(Speech at the DAP Public Ceramah/Consultation with DAP MPs/State Excos in Sri Kembangan at the Seri Kembangan Dewan Serbaguna on Sunday, April 13, 2008)

During the 2008 general election campaign, the “kingmaker” of the Abdullah administration, the Prime Minister’s son-in-law Khairy Jamaluddin vowed to destroy the Opposition. In the end, he nearly destroyed Umno and Barisan Nasional.

Umno Information chief and newly-resurrected Minister for Rural and Regional Development, Muhd Muhammad Taib, has admitted that the arrogance of some Umno leaders was to be blamed for the Barisan Nasional’s poor performance in the March polls.

In fact, it it not “some” but most Umno leaders who were arrogant while some, like Khairy, were “very” and insufferably arrogant!

The pressure is on in Umno for Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to assume full responsibility for the March 8 “political tsunami” and to step down as Prime Minister.

The biggest question today is how long Abdullah can survive as Prime Minister, whether until after the Umno polls in December or whether he will have to step down even earlier, with former Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad leading the campaign to demand that his successor should vacate Sri Perdana immediately.

The future of Abdullah as Umno President and Prime Minister of Malaysia will have to be decided by the internal politics of Umno, but Malaysians are entitled to know whether there is the political will to honour the post-election statements by Abdullah and other Barisan Nasional leaders that they have finally heard the voices of the people and would belatedly implement the pledges of reform made in the 2004 general election – that the new 12th Parliament would open at the end of the month with a full parliamentary agenda of wide-ranging reforms!

For the first time in the history of Malaysian Parliament, the Barisan Nasional government is without the requisite two-thirds majority which allows it to amend the Malaysian Constitution at its whim and fancy, as was its wont in the past few decades.

Now, the Barisan Nasional government must secure the support of the Opposition MPs numbering 82 in a House of 222 MPs in order to get constitutional amendments enacted in Parliament.

DAP and Pakatan Rakyat MPs will not oppose for the sake of opposition and the nation and people can be assured that we will support the Barisan Nasional government whether in amending the Constitution or to enact laws if this is in the interest of the people and nation.

There have been considerable talk that the government is finally serious about judicial reforms, especially in ensuring that there is a just and satisfactory closure to the 1988 “Mother of all judicial crisis” in the arbitrary sacking of Tun Salleh Abas as Lord President and Datuk George Seah and the late Tan Sri Wan Suleiman Pawanteh as Supreme Court judges; the repeal of the 1988 constitutional amendment which removed the “judicial power” of the judiciary and gave a fatal blow to the doctrine of the separation of powers among the Executive, Legislature and Judiciary; and the establishment of a Judicial Appointment and Promotion Commission.

The 82 Pakatan Rakyat MPs are prepared to co-operate with Abdullah and Barisan Nasional government to usher in judicial and other major reforms to ensure Malaysia regains our international competitiveness to recover lost ground in the past four decades to catch up with the economic progress of Singapore, South Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan

One important message of the March 8 “political tsunami” is the consciousness of Malaysians, regardless of race, religion and political beliefs, that 50 years after Merdeka, the priority concern of Malaysians is not the competition between Malays and non-Malays but between Malaysians and the rest of the world.

It is for this reason that the recent speech by the Regent of Kelantan, Tengku Mohammad Faris Petra that non-Malays should not ask for equal citizenship rights cannot find resonance or support among progressive Malaysians, whether Malays or non-Malays – as it is the global focus of international competition that should engage our primary attention.

If Malaysia is to fully enhance our international competitiveness so that Malaysians can rise to up the challenges of globalization, Malaysia must undertake a full reform programme to ensure that the country becomes a First-World developed nation with world-class institutions whether judiciary, Parliament, Cabinet, local government, civil service, police, anti-corruption agency, universities, schools and mass media.

These are the issues the first meeting of Parliament should grapple with when it meets at the end of this month, if MPs whether from the Barisan Nasional or Pakatan Rakyat, have heeded the message of March 8 “political tsunami”.