Malaysia is in unchartered waters.
We have a minority government which won only 47% of the popular vote in the 13th General Election but 60% of the parliamentary seats, allowing Datuk Seri Najib Razak to continue as the sixth Prime Minister of Malaysia though a minority Prime Minister for the first time in Malaysia.
For the first time in the nation’s history, the leadership structure and institutions in the country have never been so fractured, not only in the public services as in the civil service and the major agencies like the Police, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission, Bank Negara, the Attorney-General’s Chambers but also in UMNO and Barisan Nasional ruling coalition.
Never before in the nation’s history, as the country been plagued by so many national crisis at the same time – political, economic, good governance and nation-building.
Never before has the country been inundated by such twin mega scandals – the RM2.6 billion “donation” and RM50 billion 1MDB – which have become the subject of investigations by at least seven foreign countries, viz. United Kingdom, Switzerland, Abu Dhabi, Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia and the United States.
Never before have national and international confidence in the Prime Minister and the government been so low, affecting not only the credibility but also the legitimacy of the Prime Minister and government.
More and more, the central issue emerging in the country is not whether to save an individual even if he is the Prime Minister or a political party even though it had been the backbone of the ruling coalition for the past 58 years since Merdeka in 1957, but how to save Malaysia from becoming a rogue and failed state where there is a complete breakdown of the rule of law and collapse of the good governance, parliamentary democracy and integrity in public life.
This is the task that must be faced by the three million UMNO members and 21,000 UMNO branches – whether they could rise to the challenge of the times – to place “Save the country” as the top national agenda when the UMNO President and the UMNO leadership have lost their national purpose and bearings.
Najib’s RM2.6 billion “donation” and RM50 billion 1MDB twin mega scandals pose critical tests to the three million UMNO members and the 21,000 UMNO Branches whether when things come to the crunch and forced to choose between saving a political party or saving the country, they are prepared to put national interests above all communal, party or even individual interests.
The UMNO 300 chieftains who controlled the keys of power at various levels of UMNO leadership have no problems or compunction in blindly defending Najib’s twin mega-financial scandal but this opportunistic option is not open to the three million UMNO members and the 21,000 UMNO branches as they have to face the questioning public with a chorus of questions like: From where Najib’s RM2.6 billion “donation” came from and to whom this astronomical sum of money have gone to!
Pakatan Harapan parties of DAP, PKR and AMANAH are prepared to work with the three million UMNO members and 21,000 UMNO branches to “save the country” from becoming a rogue and failed state.
Thanks to my six-month suspension from Parliament, not because I had committed any crime or parliamentary mischief as all I wanted was to pursue the question in every Malaysian’s mind: “Mana RM2.6 billion?”, I have been able to visit four parliamentary constituencies of Alor Setar, Baling, Padang Serai and Jerai today to explain the major issues and challenges facing the country.
This will become part of the Pakatan Harapan’s campaign to capture Kedah state in the 14th General Election, which is part of the larger national campaign for Pakatan Harapan to replace the UMNO/BN coalition in Putrajaya.
I will spend more time in Kedah in the coming months, and hope that before my six-month suspension from Parliament is up, to visit all the 15 Parliamentary constiutencies in Kedah with the message that the time for a change of Federal Government is long overdue after six decades of corruption and abuses of power by the UMNO/BN coalition.
(Speech at the ceramah in conjunction with launching of Jerai Parti Amanah Negara in Gua Cempadak on Thursday, 26th November 2015 at 11 pm)