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Feud With Najib Leaves Former Premier `Not Proud’ of Malaysia

Haslinda Amin
Bloomberg
March 2, 2016

Former Malaysian leader Mahathir Mohamad has lost pride in the country he governed for more than two decades, warning political tensions that have surrounded Prime Minister Najib Razak for months could hand a fractured opposition victory at the next election.

In a wide-ranging interview, Mahathir, 90, renewed his months long calls for the premier to step aside, saying Malaysia under Najib’s seven-year tenure had morphed from a stable, calm country where the economy was growing to a place that lacked tolerance.

“There was a time when I go abroad, people talk highly of Malaysia,” Mahathir said in a Bloomberg Television interview in Kuala Lumpur on Feb. 25. “Today, if we go abroad, we meet people, what they say is that ‘hey, what’s happening to your country?’ That’s what they say. And I am not proud because I can’t explain what’s happening in the country.” Continue reading “Feud With Najib Leaves Former Premier `Not Proud’ of Malaysia”

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Upshot from Azalina’s bizarre and gibberish statements – will PAC investigate whether Attorney-General Chambers had drafted a charge sheet against Najib for corruption in May last year and whether it will summon leading members of Special Task Force on 1MDB to testify?

I am quite fascinated by the two bizarre and gibberish statements issued by the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said, viz:

• statement on Saturday, 27th February 2016 in immediate response to Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin’s Facebook posting that before he was sacked as Deputy Prime Minister in July last year, he was briefed by the then Attorney-General, Tan Sri Gani Patail about the deposits from the state-owned SRC International into Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s personal bank accounts and informed that a crime had been committed by Najib; and

• statement yesterday, 1st March 2016, replying to my statement on Sunday, 28th February 2016 commenting on the “two extraodinary statements” by both Muhyiddin and Azalina.

I am not interested in getting into a polemics with Azalina but prefer to deal with the substantive issues thrown up, intentionally or otherwise, by the bizarre and gibberish statements by the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department which called for follow-up action at least on two fronts.

Firstly, whether the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) investigating in to the RM55 billion 1MDB scandal will probe whether the Attorney-General’s Chambers had drafted a charge sheet against Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak for corruption in connection with the RM42 million SRC International scandal, whether work on this charge sheet for corruption against Najib went back to May last year and the final outcome of this charge sheet. Continue reading “Upshot from Azalina’s bizarre and gibberish statements – will PAC investigate whether Attorney-General Chambers had drafted a charge sheet against Najib for corruption in May last year and whether it will summon leading members of Special Task Force on 1MDB to testify?”

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Dr M’s exit matters little to ordinary folk

Mariam Mokhtar | March 2, 2016
Free Malaysia Today

Comment

The disgruntled Umno-Baru members who are unhappy with Prime Minister Najib Razak should realise that he is not the only problem. The party itself is very much a problem.

Haven’t the rakyat been complaining about the excesses of Umno-Baru’s leaders and senior party members for decades? This is not an overnight occurrence. The problem has been around for at least four decades. Why have these disgruntled party members kept quiet for so long?

Former PM Mahathir Mohamad quit Umno-Baru because, he claimed, he could no longer recognise the party he once led. According to him, Umno-Baru’s sole function now is to protect Najib.

“I can’t be a member of such a party,” he said. Continue reading “Dr M’s exit matters little to ordinary folk”

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Malaysia’s Institutions Come Unraveled

by Joshua Kurlantzick
Asia Unbound
Council on Foreign Relations
March 1, 2016

On Saturday, as the Diplomat reported, Malaysia’s former deputy prime minister, Muhyiddin Yassin, released a statement on Facebook warning that the country was slipping into dictatorship. Yassin lashed out against Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak for overseeing this reversal from democracy. “In the face of public outrage at his leadership, Najib is using all the power that he has to suppress the voice of the opposition and silence his critics,” warned Yassin. “We are really witnessing the collapse of democratic institutions and the emergence of a new dictatorship.”

This was not new criticism by Yassin, but it was probably his harshest attack on the prime minister to date. Najib sacked Muhyiddin Yassin last year, after earlier revelations in the 1MDB scandal reportedly prompted Yassin to call for Najib to step down. Yassin’s political career has been on a downward spiral ever since. Last week, already stripped of his Cabinet position, Yassin was also suspended as the deputy president of UMNO, the main party in the governing coalition. Continue reading “Malaysia’s Institutions Come Unraveled”

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Beware of the Ides of March – but who should beware?

The past 12 months have been a year never experienced by Malaysians who, with increasing desperation and sense of hopelessness, have never felt so sick and wracked by so many crisis, whether the RM55 billion 1MDB crisis, the RM2.6 billion “donation” crisis – or actually more, as according to the latest revelation by Wall Street Journal today, more than US$1 billion and not just US$681 million had been deposited into Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s personal bank accounts – the 6% GST imposed on April 1; the worst racial and religious polarisation in the nation’s history with the unprecedented rise of extremism, intolerance and bigotry; the devaluation of the Malaysian ringgit hovering at RM4.2 to the US dollar; the plunge in Malaysia’s educational standards and accomplishments; Malaysia’s deterioration in important international indices with the country named No.3 in the world’s “worst corruption scandals in 2015” or falling four places in Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index 2015; the loss of national and international confidence in the Prime Minister who is being investigated by US Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) whether he is a “kleptocrat” with the 1MDB scandal the subject of investigations by seven foreign countries; the threat of a new “dictatorship” with parliamentary passage of the National Security Council Bill (which has as yet to receive the Royal Assent) and above all, the future and survival of the Merdeka Constitution of 1957 and the Malaysian federation formed in 1963!

Everywhere and every day, informed, concerned and patriotic Malaysians are asking: How did Malaysia reached such a sorry pass, when the country once dreamt of international greatness and accomplishments in various fields of human endeavor in our early decades of nationhood, and how Malaysia could get out of the rut or cul de sac we have stuck ourselves in. Continue reading “Beware of the Ides of March – but who should beware?”

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Malaysia post-Najib

Mariam Mokhtar
Malaysiakini
29 Feb 2016

It is the great Malaysian apathy which holds Malaysia back. Najib Abdul Razak will eventually leave office, voluntarily or otherwise. You can play an important role in post-Najib Malaysia. You are needed to shake-up the entire establishment.

Will you choose your present life which you believe is bearable? Or will you be brave and leap into the unknown, and entrust your future to a handful of people who are under pressure, and who feel your pain?

Those who lived through Merdeka were idealists. Honour, trust, respect and principle, meant something then. These things mean nothing in 21st Century Malaysia.

Over the past four decades, Malaysian life has become intolerable. You know things are bad when the theft of a mobile phone was politicised into a racial issue. Instead of living life to the full, we have become cynics and our beliefs have become corrupted. Others simply allow themselves to be corrupted.

Everyone, even former ministers and at least one former PM would like to say “Good riddance” to Najib. Continue reading “Malaysia post-Najib”

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Reverting to type, Dr Mahathir forces a high noon with Najib

NEWS ANALYSIS BY THE MALAYSIAN INSIDER
29 February 2016

Reactions are coming in fast and furious from all quarters since Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad announced that he had quit Umno – the second time he had done so since 2008.

His supporters believe this announcement will shake Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak while his critics say good riddance to a has-been. The Malaysian Insider attempts to make sense of Dr Mahathir’s move and sort out the fact from the hyperbole.

The reality is Dr Mahathir knows that he no longer has the influence or the levers of power in Umno to force Najib’s resignation. Continue reading “Reverting to type, Dr Mahathir forces a high noon with Najib”

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Will Najib present White Paper to answer two questions thrown up in the public domain in the past two days – was there a charge sheet in the AG’s office last July to indict Najib for corruption and did the then AG brief the DPM at the time about Najib’s “corruption” wrong doing?

Two questions that arose directly from Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin’s statement on Saturday and Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department rebuttal the same day await official confirmation or denial.

Firstly, was there a charge sheet in the Attorney-General’s Chambers before the Attorney-General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail was summarily sacked on July 27 which would have indicted the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak for corruption in the RM42 million SRC International scandal?

Secondly, whether the Attorney-General Tan Sri Gani Patail at the time had briefed the then Deputy Prime Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, about Najib’s “corruption” wrongdoing, which precipitated the “purges” by Najib on July 28, involving the sacking of the Deputy Prime Minister, a Senior UMNO Cabinet Minister and the Attorney-General as well as other grave reprecussions undermining the Rule of Law in the country. Continue reading “Will Najib present White Paper to answer two questions thrown up in the public domain in the past two days – was there a charge sheet in the AG’s office last July to indict Najib for corruption and did the then AG brief the DPM at the time about Najib’s “corruption” wrong doing?”

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Malaysia must get out of the present political cul de sac if the nation is to break the trajectory towards a failed and rogue state

The greatest challenge facing the country is how to get out of the present political cul de sac if Malaysia is to break the trajectory towards a failed state because of rampant corruption, socio-economic injustices, collapse of governance, unbridled racial extremism and religious intolerance and bigotry and a rogue state because of violations of democracy, rule of law, free speech and egalitarianism.

If we are selfish and only think of our self interests, whether of political parties or individuals, we should not upset the status quo and the best thing to do is to wait for the next 14th General Election for UMNO/Barisan Nasional in the next hustings under the leadership of Datuk Seri Najib Razak cannot be weaker and more vulnerable.

But this will not be in the best interests of the nation, for Malaysia would have descended further in the next two years down the slope towards a failed and a rogue state.

However, the country seems to be in a cul de sac, both for those in the corridors of power and outside. Continue reading “Malaysia must get out of the present political cul de sac if the nation is to break the trajectory towards a failed and rogue state”

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Mystery Malaysian high roller at center of global laundering probe

By Jennifer Gould Keil
New York Post
February 28, 2016

He arrived from out of nowhere in 2009, a mysterious, geeky 28-year-old dropping ridiculous amounts of money all over the city.

When Lindsay Lohan was celebrating her 23rd birthday at 1Oak, he sent 23 bottles of Cristal to her table. He spent $160,000 on bottle service one evening at Chelsea hot spot Avenue and once flew eight waitresses from Greenwich Village club Pink Elephant to an after-party — in Malaysia.

Yet no one knew who this man, Low Taek Jho — otherwise known as Jho Low — was, or where he got his money.

The intrigue only deepened over the next few years, as Low collected a staggering amount of luxury real estate and famous artwork. He spent $30.55 million for an apartment in the Time Warner Center, as well as $23.98 million for a condo at the Park Laurel.

He bought Monets, Basquiats, Rothkos. He is widely thought to be the person who bought Picasso’s “Women of Algiers” last May for $141 million at auction — the most expensive painting ever purchased. He made the ARTnews list of the world’s 200 top private collectors.

Now the mystery of Jho Low may have finally been solved, thanks to a scandal that threatens the government of Malaysia and Wall Street titan Goldman Sachs.

Real-estate brokers in New York are being asked questions about the deals they worked on involving Jho Low, The Post has learned.

Federal investigators are probing what could end up being “one of the largest money-laundering frauds in the world,” a source told The Post. Continue reading “Mystery Malaysian high roller at center of global laundering probe”

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Is Azalina seriously suggesting that Muhyiddin should lodge a police report that when he was DPM, he had been informed by Gani Patail, then Attorney-General, that Prime Minister Najib had committed a criminal act?

Two most extraordinary statements in Malaysian politics were made yesterday – one by Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin who was sacked as Deputy Prime Minister in the Najib “purges” of July 28 and suspended as UMNO Deputy President on Friday and the other by Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said, one of the beneficiaries of the Najib “purges” and now a member of the troika of Najib’s foremost propagandists.

Muhyiddin revealed that before he was summarily sacked as Deputy Prime Minister, he was presented with evidence by the then Attorney-General, Tan Sri Gani Patail about the deposits from the state-owned SRC International into Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s personal bank accounts and informed that a crime had been committed by Najib.

This has led promptly to a statement by Azalina with the accusation of Muhyiddin in “a high-level conspiracy to topple” Najib as Prime Minister.

She said Muhyiddin’s statement about being briefed by the Attorney-General about criminal proof against Najib was an admission that there was “a high-level conspiracy to topple the Prime Minister, in what would have been a coup against the democratic process and the decision of the people at the last general election”.

One can dismiss such a silly and shallow understanding of a “conspiracy” and a “coup” to topple Najib as Prime Minister when the Attorney-General had proof of criminal wrongdoing by the Prime Minister, though such an accusation is still a surprise coming from a lawyer – as if Azalina would want the Attorney-General to seek audience with the Prime Minister to ask what he as Attorney-General should do with the evidence of the Prime Minister’s criminal wrongdoing, whether to suppress or how to suppress.

But the real sting in Azalina’s statement was at the end, where she asked: Continue reading “Is Azalina seriously suggesting that Muhyiddin should lodge a police report that when he was DPM, he had been informed by Gani Patail, then Attorney-General, that Prime Minister Najib had committed a criminal act?”

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Sliding towards an authoritarian state

Ooi Kok Hin
The Malaysian Insider
27 February 2016

A government that uses state agencies to silent its critics. A government that demands loyalty from mainstream media.

A government that abuses state resources for its political advantage and distributes propaganda books in the universities. A government that bans a newspaper and threatens its critics with sedition.

Is this Malaysia, Egypt, Thailand or North Korea?

On its eighth birthday, The Malaysian Insider is banned by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) in the name of “national security”.

The country is becoming more and more unrecognisable. When I read the news these days, I feel a tinge of shame and anger because these are the kind of news that are reported from and about despotic regimes around the world. Is this really Malaysia and not North Korea, Egypt or Thailand? Continue reading “Sliding towards an authoritarian state”

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The time has come for the “Save Malaysia” campaign

I am honoured to be invited to launch one of the Tommy Thomas’ two books today: “Anything But The Law”.

We see Tommy as the “Lawyer’s Lawyer” in his book “Abuse of Power”, while his other book “Anything But The Law” we see Tommy as the “Politician’s Politician”.

I want to tell Tommy that the world of politics beckons to him and it is never too late or too old to take the plunge into the political maelstrom for freedom, justice and good governance. Come and fight the good fight!

Tommy has suggested a few minutes of jolly, joyous and light-hearted moments for the occasion but it will be hard to think of an occasion where one cannot be more sober or even somber about our national situation.

Only yesterday, a Deputy Prime Minister who was summarily sacked from his high office some seven months ago was suspended as Deputy President of UMNO, fully vindicating the recent description of the parlous situation of the country by the longest-living former Deputy Prime Minister, viz:

“Within the last few years …life in Malayaia is turning upside down and inside out, that makes it difficult to keep calm! In government and politics particularly, behaviours seem to be based on the struggles that prioritise personal individual survival of the fittest. The end seems to justify the means and anything, anything goes. The dividing line between good and bad, right and wrong, seem blurred.”

The former DPM whose political party position was suspended yesterday warned of the making of a new dictator and called on the rakyat to rise up to oppose tyranny and wrongdoing and to Save Malaysia.

Even the former longest-serving Prime Minister is on the same wavelength, warning that the country is moving in the direction of the North Korean regime.

Another former Deputy Prime Minister, who is currently in incarceration, has rightly cautioned that the only way to implement true change is to address the crisis of confidence that the country is facing, and that mere fixation on an individual will not achieve this purpose – a deficit of trust in the judiciary, the media as well as the country’s democratic institutions and not just the Prime Minister or an individual. Continue reading “The time has come for the “Save Malaysia” campaign”

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Has Guan Eng rocketed from a jailbird to become Malaysia’s 22nd richest person worth RM2.87 billion – in the league of Robert Kuok and Ananda Krishnan?

What a coincidence!

The same day that the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak lumped news portals with “keyboard warriors and cybertroopers” for “unhealthy practice of journalism” in an attempt to justify the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) blockade of the news portal The Malaysian Insider, there was another blast of lies against the DAP.

This was in the form of an alleged list of the “richest” persons in Malaysia (below) circulated on the Internet, with the DAP Secretary-General and Penang Chief Minister listed as the No. 22 “richest” person in Malaysia, worth RM2.87 billion – preceded by 21 “richest” in Malaysia, ranging from Robert Kuok (RM42.2b), Ananda Krishnan (RM31.2b), Quek Leng Chan (22.3b) Teh Hong Piow (19.6b), Lee Shin Cheng (RM19.4), Lim Kok Thay (19.2b), Yeoh Tiong Lay (RM9.5b), Lao Cho Kun (RM6.5b), Syed Mokhtar Al-Bukhary (RM6.1b), Surin Upatkoon (RM4.8b), Kuan Kam Hon (RM4.6b), Tiong Hiew King (RM4.2b), Danny Tan Chee Sing (RM4.1b), G. Gnanalingam (RM4.06b), Lee Oi Hian & Lee Hau Hian (RM3.86b), Desmond Lim Siew Choon (RM3.82b), Vincent Tan (RM3.8b), Jeffrey Cheah (RM3.65b), Yaw Teck Seng & Yaw Chee Ming (RM3.16b), Goh Peng Ooi (RM3.06b), Tan Heng Chew, Eng Soon & Eng Hwa (RM2.9b) – and richer than others like Chen Lip Keong (RM2.61b), Ahmadyuddin Ahmad (RM2.42b),Lim Kuang Sia (RM2.4b), Lim Kang Hoo (RM2.32b), Shahril & Shahriman Shamsuddin (RM2.04b), Mokhzani Mahathir (RM2.02b), Ngau Boon Keat (RM2b), Ninian Mogan Lourdenadin RM1.98b),Azman Hashim (RM1.96b), Lim Teck Meng (RM1.48b), Chong Chook Yew (RM1.43b), Kong Hon Kong (RM1.37b), Leong Hoy Kum (RM1.24b), etc.

Has Guan Eng rocketed from a jailbird to become Malaysia’s 22nd richest person worth RM2.87 billion – in the league of Robert Kuok and Ananda Krishnan?

I did a quick search and found that it was Forbe’s 2016 Ranking of Malaysia’s 50 Richest, and the list was as correct except for Guan Eng’s listing as No. 22’s Richest, when it should be Lim Wee Chai. Continue reading “Has Guan Eng rocketed from a jailbird to become Malaysia’s 22nd richest person worth RM2.87 billion – in the league of Robert Kuok and Ananda Krishnan?”

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Banning The Malaysian Insider is like using a sledgehammer to kill a fly – what is the Najib government trying to hide?

The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, seems to be fulfilling his vow made during the recent commemoration of his 40 years of involvement of politics – with reams and reams of congratulatory advertorials finally paid for by the taxpayers – that he would strive to take Malaysia to “greater heights”.

Malaysia had never achieved “greater heights” in corruption than under the Najib premiership – being named third in the world’s “worst corruption scandals in 2015” and dropping four places in Transparency International (TI) Corruption Perception Index (CPI) 2015.

Now, Najib has brought Malaysia to a new “greater height” of being the first Prime Minister in Malaysia to violate the 20-year Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) Bill of Guarantees of “No Censorship of the Internet”, a guarantee made by Tun Dr. Mahathir when he was Prime Minister “as a gift to the world”, with the ban yesterday on the news portal, The Malaysian Insider.

Described world-wide as the latest in a series of clampdowns on media organisations that have published reports critical of the government and the Prime Minister, particularly over Najib’s RM55 billion 1MDB and RM2.6 billion “donation” twin mega scandals, Malaysians and international opinion can only ask Najib what is he trying to hide and suppress when he has to use a sledgehammer to try to kill a fly and cannot rely anymore on the plain truth and nothing but the truth to win in the world of ideas? Continue reading “Banning The Malaysian Insider is like using a sledgehammer to kill a fly – what is the Najib government trying to hide?”

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Had Hasan Arifin told a deliberate lie when he said that “most PAC members are overseas” when the overwhelming majority of PAC members were in fact in the country with more than a comfortable PAC quorum?

Had Datuk Hasan Arifin, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) Chairman, told a deliberate lie when he said that “most PAC members are overseas” as reason for the last-minute postponement of the PAC meetings scheduled yesterday and today for the Auditor-General to present his final audit report on the RM55 billion 1MDB scandal, when in actual fact the overwhelming majority of PAC members were in the country with more than a comfortable PAC quorum?

Had Hasan himself scampered and scurried overseas on Tuesday to give some semblance to his “tall tale” that “most PAC members are overseas” to justify the last-minute cancellation of the PAC meetings yesterday and today, which even MCA and Gerakan MPs on PAC had no advance notice?

Can Hasan reveal here where he has run to overseas, and what is he doing abroad when the PAC was scheduled to meet yesterday and today for the important conclusive stage of the PAC investigations into the 1MDB scandal?

Hasan should realise that if he is in the military, he would have been court-martialled and given the supreme penalty if he had absconded and abandoned his station and duties at the most crucial and critical hour! Continue reading “Had Hasan Arifin told a deliberate lie when he said that “most PAC members are overseas” when the overwhelming majority of PAC members were in fact in the country with more than a comfortable PAC quorum?”

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Lets have a headcount of the 14 members of PAC – who are overseas, why they are overseas, when they planned their overseas trip or they should be condemned at the bar of public opinion even if they not referred to parliamentary Committee of Privileges for gross dereliction of duty

The reason given by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) Chairman Datuk Hasan Arifin for postponing the PAC meeting today and tomorrow to receive the Auditor-General’s final audit report on 1MDB that “most PAC members are overseas” and that “Its important that all PAC members are present to hear the audit report on 1MDB” is neither credible nor acceptable.

In the first place, why must all PAC members be present to hear the Auditor-General’s final report on 1MDB, when all PAC members had been given adequate notice of the meetings and the final audit report would be available in printed form, as it would have to be tabled in Parliament together with the PAC’s report.

Secondly, why are “most PAC members overseas” when the PAC meetings today and tomorrow had been fixed a fortnight ago with their full knowledge and agreement.
Did anyone of the PAC members indicate that he will be overseas and not available for the PAC meetings today and tomorrow when the PAC fixed these two dates as the last PAC meeting on Feb. 11 – and who are they?

If not, why the amazing development of “most PAC members are overseas” – as if everyone among the Barisan Nasional PAC members are scurrying overseas on these two dates? Continue reading “Lets have a headcount of the 14 members of PAC – who are overseas, why they are overseas, when they planned their overseas trip or they should be condemned at the bar of public opinion even if they not referred to parliamentary Committee of Privileges for gross dereliction of duty”

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Vision 2020 Failing

Tun Musa Hitam
20th February 2016

AT THE START OF THIS DISCOURSE, LET ME FIRST OF ALL CONGRATULATE IDEAS FOR CELEBRATING YOUR 6TH ANNIVERSARY TONIGHT. I NOTICE THAT YOUR LEADERSHIP AND MEMBERSHIP LIST CONSTITUTES THE YOUNG. THIS IS VERY ENCOURAGING AND THE FACT THAT SIMULTANEOUSLY YOU COMMEMORATE THE BIRTHDAY OF OUR FATHER OF INDEPENDENCE TUNKU ABDUL RAHMAN IS MOST ENCOURAGING.

IN MY LONG, LONG LIFE, I HAVE BEEN THROUGH MANY PASSAGES, MOSTLY BEAUTIFUL, SOME ROUGH AND ONE OR TWO REALLY ROUGH AND TOUGH. BUT HAVING A VERY POSITIVE MIND WITH FAITH IN ALLAH SUBHANA WA T’ALA, I ACCEPT ALL AS GOD’S GIFT AS CONTAINED IN THE WORD “HIKMAH”.

IN GOING THROUGH MY LIFE, I THINK I HAVE SEEN IT ALL, ESPECIALLY IN GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS. ALL ALONG I HAVE ALWAYS THOUGHT THAT I WAS TOUGH AND THAT I COULD TAKE IT ALL. I THOUGHT THAT NOTHING COULD SURPRISE ME, NOTHING COULD SHOCK ME AND THAT I HAVE ALWAYS MANAGED TO STAY CALM AND COLLECTED ESPECIALLY IN TIMES OF CRISIS. CALMNESS IN CRISIS, INDEED CALMNESS AS A CHARACTER TRAIT ENABLES ONE TO MAKE THE RIGHT JUDGEMENTS AND DECISIONS.

WITHIN THE LAST FEW YEARS, HOWEVER, IT SEEMS TO ME THAT LIFE IN MALAYSIA IS TURNING UPSIDE DOWN AND INSIDE OUT. THAT MAKES IN DIFFICULT TO KEEP CALM! IN GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS PARTICULARLY, BEHAVIOURS SEEM TO BE BASED ON THE STRUGGLES THAT PRIORITISE PERSONAL INDIVIDUAL SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST. THE END SEEMS TO JUSTIFY THE MEANS AND ANYTHING, ANYTHING GOES. THE DIVIDING LINES BETWEEN GOOD AND BAD, RIGHT AND WRONG SEEM BLURRED.

LET ME EXPLAIN… IN MALAYSIA IT SEEMS TO ME THAT POLITICS AND THE GOVERNMENT ARE, SIMPLY PUT, AWFUL AND A SHAME, ESPECIALLY MEASURED BY STANDARDS ESTABLISHED BY OUR POLITICAL FOREFATHERS. IN 4 YEARS’ TIME, IT WILL BE 2020. DR MAHATHIR TOLD US ALL THAT BY 2020, MALAYSIA WOULD BE A DEVELOPED NATION. BY NOW, ASSUMING ALL TO BE EQUAL, WE SHOULD JUST BE ABOUT READY TO CROSS THE LINE OF DEFINITION FROM “DEVELOPING” TO “DEVELOPED”.

UNFORTUNATELY THOUGH, IT SEEMS TO ME THAT THE 2020 DREAM IS FALLING APART BIT BY BIT BUT WITH ALARMING SPEED. THE WAY IT IS I AM NOW CERTAIN THAT WE WILL NOT REACH OUR GOAL OF VISION 2020! AND IF I MAY SAY AT THIS EARLY STAGE OF MY SPEECH, IT IS IRONICAL THAT DR MAHATHIR’S VISION IS NOW CERTAIN TO FAIL BECAUSE OF DR MAHATHIR HIMSELF. Continue reading “Vision 2020 Failing”

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Greatest gift to Najib on his 40th anniversary celebrations in politics – a second sabotage of the PAC investigations into 1MDB!

There was considerabe fanfare to celebrate the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s “40 years of serving the people” “From Pekan to Putrajaya” especially the pages and pages of “congratulatory” advertisements by various Barisan Nasional Mentri-Mentri Besar and Chief Ministers and GLCS in thick supplements published by the Barisan Nasional controlled owned mainstream media.

(Note to Auditor-General: should check on propriety of UMNO leaders and GLCs using public funds to glorify Najib and whether surcharge should be imposed on the UMNO MBs, CMs and GLC CEOs to pay the advertising costs from their own pockets).

But the greatest gift to Najib on his 40th anniversary celebrations came from the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) Chairman, Datuk Hasan Arifin – the second sabotage of PAC investigations into the RM55 billion 1MDB scandal with the shocking announcement that the tabling of the Auditor-General’s final report on 1MDB had been deferred until next month.

It would appear that the “cari makan” PAC Chairman has finally stamped his personality on the PAC because of the BN majority on the committee, transforming the PAC into his image by becoming a “cari makan” PAC! Continue reading “Greatest gift to Najib on his 40th anniversary celebrations in politics – a second sabotage of the PAC investigations into 1MDB!”