P. Waythamoorthy is set to resign as Deputy Minister and senator tomorrow because the Najib administration has “committed a historic act of betrayal to the Indian community by not honouring the MOU” with Hindraf to resolve the chronic socio-economic problems afflicting the Indian community.
It would appear that Waythamoorthy and the Persatuan Hindraf Malaysia (PHM) are the only ones in the country who do not know that Najib does not have the political will nor the courage to deliver on the promises in the MOU.
The question now is when Datuk Paul Low will follow in the footsteps of Waythamoorthy and resign as Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department as it is crystal clear except to Paul Low that Najib does not have the political will to fight grand corruption and gross abuses of power.
Paul Low had said that he would ensure that at least five of the country’s institutions must never be corrupt and that he would risk everything to keep that clean.
He also urged all Malaysians to rally behind him in the fight to keep the judiciary, the Attorney-General’s Chambers, National Audit Department, the police and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) free of political control.
Paul Low is leading the people up the garden’s path as he is daily fighting a losing battle.
Only yesterday, all Malaysians were shocked by the most blatant usurpation of the powers of the police by the Home Minister, Datuk Seri Zahid Hamidi, who made one of the craziest statements ever made by a Home Minister in the 56-year history of the nation, when he virtually issued a public fiat to all police officers not to investigate the scores of police reports lodged by DAP and Pakatan Rakyat MPs, State Assembly members and leaders throughout the country against the slew of offences committed by the self-styled “Council of Islamic NGOs” who carried out a “bloody demonstration” of chicken slaughtering and smearing of chicken blood on a banner featuring DAP and Pakatan Rakyat leaders apart from offering RM1,200 to anyone who slaps woman DAP MP Teresa Kok.
If the Home Minister is not politically interfering with the police, I do not know what is corruption and abuses of power.
Let us not forget that corruption is misuse or abuse of public office for private gain and is not confined to monetary or pecuniary benefits, but includes political interference of police or judicial powers for partisan or personal gains, like Zahid’s interference with the police investigations on the crimes committed by the Council of Islamic NGOs.
As Paul Low has called on all Malaysians to rally behind him to keep the police free of political control, let him tell Malaysians what is he doing to prevent Zahid from interfering and usurpation of the powers of the police in this particular case?
Or does he accept that Zahid was within his powers as Home Minister to issue a public fiat to all police officers not to entertain and investigate the scores of police reports lodged by DAP and Pakatan Rakyat MPs, SAs and leaders against the Council of Islamic NGOs for a slew of offences committed last Thursday?
Furthermore, can Paul Low explain why the Police and the Inspector-General of Police could apply double standards, as doing nothing whatsoever to stop the “Council of Islamic NGOs” from carrying out their provocative and incendiary demonstration although the Police knew of it beforehand, while acting very differently, even concocting “fairy tales” about a plot “to topple the elected government” with regard to the Dataran Merdeka gathering on New Year’s Eve to protest price hikes?
The integrity of the judiciary, the Attorney-General’s Chambers and the MACC have come under increasing question, and Paul Low has not very much to show in his nine months as Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department to enhance public confidence in the integrity of these three institutions.
Of the five institutions mentioned by Paul Low, only one – the National Audit Department, – has remained unscathed by corrupt practices and abuses of power, yearly producing voluminous reports of cases of extravagance, waste of public funds and abuses of power by various government ministries and agencies.
However, recently, the National Audit Department has come under increasing question – not about the integrity of the Auditor-General and the audit officers but their efficacy, efficiency and effectiveness as every year the Auditor-General’s Reports increase in thickness and number of cases when it should be the other round.
I do not know what Paul Low has to be proud of in Malaysia’s corruption ranking in the annual Transparency International Corruption Perception Index.
So is Paul Low going to follow in the footsteps of Waythamoorthy as nobody is convinced that Najib has the political will to fight grand corruption and gross abuses of power by Ministers and their officers.
[Speech (2) at the Pakatan Rakyat Open House in Kota Kinabalu on Sunday, 9th February 2014 at 11 am]