Posted on

There is an air of panic in Putrajaya as a result of the historic 304 Citizens’ Declaration for Najib’s removal and democratic and institutional reforms

There is an air of panic in Putrajaya as a result of the historic 304 Citizens’ Declaration for Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s removal as Prime Minister and call for democratic and institutional reforms to Save Malaysia.

This was why Najib had summoned UMNO/Barisan Nasional Members of Parliament to his official residence last night – a pre-council meeting which in the past had been held either on the eve of the beginning of Parliament or on the morning of the first day of Parliament meeting, but never two days in advance!

And there are valid reasons for Najib to be concerned about the effect and impact of the 304 Citizens’ Declaration, signed not only by the longest-serving former Prime Minister, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, the former Deputy Prime Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, former Ministers, but also by political and civil society leaders.

This is because the Citizens’ Declaration had crossed the great political divide and accords with the sentiments of overwhelming majority of Malaysians, regardless of race, religion, region, politics, age or gender that a national call must go out to reach the maximum number of Malaysians, even to the 3.3 million UMNO members and a million PAS members, for all to stand on a united common platform to save Malaysia from the slide down the slippery slope to a failed and a rogue state.

Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, from inside Sungai Buloh prison, has given unequivocal support to the bridging of the political divide not to be limited to “personal agendas or political vendettas” but to “chart a new way forward to save our beloved nation”. Continue reading “There is an air of panic in Putrajaya as a result of the historic 304 Citizens’ Declaration for Najib’s removal and democratic and institutional reforms”

Posted on

50 years of a party and politician

BY THOR KAH HOONG
The Malaysian Insider
6 March 2016

DAP parliamentary leader Lim Kit Siang looks back on 50 years of the political party he helms, in tandem with his five decades as a politician, the many ups and downs and ins (Lim was a guest of the authorities for three stretches), the time political opponents were after his blood, doing a bit of crystal-ball gazing at what’s looming, and his thoughts about finding common ground with a former nemesis, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

TMI: No better place to start than at the start. When did you become “politicised”, where was the beginning rooted?

Lim: Since my school days.

TMI: Your school days?

Lim: In the sense we were very interested in events – the school days of the 1950s lah, I was in secondary school 1955-59. Those were the times when, nationally and internationally, there were a lot of exciting developments… 1955 was the Bandung Conference, 1956 was the nationalisation of the Suez Canal and the Hungarian revolution, 1957 was our Merdeka, and in my class, there was a group who was tuned in to all these events.

I remember my last year in school, 1959, waiting for our Form Five results to come out, those days we had no IT to distract us, our only distraction was to cycle around town, to roam around.

We’d go to the deserted school at night, sit beside the longkang and yarn, and someone will say, “let’s go out into the world and form a political party”. Continue reading “50 years of a party and politician”

Posted on

Asia’s top debater forms new youth group, first statement is against Najib

by Ista Kyra Sharmugam
The Malaysian Insider
2 March 2016

Fed up with the government under Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, Asia’s top debater Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman and 24 other youths have put their names to a statement rejecting the current leadership.

They have also formed a group called “Challenger”, which stands for “Change Led by the Young Generation” and have just launched their Facebook page.

The 25 comprise student representatives and youth leaders from various local and international universities, with Syed Saddiq as the spokesman.

“We have lost faith in Datuk Seri Najib and his allies, as their actions have jeopardised and will sacrifice the future of Malaysia.

“Our love for Malaysia is unparalleled. It is therefore our duty to speak up against those who seek to wreck our beloved country apart.

“We, the generation that will inherit the leadership of this country, have an obligation to save the future from the present,” Syed Saddiq said in the statement posted on Challenger’s Facebook page. Continue reading “Asia’s top debater forms new youth group, first statement is against Najib”

Posted on

My only wish is that the Royal Address by the Yang di Pertuan Agong opening Parliament on Monday will announce the establishment of a credible Royal Commission of Inquiry into Najib’s twin mega scandals

Parliament will be opened by the Yang di Pertuan Agong on Monday to kick off a 20-sitting of the first meeting of the 4th session of the 13th Parliament from 7th March to 7th April 2016.

I will be absent from the five weeks of Parliamentary meeting beginning on Monday as I had been suspended from Parliament for six months, not because I had committed any crime or corruption or anyway involved in the greatest corruption and financial scandal to hit the country in six decades – the 1MDB scandal and the Prime Minister’s multi-billion ringgit “donation” scandal – but because I had been in the forefront demanding full accountability and transparency on these two mega scandals.

In demanding full accountability and transparency for Najib’s twin mega scandals, I am suspended from Parliament for six months and have to sit out the 20-day meeting of Parliament from Monday, but those responsible for the twin mega scandals and for the cover-up of the twin mega scandals which have shaken the Prime Minister’s credibility and plunged Malaysia’s international image and standing to their lowest ebbs in the nation’s history do not suffer any restriction or constraint and are able to walks the Chamber of Parliament with immunity and impunity!

This is indeed the supreme irony of ironies, which illustrate why life in Malaysia, in the recent words of former Deputy Prime Minister, Tun Musa Hitam, is “turning upside down…The end seems to justify the means and anything, anything goes. The dividing line between good and bad, right and wrong, seem blurred”.

Barring the five years from 1999 to 2004 when I was not a Member of Parliament after losing in the Bukit Bendera parliamentary constituency in the 10th General Election, this will be the first time since I was elected Member of Parliament 47 years ago in 1969, that I will be missing the Royal Address at the official opening of Parliament each year. Continue reading “My only wish is that the Royal Address by the Yang di Pertuan Agong opening Parliament on Monday will announce the establishment of a credible Royal Commission of Inquiry into Najib’s twin mega scandals”