I visited Parliament to collect the Parliamentary Order Paper for the 25-day budget meeting of Parliament from Oct. 17 to 24th November, and I find the parliamentary business planned most surprising and even shocking.
Firstly, will there be a tectonic shift of the fundamental basis of the Merdeka Constitution 1957 and Malaysia Agreement 1963 next week in Parliament if the PAS President Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang’s private member’s bill is passed?
Hadi’s private member’s is slated as the fourth item of parliamentary business after a motion by the Youth and Sports Minister, Khairy Jamaluddin to congratulate the Malaysian Olympians and Para-Olympians for their sterling performances in the two recent world sporting events; the Advocates (Sabah) (Amendment) Bill 2016 and a Treasury motion to convert a RM500 million loan to Small Medium Enterprise Development Bank Malaysia Berhad (SME Bank) to equity.
Under the circumstances, the possibility that Hadi’s private member’s bill motion will come up for debate and voting either on Tuesday, or even on Monday, cannot be ruled out.
In the circumstances, the continued silence of the Presidents of MCA, Gerakan, MIC and Sabah and Sarawak component parties of Barisan Nasional on whether they have agreed on a Barisan Nasional consensus for Hadi’s private member’s bill is no more tenable.
The time has come for all the Barisan Nasional component parties to break their silence on Hadi’s private member’s bill.
Early this month, the UMNO and Barisan Nasional secretary-general Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor said that BN has arrived at a consensus regarding Hadi’s private member’s bill.
Low-level MCA and Gerakan underlings cast doubts that such a Barisan Nasional “consensus” on Hadi’s private member’s bill had been reached at the BN Supreme Council meeting three Fridays ago, but the Presidents of MCA, Gerakan, MIC and the Sabah and Sarawak Barisan Nasional parties maintained a studious and cowardly silence.
Even when Adnan subsequently made the nonsensical clarification that what he meant by the BN “consensus” was that whatever the decision the coalition made “must be on the basis of consensus of all parties”, the President of MCA, Gerakan, MIC and the other Sabah and Sarawak Barisan Nasional component parties continued to keep their silence and dared not repeat the promises made by MCA and Gerakan in the recent Sungai Besar and Kuala Kangsar by-elections that the BN “consensus” will be restored!
It is still fresh in everyone’s mind that the Barisan Nasional “consensus” was violated and vitiated in the May meeting of Parliament when UMNO Ministers unilaterally and arbitrarily fast-tracked the PAS President’s private member’s bill in Parliament without consultation or reference to the other BN component parties – in reckless disregard of the 43-year BN stand and consensus that PAS’ hudud proposal was not appropriate for Malaysia’s plural society, and against the fundamental provisions of the 1957 Merdeka Constitution and 1963 Malaysia Agreement.
Did the other BN component parties, including MCA, Gerakan, MIC and the Sabah and Sarawak Barisan Nasional component parties make it clear to UMNO at the BN Supreme Council meeting three Fridays ago that the Barisan Nasional Federal government would collapse and disintegrate if UMNO unilaterally and arbitrarily goes ahead to support Hadi’s private member’s bill in Parliament, when there is no BN “consensus” for such a parliamentary action by UMNO Ministers?
Or has Barisan Nasional consensus degenerated from the original meaning of agreement by all 13 BN component parties into a perverted and corrupt version of what is unilaterally and arbitrarily decided by UMNO even in the face of objection by the other 12 BN component parties?
The second reason why I find the Parliamentary Business scheduled next week surprising is the total absence of concern about a matter which had elicited world-wide attention and outrage except in Malaysia – the 1MDB global financial scandal which had catapulted into world ranks of “global kleptocracies”.
Malaysians who are patriots and love and are proud of Malaysia must feel great shame and outrage that the 1MDB global scandal had spawned and spurred world-wide criminal and regulatory investigations into an international conspiracy involving multi-billion dollar money-laundering, whether in United States, Switzerland, Singapore and at least seven other countries except in Malaysia.
The first parliamentary business in the 25-day Budget Parliament should be a government motion, preferably moved by the Prime Minister himself, to debunk and refute the damning allegation that Malaysia has become a global kleptocracy.
How can Malaysia take such a damning appellation of a “global kleptocracy” so supinely, virtually lying down?
DAP and Pakatan Harapan MPs are Malaysian patriots and are open minded and prepared to be convinced by Najib to refute the allegation that Malaysia is a “global kleptocracy” based on facts and figures, in particular over the 1MDB global financial scandal.
It is still no too late for the Prime Minister to move such a motion as the first item of parliamentary business when Parliament reconvenes on Monday.
Will Najib consider moving such a motion in the first day of the Budget Parliament, and in particular to refute all the negative connotations of being identified as “MALAYSIAN OFFICIAL 1” (MO 1) in the US Department of Justice lawsuit for the forfeiture of US$1 billion of 1MDB-linked assets in the United States, United Kingdom and Switzerland arising from the international embezzlement, misappropriation and money-laundering of over US$3 billion of 1MDB funds?