formerly Pitas and now Nabawan in Sabah won dubious repute as the poorest place in Malaysia!

Yesterday, I officiated at the  “earth-breaking” ceremony for the Impian Sabah Keningau Water Project  in Bunga Raya district of Keningau.

It was a double shock.

Firstly, that 20 km from Keningau, the fifth largest township in Sabah which for some four decades  had been the state or  parliamentary constituency of the leader of PBS, who had at various times been Sabah Chief Minister or Deputy Chief Minister, there are villages without clean piped water in the year 2016!

Secondly, the thought of what could have been achieved for rural Sabah in the past half a century, if the state had good governance instead of “political locusts”  for the past five decades.

The Impian Sabah’s Keningau Water Project is the most expensive Sabah Impian project so far, costing RM250,000 to build gravity-fed water system  to bring clean piped water to five villages, which will benefit some 300 households or 1,500 people.

If 60 per cent of the RM3.3 billion – or some RM2 billion –  meant for rural water infrastructure projects had not been stolen by corruption and kleptocracy, it would be able to fund 8,000 projects like Impian Sabah Keningau project to provide gravity-fed water system to bring clean piped water to rural homes for the benefit of 12 million people, i.e. 8,000 x 1500 people  (which is some four times of Sabah’s present population).

There is  no reason whatsoever why almost every household even in the rural areas in Sabah could not be provided with clean piped water, not just in 2016 but some two decades ago by the nineties,  if there is no corruption and kleptocracy in the State.

DAP State Chairman Steven Wong announced just now that Sabah DAP will field candidates in Keningau and Pensiangan in the 14th General Elections as part of our programme to  represent Sabahans and Malaysians regardless of race, religion or region for a better life.

National DAP will give full support to Sabah DAP to continue to forge ahead with our Malaysian Dream to ensure that politics is the highest vocation to serve the people and not become  green field for “political locusts” to wax rich at the people’s expense.

This is why DAP will continue to be in the forefront to combat corruption and money politics, and also why all Sabahans and Malaysians must unite to cleanse and purge Malaysia of the infamy and ignominy of being regarded world-wide as a “global kleptocracy”!

(Speech at the official opening of the DAP Pensiangan service centre in Sook on Saturday, 29th October 2016 at 10 am)

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 30 October 2016, 7:52 am and is filed under
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Three tasks for the 47 BN Sabah and Sarawak MPs to be kingmakers, uphold the secular basis of the nation, defend the   Malaysia Agreement  1963 and save Malaysia from a “global kleptocracy”

For over four decades, the Members of Parliament in Sabah and Sarawak had been taken for granted by the UMNO/Barisan Nasional Federal Government, regarded as useful “cannon fodder” to make up the numbers to ensure UMNO’s increasing hegemony in the Federal Government but not critically important, as the ruling coalition had always won with  two-thirds majority in Parliament.

The political landscape and electoral equation began to change in the 12th General Election in 2008, when the UMNO/Barisan Nasional Federal coalition government lost its two-thirds parliamentary majority for the first time in Malaysian history.

But the 57 Parliamentary seats from Sabah and Sarawak became critically important only in the 13th General Election in 2013, when the 47 Barisan Nasional MPs saved the UMNO/BN coalition from going to the opposition ranks.

This was because the UMNO/BN coalition only won 86 parliamentary seats in Peninsular Malaysia, which was not enough on its own to constitute the simple majority out of a Parliament of 222 seats to form the Federal Government in Putrajaya.

It was only with the 47 Parliamentary seats won by the UMNO/BN coalition in Sabah and Sarawak that Datuk Seri Najib Razak could continue as Prime Minister with 133 parliamentary seats, though as the first minority Prime Minister of Malaysia as UMNO/BN coalition only won minority popular support of 47% of the national voter turnout.

The 47 Barisan Nasional MPs from Sabah and Sarawak were therefore the kingmakers of the UMNO/Barisan Nasional Federal Government after the 13th General Election in 2013, but unfortunately, they have so far failed to exercise  their proper influence, role  and input on national policy direction and developments.

Without the support of the 47 Barisan Nasional MPs from Sabah and Sarawak, Najib’s Federal Government in Putrajaya will fail and  fall.

I call on the 47 Barisan Nasional MPs to effectively play their historic role as the “king-makers” of the Najib Government by discharging three important tasks to defend  the basis of Malaysian nation-building and Malaysia Agreement 1963  as well as to save Malaysia from the fate of a “global kleptocracy”.

Firstly, the 47 BN MPs from Sabah and Sarawak should make it very clear to Najib that they will withdraw their support to the Najib Federal Government, leading to its collapse and downfall, if Najib violates the fundamental basis of Malaysian nation-building as a democratic and secular nation, as for instance, giving support to PAS President, Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang’s hudud-enabling private member’s bill motion in Parliament.

Secondly, the 47 BN MPs from Sabah and Sarawak should demand that the Najib Federal Government undertake all necessary actions and measures to restore full autonomy for Sabah and Sarawak  in accordance with the word and spirit of the Cobbold Commission Report, the Inter-Government Committee Report and the Malaysian Agreement 1963.

Thirdly, the 47 BN MPs must send a clear and unmistakable message to Najib that the infamy and ignominy of Malaysia from being regarded world-wide as a global kleptocracy – a country ruled by thieves and robbers – must be rebutted and refuted, or cleansed and purged, so that Malaysians can hold their heads high and proud to own up as Malaysians when they travel to other countries overseas  and not looked askance as people coming from a country ruled by crooks and knaves.

The 47 Barisan Nasional MPs from Sabah and Sarawak should make it clear to Najib that these three demands cannot be compromised, as they concern the very basis, integrity and good name of Malaysia and Malaysian nation-building, and unless the Prime Minister and his Cabinet are committed to these three noble national goals, they have to withdraw their support for the Najib Government in the national and patriotic interests.

Are the 47 Barisan Nasional MPs from Sabah and Sarawak, who are placed in the historic “kingmaker” role at this important juncture of the nation, up to these three great tasks of the nation with far-reaching consequences for future generations of Malaysians?

(Speech at the DAP Kota Kinabalu forum held in Kota Kinabalu on Saturday, 29th October 2016 at 9 pm)

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 30 October 2016, 5:22 pm and is filed under
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Are there enough patriotic BN MPs to come forward to join hands with patriotic Opposition MPs to save Malaysia from the infamy and ignominy of being regarded worldwide as a “global kleptocracy”?

As the longest-serving Member of Parliament in the present House, having served as a MP for more than 43 years covering 10 of 13  terms from 1969 to  the present – except for the ninth Parliament from November 1999 to February 2004 – it gives me no pleasure but great pain and anguish to declare that  in my 43 years as a MP of Malaysian Parliament, I have never felt  so ashamed and outraged that the country which is the sole object of my love and patriotism, and for which I am prepared to sacrifice my liberties and even my life, have fallen so low that Ministers and MPs are not perturbed at all that the world regards Malaysia as a global kleptocracy.

What has happened to Malaysia?  Have the Ministers and MPs in Parliament and the leaders in the country totally lost the moral compass, although MPs start  with the following  prayer before each parliamentary sitting:

“Almighty God, who in Thy Wisdom and Goodness hast appointed the Office of Rulers and Parliaments for the welfare of society and the just government of men: We beseech Thee to behold with Thy abundant favour us Thy servants whom Thou hast been pleased to call to the performance of important trusts in these lands: Let Thy blessing descend upon us here assembled, and grant that we may treat and consider all matters that shall come under our deliberation in so just and faithful a manner as to promote Thy Honour and Glory and to advance the place, prosperity and welfare of Malaysia and its inhabitants: Amen. “

Has this Prayer lost all meaning?

Have we all become hypocrites that we have totally forgotten our prayer at the start of every Parliament sitting that we can be unmoved, not to be ashamed and/or outraged for the nation to be regarded world-wide as “a global kleptocracy” – a country ruled by PPP, Pencuri, Perompak and Penyamun.

What is a kleptocracy?  It has been defined as a rule by a thief or thieves.

Is this what we have become, what the Fathers of Independence and Malaysia, Tunku Abdul Rahman. Tun Razak, Tun Tan Siew Sin,  Tun V. Sambanthan, Tun Fuad, Tun Mustapha, OKK G.S. Sundang, Temenggong Jugah, Datuk Haji Openg, Ong Kee Hui, Ling Beng Siew and James Wong envisaged and dreamt when  Malayan Independence was achieved in 1957 and the Malaysian Federation formed in 1963?

Should we be proud that Malaysia is now known world-wide not only as a kleptocracy, but a global kleptocracy, a country ruled by PPP – Pencuri, Perompak and Penyamun?

If Malaysia does not deserve to be regarded world-wide as a “global kleptocracy”, then Malaysian leaders and institutions, beginning with the Cabinet and Parliament, must refute, rebut and protest loud and clear for the whole world to hear that such aspersion, stain and defamation of the country’s good name and reputation is wrong, unfounded and groundless.

If there is basis for the world-wide infamy of Malaysia as a “global kleptocracy”, then Parliament and all patriotic Malaysians must partake in  the process to cleanse and purge the country of such infamy and ignominy by rooting out from office and the system the persons and officials, regardless of how high or low their positions, responsible for such national infamy and ignominy!

It is no option for Parliament and the nation to just keep quiet and do nothing at such world-wide infamy and ignominy of Malaysia as a “global kleptocracy”, for silence, inaction and even worse, tacit acceptance of such an epithet of Malaysia as the latest global kleptocracy condemns all Malaysians in the international community to the jibe of being citizens of a country ruled by PPP – Pencuri, Perompak and Penyamun!

This is why I am shocked that the Prime Minister-cum-Finance Minister Datuk Seri  Najib Razak’s 2017 Budget speech which lasted some two hours made no attempt to rebut and refute the world-wide infamy and ignominy of Malaysia as a “global kleptocracy”, but even more shocking, Najib could say and refer to all things under the sun and even turning  a serious budget speech into a very provocative Trumpish speech but there is not a word about Malaysia’s fight or commitment to battle corruption!

I am utterly shocked that from the first day  of  the 25-day Budget Parliament, MPs were not allowed to ask questions about the US Department of Justice (DOJ) lawsuit under the US Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative (KARI) to forfeit over US$1 billion of 1MDB-linked assets in the United States, United Kingdom and Switzerland because of over US$3 billion embezzlement, misappropriation and money-laundering of 1MDB funds.

This is why I have staged a protest to boycott the Ministers’ Question Time (MQT), introduced in this parliamentary meeting as the first  parliamentary reforms to make the Malaysian Parliament relevant and topical – for how can the Malaysian Parliament ever claim to be able to upgrade from Third-World to First-World Parliament when for three consecutive MQTs in the first two weeks Parliament, my question to the Prime Minister as to what the government was doing to refute and purge Malaysia’s infamy as a “global kleptocracy” was  rejected by the Speaker.

The message seems to be very clear –  there can only be talk of  reforms and transformations  so long as the core issues of kleptocracy and undemocratic governance are  not dealt with i.e. façade of parliamentary reforms so long as  the substance of undemocratic governance and kleptocracy do not become the subject of debate.

I submit the Malaysian Parliament has become a national disgrace when after meeting for two weeks, it is not prepared to do anything to purge and cleanse the national infamy and ignominy of being regarded world-wide as a global kleptocracy.

Is there any light at the end of the tunnel  to cleanse and purge  Malaysia’s infamy and ignominy as a global kleptocracy as a result of   the 1MDB global  mega-financial scandal, the US Department of Justice (DOJ)’s  largest single action against  US$1 billion 1MDB-linked assets under the US Kleptocracy Assets Recovery Initiative  and the investigations and actions by regulatory authorities in Switzerland, Singapore, Abu Dhabi, Australia, Luxembourg, Hong Kong and United Kingdom on the 1MDB scandal?

Or is there no way the issues of integrity, accountability and transparency in the 1MDB global mega-financial scandal  could be pinned down and dissected  in the Malaysian Parliament for answers and full accountability to be provided  by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak and his Ministers and that such answers and  reforms are only possible if there is a change of Federal Government in the next 14th General Election?

The official reactions to the speeches by the former Deputy Prime Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, the former Rural and Regional Development Minister, Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal and the former Second Finance Minister,  Datuk Seri Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah during the budget debate in Parliament asking   questions about the 1MDB global mega-financial scandal are no cause for anyone to believe  that the UMNO/BN Government is prepared to “bite the bullet” to allow for the full glare of parliamentary scrutiny and accountability over the 1MDB scandal.

UMNO Information chief, Tan Sri Annuar Musa summarily dismissed Husni’s speech and said the former second finance minister had said nothing new in his torrent of questions regarding the 1MDB scandal.

 I am very surprised by Annuar’s comments as I have been following very closely the sad and sorry saga of the 1MDB scandal in the past seven years, and as far as I know, this is the first time that Husni has aired his reservations and concerns about the 1MDB global mega-financial scandal in a public arena.

Husni’s warning that Malaysia might continue to be haunted by the 1MDB scandal and his incisive questions about 1MDB problems arising from the missing US$4 billion in Aabar (BVI), the US$6.5 billion arbitration suit with Abu Dhabi-based International Petroleum Investment Co (IPIC) and the RM4 billion loan from Kumpulan Wang Amanah Pencen (KWAP) to SRC are no secrets at all although they were raised by Husni  for  the first time in a public forum.

Is Annuar suggesting that Husni had made such a warning and asked these grave questions about the 1MDB scandal within the four walls of the government or UMNO before he resigned as Second Finance Minister?

What is even more shocking was Husni’s revelation in his speech in Parliament that although he had been a loyal and  professional  Minister, with a KPI “among the best among Ministers”, he had been defamed and  demonized by UMNO cybertroopers in the social media after he had left the Cabinet.

The same fate has fallen on the former Deputy Prime Minister and the former Rural and Regional Development Minister.

I was utterly shocked when the Speaker, Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia said  last Thursday that former cabinet ministers Muhyiddin, Shafie and Husni may have broken their oath of  Cabinet secrecy when debating the 2017 Budget in Parliament.

I do not know what to make of Pandikar’s comments because they undermined  public perception and  image of the Speaker’s integrity and independence from the Executive when he publicly suggested that the three former Cabinet Ministers had broken their oath of Cabinet secrecy in  their speeches in Parliament; and furthermore, he seemed to be suggesting to the Executive and in particular the Attorney-General and the Inspector-General of Police  to initiate actions against the three  under the Official Secrets Act or  other laws of the land for their alleged breach of  their oath of Cabinet secrecy in  their speeches in Parliament.

Pandikar as Speaker should be  aware of the important doctrine of the separation of powers of the Executive, Legislature and Judiciary, and his special responsibility as the Speaker of Parliament to jealously safeguard the independence and integrity of Parliament from any usurpation or encroachment by the Executive.

Where in the world do we have a Parliament Speaker as good as suggesting to the Executive to charge MPs who are former Cabinet Ministers for their speeches in Parliament for breach of Cabinet secrecy?

Muhyiddin, Shafie and Husni are all protected by parliamentary privilege for what they say in Parliament, except in the specific case of violating the Sedition Act in questioning one of the four “sensitive” issues entrenched in the Constitution – which neither one of the trio had done.

In fact, the Speaker should come to the defence of the three former Cabinet Ministers for what they speak in Parliament if the Executive wanted to initiate criminal proceedings against them, which Speakers by parliamentary tradition and in other Parliaments would have done.

Why is Pandikar  breaking with such a parliamentary tradition by being in the forefront to publicly suggest that the Attorney-General and the Inspector-General of Police should act against the trio.

In fact, if one of the trio had violated parliamentary privileges, it would be the duty of the Speaker or Deputy Speaker to stop the MP from doing so, or the Chair would  be guilty of gross dereliction of duty in not stopping an MP from abusing his parliamentary privilege.

In none of  the three cases did the Chair ever stop  any of the former Ministers  from speaking as being at risk of violating parliamentary privileges, and it is shocking that the Speaker should be shouting from the rooftops that the three Cabinet Ministers might have broken the law in their speeches in Parliament.

This is most improper and un-Speakerlike conduct for the Malaysian Speaker!

It has been  reported that Husni has been summoned by the Police later today over his Parliament speech on  the 1MDB scandal, which was the subject of the Speaker’s comment that Husni may have broken the law, which in turn  inspired UMNO hired-guns to lodge police reports against Husni.

Husni should draw the attention of the police officer assigned to deal with him the  Houses of Parliament (Privileges and Powers) Act 1952, and warn the police officer that he is  liable for committing parliamentary contempt and the ensuing penalties, if he infringes  Clause 9 (e) of the Houses of Parliament (Privileges and Powers) Act 1952 which  protects MPs from obstruction on account of his conduct in the House, which would include his speech during the budget debate, unless he had lost parliamentary immunity under Article 10 of the Constitution with regard to Sedition Act for questioning one of the four entrenched “sensitive” issues – which does not apply here.

The Police had once want to launch investigations against me for what I said in Parliament which had nothing to do with anyone of the four entrenched sensitive issues where MPs have lost parliamentary immunity, but when I informed the police officer who came to meet me that he was committing parliamentary contrempt to obstructing an MP from carrying out his parliamentary duties, drawing his attention to Houses of Parliament (Privileges and Powers) Act 1952, asking him to go back to consult superiors and the Attorney-General’s Chambers, the police officer backed off and never came back.

If the Police investigates Husni  for his speech in Parliament because of the police report on his  alleged breach of Official Secrets Act, Parliament must sit as a court  against a clear act of parliamentary contempt by the police  so as to uphold and protect the parliamentary privileges of Members of Parliament.

In such a clash between Parliament and the Police over parliamentary privileges and parliamentary contempt, the Speaker would have forfeited the right to sit on the Chair in any parliamentary proceeding arising from it as the Speaker would be a biased and interested party because of his press conference statement last Thursday.

The police should be investigating the 1MDB global financial scandal which had made Malaysia a global kleptocracy, and not Husni or any MP who had the courage and patriotism to speak up on the 1MDB scandal.

Are there enough patriotic BN MPs to come forward to join hands with patriotic Opposition MPs to save Malaysia from the infamy and ignominy of being regarded worldwide as a “global kleptocracy”?

I was in Keningau in Sabah over the weekend, where I officiated at the “earth-breaking” ceremony for the Impian Sabah Keningau Water Project in Bunga Raya district of Keningau.

It was a double shock.

Firstly, that 20 km from Keningau, the fifth largest township in Sabah which for some four decades had been the state or parliamentary constituency of the leader of PBS, who had at various times been Sabah Chief Minister or Deputy Chief Minister, there are villages without clean piped water in the year 2016!

Secondly, the thought of what could have been achieved for rural Sabah in the past half a century, if the state had good governance instead of “political locusts” for the past five decades.

The Impian Sabah’s Keningau Water Project is the most expensive Sabah Impian project so far, costing RM250,000 to build gravity-fed water system to bring clean piped water to five villages, which will benefit some 300 households or 1,500 people.

If 60 per cent of the RM3.3 billion – or some RM2 billion – meant for rural water infrastructure projects had not been stolen by corruption and kleptocracy, it would be able to fund 8,000 projects like Impian Sabah Keningau project to provide gravity-fed water system to bring clean piped water to rural homes for the benefit of 12 million people, i.e. 8,000 x 1500 people (which is some four times of Sabah’s present population).

There is no reason whatsoever why almost every household even in the rural areas in Sabah could not be provided with clean piped water, not just in 2016 but some two decades ago by the nineties, if there is no corruption and kleptocracy in the State.

Sabah’s RM3.3 billion Water Department corruption scandal, where 60 per cent of the RM3.3 billion earmarked in the Tenth Malaysia Plan to improve the supply of clean and treated water in the state, was siphoned off into private pockets of a corrupt few, is the latest mind-boggling example explaining why in half a century, Sabah has become one of the poorest states in Malaysia despite its vast rich natural resources.

In half a century, Sabah has been reduced into a land of sharp and shocking contrasts – the poorest state, with socio-economic conditions of the poor even worse than Kelantan but yet the most kleptocratic state with among the wealthiest politicians in the country!

I was intrigued by the statement of the prospective President of PBS, Datuk Seri Maximus Ongkili that PBS would fight for lost provisions in Malaysia Agreement 1963, and that the PBS would co-sponsor a motion with  Sarawak to restore lost provisions in the Malaysia Agreement 1963.

What is intriguing is that the PBS leader, who is a Federal Cabinet Minister, has not been able to enumerate what are these “lost provisions” in the Malaysia Agreement 1963 or to debate the issue in Parliament.

For over four decades, the Members of Parliament in Sabah and Sarawak had been taken for granted by the UMNO/Barisan Nasional Federal Government, regarded as useful “cannon fodder” to make up the numbers to ensure UMNO’s increasing hegemony in the Federal Government but not critically important, as the ruling coalition had always won with two-thirds majority in Parliament.

The political landscape and electoral equation began to change in the 12th General Election in 2008, when the UMNO/Barisan Nasional Federal coalition government lost its two-thirds parliamentary majority for the first time in Malaysian history.

But the 57 Parliamentary seats from Sabah and Sarawak became critically important only in the 13thGeneral Election in 2013, when the 47 Barisan Nasional MPs saved the UMNO/BN coalition from going to the opposition ranks.

This was because the UMNO/BN coalition only won 86 parliamentary seats in Peninsular Malaysia, which was not enough on its own to constitute the simple majority out of a Parliament of 222 seats to form the Federal Government in Putrajaya.

It was only with the 47 Parliamentary seats won by the UMNO/BN coalition in Sabah and Sarawak that Datuk Seri Najib Razak could continue as Prime Minister with 133 parliamentary seats, though as the first minority Prime Minister of Malaysia as UMNO/BN coalition only won minority popular support of 47% of the national voter turnout.

The 47 Barisan Nasional MPs from Sabah and Sarawak were therefore the kingmakers of the UMNO/Barisan Nasional Federal Government after the 13th General Election in 2013, but unfortunately, they have so far failed to exercise their proper influence, role and input on national policy direction and developments.

Without the support of the 47 Barisan Nasional MPs from Sabah and Sarawak, Najib’s Federal Government in Putrajaya will fail and fall.

I call on the 47 Barisan Nasional MPs to effectively play their historic role as the “king-makers” of the Najib Government by discharging three important tasks to defend the secular basis of Malaysian nation-building process and Malaysia Agreement 1963 as well as to save Malaysia from the fate of a “global kleptocracy”.

Firstly, the 47 BN MPs from Sabah and Sarawak should make it very clear to Najib that they will withdraw their support to the Najib Federal Government, leading to its collapse and downfall, if Najib is not prepared to give an iron-clad guarantee that the BN consensus that an Islamic State and hudud laws are inimical to the Malaysian Constitution and inappropriate for a plural nation like Malaysia will be maintained.  This would mean a clear-cut commitment that the Barisan Nasional Federal Government would not support the PAS President, Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang’s hudud-enabling private member’s bill motion in Parliament.

Secondly, the 47 BN MPs from Sabah and Sarawak should demand that the Najib Federal Government undertake all necessary actions and measures to restore full autonomy for Sabah and Sarawak in accordance with the word and spirit of the Cobbold Commission Report, the Inter-Government Committee Report and the Malaysian Agreement 1963.

Thirdly, the 47 BN MPs must send a clear and unmistakable message to Najib that the infamy and ignominy of Malaysia from being regarded world-wide as a global kleptocracy – a country ruled by thieves and robbers – must be rebutted and refuted, or cleansed and purged, so that Malaysians can hold their heads high and proud to own up as Malaysians when they travel to other countries overseas and not looked askance as people coming from a country ruled by crooks and knaves.

The 47 Barisan Nasional MPs from Sabah and Sarawak should make it clear to Najib that these three demands cannot be compromised, as they concern the very basis, integrity and good name of Malaysia and Malaysian nation-building, and unless the Prime Minister and his Cabinet are committed to these three national goals, they have to withdraw their support for the Najib Government in the national and patriotic interests.

Are the 47 Barisan Nasional MPs from Sabah and Sarawak, who are placed in the historic “kingmaker” role at this important juncture of the nation’s history, up to these three great tasks of the nation with far-reaching consequences for future generations of Malaysians?

(Speech for delivery in Parliament on the 2017 Budget on Monday, 31st October 2016)

                This entry was posted on Monday, 31 October 2016, 3:45 pm and is filed under
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Pandikar should retract his media conference statement last Thursday which led to police reports and police probe into three former Cabinet Ministers for their speeches on 1MDB in Parliament and reiterate parliamentary principle that police should not challenge MPs’ parliamentary privilege and immunity except in clear-cut cases provided by the Constitution

The Speaker, Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia should retract his media conference statement last Thursday that the three former Cabinet Ministers, former Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Mujhyiddin Yassin, former Rural and Regional Development Minister, Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal and the former Second Finance Minister Datuk Seri Husni Hanadzlah might have broken their oaths of secrecy as Cabinet Ministers when debating the Budget 2017 in Parliament, as it was such ill-advised and  unfortunate  statement by the Speaker which triggered off a chain of deplorable events – like  the baseless police reports lodged by busybody-NGOs, the Malaysian Malay Network Organisation (JMN) and Kuala Lumpur Federal Territory N87 Club, and police action to investigate the three former Cabinet Ministers.

If the Speaker had not made the  ill-advised and improper statement at last Thursday’s media conference, it would not have triggered  off this chain of unfortunate and deplorable incidents.

Pandikar should accompany the retraction with a bold and clear-cut statement reaffirming the traditional parliamentary principle that MPs enjoy parliamentary privileges and immunity and the police should not challenge the parliamentary privileges of Members of Parliament except in clear-cut cases provided by the Constitution.

At present, there is only one circumstances under the Constitution where MPs’ parliamentary privileges and immunity are removed, i.e. where MPs  in their speeches in Parliament violate Sedition Act 1948 Clause 3 (1) (f) questioning “ any matter, right, status, position, privilege, sovereignty or prerogative established or protected by the provisions of Part III of the Federal Constitution or Article 152, 153 or 181 of the Federal Constitution” which does not apply in the speeches of Muhyiddin, Shafie and Husni.

The statement today by the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Azalina Othman does not help at all, as it  is as ill-advised and unfortunate as Pandikar’s media conference statement last Thursday.  Azalina just cannot transform the Speaker’s wrong and improper statement into a right and proper one!

What upset the Barisan Nasional Ministers and MPs about the speeches of Muhyiddin, Shafie and Husni was that they raised the issue of the 1MDB financial scandal, which  has given Malaysia the infamy and ignominy of being regarded world-wide as a ‘global kleptocracy’.

But the BN Ministers and MPs can feel as crossed and upset  as they want with the three former Ministers, but their unhappiness does not strip the parliamentary privilege and immunity enjoyed by Muhyiddin, Shafie and Husni  in their  speeches during the 2017 Budget debate, as they did not transgress the four sensitive issues entrenched by the Sedition Act and the Constitution.

Although Azalina is right that police investigation does not equate to a guilty conviction, she is very wrong when she suggested that the police are entitled to initiate investigations just because police reports had been lodged.

With their proven capacity and propensity for mischief, it is not difficult to imagine hordes of UMNO/Barisan Nasional “hired guns” lodging mass reports against every Pakatan Harapan/Opposition  MP and political leader on completely  baseless and mischievious grounds.

Does this mean that the police are entitled  to harass Pakatan Harapan/Opposition MP and political leader by initiating mass  investigations into these false reports?

As the only basis for criminal action against MPs is when they violate the Sedition Act on the four entrenched “sensitive issues” questioning the sovereignty of  Rulers, Article 152 on the National Language, Article 153 on Special Provision for Malays and citizenship provisions, any other circumstances including raising the 1MDB scandal and the Official Secrets Act are not ground for any police action or investigation against an MP for his or her speeches in Parliament.

Any person or NGO who lodges a police report against an MP or former Cabinet Minister for their speeches in Parliament other than concerning their questioning one of the four entrenched sensitive issues would be lodging false reports and should themselves be the subject of police investigations.

At least, Azalina’s knowledge of the law has caused her to concede that MPs have criminal and civil immunity over what is said by MPs in Parliament, even for offences under the Official Secrets Act (OSA).

But what  boggles the mind is how she could square the circle by asserting that  MPs who were or are currently holding a ministerial post should uphold the oath of secrecy they undertook, and avoid leaking information that was discussed inside the Cabinet.

I am not aware that Muhyiddin, Shafie and Husni had revealed any Cabinet secrets in their speeches in Parliament.

However, for Azalina’s information, MPs’ parliamentary immunity is absolute except with regard to the four entrenched sensitive issues in Clause 3(1)(f) of the Sedition Act, which means that the Official Secrets Act cannot be used by the police to bar or prosecute  a former Cabinet Minister from speaking up in  Parliament.

If she wants former Cabinet Ministers to lose parliamentary immunity and  be liable for criminal prosecution for violating the OSA, then she has to bring an amendment to the Malaysian Constitution  to further abridge and abrogate MPs’ parliamentary privilege and immunity, which will require two-thirds parliamentary majority to become law.

Will Azalina do this?

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 1 November 2016, 5:01 pm and is filed under
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Call on Najib to come to Parliament on Monday to give assurance that his government would uphold and respect traditional parliamentary privileges and he would not countenance any police or criminal action against MPs for speaking up in Parliament on the 1MDB scandal

Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia, who had been the eighth Speaker of Dewan Rakyat, should  have known of the famous parliamentary episode in the United Kingdom some four hundreds years ago on  4th January 1642 when King Charles I entered the House of Commons to arrest five Members of Parliament for high treason.

When the King asked the Speaker at the time, William Lenthall, if he knew of the location of these members, the Speaker famously replied:” “May it please your Majesty, I have neither eyes to see nor tongue to speak in this place but as the House is pleased to direct me, whose servant I am here; and humbly beg your Majesty’s pardon that I cannot give any other answer than this to what your Majesty is pleased to demand of me.”

I am not suggesting that Pandikar should emulate William Lenthall and be prepared to sacrifice his political career let alone his life to protect Parliamentary honours, privileges and immunity, but I stand corrected if he is not the only Speaker in the world to openly suggest – or to use the words of Tun Mahathir’s lawyer, Haniff Khaliri, “incite” – police reports or police action against Members of Parliament when he called a media  conference last Thursday to suggest that the three former Cabinet Ministers, former Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, the former Rural and Regional Development, Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal and the Second Finance Minister, Datuk Husni Hanadzlan might have broken their oaths of secrecy as Cabinet Ministers when debating the Budget 2017 in Parliament – which was as good as a public reprimand of the Attorney-General and the Inspector-General for dereliction of duty and instigation for them to act against Muhyhiddin, Shafie and Husni.

I have re-read the speeches of Muhyiddin, Shafie and Husni in the Parliament Hansard, which confirm that neither one of them had said anything during their speeches in the 2017 Budget debate to reveal  any Cabinet secret which Malaysians and the world have not known before about the 1MDB financial scandal.

I fully agree with Shafie,  the President of Parti Warisan Sabah, who is puzzled as to how Pandikar knows about the speeches by the three former Cabinet Ministers breached the Official Secrets Act (OSA) when the Speaker was not privy to Cabinet discussions on 1MDB and would not know if anything said in the cabinet sessions was repeated by them in Parliament.

Shafie had asked:

“I don’t know what (under) the Official Secrets Act has been revealed by us in Parliament and I just wonder (how) did the speaker know the very fact there is (information that is sealed) under OSA.

“Who revealed to him?” the former rural development and regional minister asked.

This is a good question, which Pandikar should answer in his next media conference.

I commend the Second Finance Minister, Datuk Johari Abdul Ghani for saying that he saw no wrong in Husni’s speech, as Johari should know better than Pandikar whether the three former Ministers had violated Cabinet secrecy in their speeches in Parliament.

I had thought that good sense had finally prevailed and that there would be a good end to the sudden and completely unnecessary  crisis over parliamentary privileges and immunities of Malaysian MPs when the police postponed their interview with Husni on Monday.

But the police summon of the former Deputy Prime Minister to record his statement over allegations of leaking cabinet secrets while debating the 2017 budget, although the exact date has not been finalized,  seems to show that the parliamentary crisis created by Pandikar as a result of his media conference last Thursday is very much alive.

This was why I  made the call to Pandikar yesterday to publicly retract his media conference statement last Thursday that the three former Cabinet Ministers might have broken their oaths of secrecy as Cabinet Ministers and to publicly and boldly reiterate and reaffirm the traditional parliamentary principle that Malaysian MPs enjoy parliamentary privileges and immunity and the police should not challenge the parliamentary privileges of Members of Parliament except in clear-cut cases provided by the Constitution, viz  violating the Sedition Act 1948 in questioning  “any matter, right, status, position, privilege, sovereignty or prerogative established or protected by the provisions of Part III of the Federal Constitution or Article 152, 153 or 181 of the Federal Constitution”  – which does not apply in the speeches of Muhyiddin, Shafie and Husni.

The debate  on the 2017 budget by parliamentary backbenchers have ended after six days of debate, and the three-day Ministers’ replies begin today.

I call on the Prime Minister to be in Parliament on the  final day of Ministerial winding-up next  Monday on 8th November to assure Parliament that his government would uphold, honour and respect the traditional parliamentary privileges and immunities of Malaysian MPs and that his government would not countenance any police or criminal action against MPs for speaking up in Parliament on the 1MDB scandal.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 2 November 2016, 6:50 am and is filed under
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