Yesterday was the last day for the submission of questions by Members of Parliament for the June meeting of Parliament which is to sit for 12 days from June 11 to 28.

No one can state for sure whether the June meeting of Parliament will be held or whether Parliament will be dissolved before June 11 for the 13th general elections to be held, as this is a decision which the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak is agonizing over, even when abroad.

Be that as it may, if the June meeting of Parliament is held, I have put in a question for the Prime Minister, viz: “To ask the Prime Minister whether he would give categorical assurance that he, UMNO and Barisan Nasional would accept verdict of the voters in 13th General Election including change of government in Putrajaya.”

Earlier this evening, I saw a statement issued by 20 scholars expressing their concern that the 13th general election, which will be held “sometime between now and April 2013”, should be “the most free and fair elections held in the country for several decades” and calling on the government and other major players and stakeholders to scrupulously observe the “priority concerns which we see as key to ensuring an outcome that can have greater legitimacy among Malaysians and outside observers”.

Among their various proposals, the 20 scholars said that “to forestall any attempt at disruption of the election outcome, we propose that all political leaders and political parties agree to a short statement promising that they will respect the will of the people exercised at the polling booth as well as honour a peaceful transition of power”.

The 20 scholars proposed that this declaration, “to be jointly crafted by the ruling and opposition parties”, should be” widely disseminated as a public service to discourage any individuals or groups that may be intent on creating mischief aimed at overturning the outcome of the elections”.

DAP fully endorses the call for all political parties to make a firm commitment to “respect the will of the people” and “honour a peaceful transition of power”.
The question is whether Najib, UMNO and BN are prepared to make such commitments.

Najib has said that he wants Malaysia to be the “best democracy in the world”. If he is sincere and serious about this declaration, then he must demonstrate first that Malaysia qualifies to be a normal democratic country where peaceful transition of power through the ballot box is not only the democratic right of the voters but accepted as a normal and routine practice in the country.

Is he therefore prepared to make a clear-cut and unequivocal declaration that he, UMNO and Barisan Nasional would accept the electoral verdict of the Malaysian voters in the 13th General Elections, including a change of federal power in Putrajaya?

Is he prepared to retract his “crushed bodies, lives lost” declaration to the 2010 UMNO General Assembly to defend UMNO power at all costs in Putrajaya – which is completely against his claim that he wants to make Malaysia “the best democracy in the world”?

(Speech at the DAP Sarawak forum on “Two-Party System – Our Hope” in Kuching on Saturday, 19th May 2012 at 9 pm)