I thank the people of Senai State Assembly constituency in Kulai parliamentary seat for their support this morning.
Kulai is the 28th Parliamentary and Senai the 30th State Assembly constituency I am visiting in the “Solidarity with Lim Kit Siang & Mana RM2.6 billion?” nation-wide campaign since my six-month suspension from Parliament on Oct. 22 – not because I had stolen, robbed or killed anyone, but because as elected representatives, we have the right and obligation to speak up in Parliament and the State Assemblies without fear or favour to articulate the concerns of Malaysians.
Undoubtedly today, one of the greatest concerns in everyone’s minds, even to the Malay Rulers who issued a rare joint statement on the 1MDB scandal on Oct. 6, are the two questions: where the RM2.6 billion “donation” in Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak personal banking accounts came from, and where they have gone to.
I was suspended a day before Najib presented his 2016 Budget in Parliament on Oct 23, and after a nine-day debate, the policy stage of the 2016 Budget was passed in the second reading of the Bill on Nov. 16 with a vote of 128 against 74.
The third reading of the 2016 Budget Bill will be passed next week, the last week of the current 25-day parliamentary budget meeting, after debate on the committee stage for the various Ministries.
However, Najib did not give a word of explanation for his RM2.6 billion “donation” and RM50 billion 1MDB twin mega-scandals in his Budget 2016 speech, nor was Parliament or the nation given any accounting by the Najib government on the twin mega scandals whether during the 2016 Budget policy debate before the second reading on Nov. 16 or during the committee debates up to now.
This is a totally unacceptable and irresponsible government behaviour, not only against all principles of democracy and good governance but in violation of all basic notions of an accountable and transparent government.
However, Najib’s RM2.6 billion “donation” and RM50 billion 1MDB scandal twin mega scandals are not going to go away and disappear just because Najib and his Ministers behave like ostriches burying their heads in the sand. In fact, the twin mega scandals are continuing to mushroom to be become greater in magnitude and scale with every passing day, week and month, and the latest is the controversy over the murder of Deputy Public Prosecutor Kevin Morais in September.
In the nation’s 58-year history, the country has not produced a financial scandal which is being independently investigated by at least seven other countries – the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Abu Dhabi, Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia and United States – but under Najib’s premiership, we have produced two such financial scandals.
Under Najib, we have also produced the first Prime Minister who is being investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) and the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) whether he is a kleptocrat whose “ill-gotten gains” in the United States could be confiscated by the US authorities!
Najib’s twin mega scandals are issues which every Malaysian have a right to know the true story.
Let ordinary Malaysians, regardless of race, religion, region or even politics, send a clear message to Najib and his government that they can suspend one Lim Kit Siang in Parliament, but tens and hundreds of thousands and even millions of Malaysians will rise up and declare “I am also Lim Kit Siang” to ask the same question: “Mana RM2.6 billion?”
The injustice of my six-month suspension from Parliament should focus the whole country on one question – that the challenge the country is confronted with 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 and the principles of accountability, transparency and integrity in public life resulting in the nation’s economic decline.
It is not just the country as a whole, but even the three million UMNO members and 21,000 UMNO branches who have to take a stand on Najib’s twin mega scandals – whether they could place “Save the country” as the top national agenda when the UMNO President and the UMNO leadership have lost their national purpose and bearings.
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.
Two days ago, I visited four Parliamentary constituencies in Kedah, Alor Setar, Baling, Padang Serai and Jerai.
The previous week, I was in Sabah and visited six Parliamentary constituencies – Tenom, Keningau, Kudat, Tuaran, Kota Kinabalu and Batu Sapi.
I have visited four parliamentary constituencies in Selangor, viz Serdang, Hulu Langat, Gombak and Ampang.
In Johore, I have visited seven parliamentary constituencies, viz: Gelang Patah, Johor Bahru, Pasir Gudang, Bakri, Batu Pahat, Sri Gading and Ayer Hitam.
Although it will not be possible for me to visit all the 222 Parliamentary and 576 State Assembly constituencies in the country during the period of my six-month suspension from Parliament, I will try to visit more than 50 per cent of the 222 Parliamentary constituencies in the country by the time I am allowed to return to Parliament – with a strong and unmistakable mandate from Malaysians from all over the country, embracing all races, religions and regions in the country, to demand that Najib must fully account for the twin mega scandals.
But for Johor, as it is now the front-line state for political change in the run-up to the 14th General Election, where Pakatan Harapan hopes to win the Johor State Government as well as provide important support for the Malaysian battle of Pakatan Harapan to win Putrajaya, I will try to visit all the 26 Parliamentary and 56 State Assembly seats in Johore before the end of my six-month suspension from Parliament.
(Speech at the “Solidarity with Lim Kit Siang & Mana RM2.6 billion?” kopitiam ceramah in Senai on Saturday, 28th November 2015 at 9 am)