Deepavali celebrates the triumph of light over darkness, of truth and justice over falsehood and oppression.

The course of human history is replete with examples in different countries and civilisations of the hard and difficult battles fought by righteous men and women down the ages to uphold truth and justice against injustice, falsehoods and oppression and how eventually, light prevailed over darkness.

We must always be mindful that the darkest hour is just before dawn!

For me, the Deepavali this year will be quite out of the ordinary, for I have been suspended from Parliament for six months not because I had committed any crime but because I was speaking what was in the hearts and minds of ordinary Malaysians in Parliament – that the three-month derailment of the Public Accounts Committee in its investigations into the RM2.6 billion “donation” and RM50 billion 1MDB twin mega scandals was wrong and unacceptable and that the Parliament Speaker, Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia had no such powers to stop the PAC from continuing with its 1MDB investigations for three months.

The three-month derailment of PAC investigations into Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s two mega scandals was only one of the many hanky-panky manoeuvres which those in power resorted to in order to obstruct speedy investigations, which had included the sacking of the Deputy Prime Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, Minister for Rural and Regional Development, Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal, the Attorney-General Tan Sri Gani Patail, the dissolution of the multi-agency Special Task Force investigating the 1MDB and the arrest or transfer of top government officers who dare to show independence and professionalism in the investigations into 1MDB scandal.

This is however not the firs time I had been suspended for a long spell from Parliament – for some 23 years ago in May 1992, I was suspended from Parliament for eight months for speaking up in Parliament on behalf of the downtrodden Indians who were victims of the RM100 million MAIKA Telekoms shares scandal.

I am now a victim of Najib’s RM2.6 billion “donation” and RM50 billion 1MDB twin mega scandals, but I am not the only one in the country. In fact, all the 30 million Malaysians, including the three million ordinary UMNO members, are also victims of the twin mega scandals, for nobody can be exempted from the adverse consequences of these scandals, like the fall in the value of the Malaysian ringgit, the plunge in the Malaysian stock market and the international reserves, the prolonged crisis of confidence in the government resulting in foreign investors avoiding Malaysia, and the resultant economic and nation-building crisis afflicting the nation.

The RM2.6 billion and RM50 billion 1MDB twin mega scandals are the latest manifestation of “darkness” which Malaysians must battle against with the “light” of integrity, transparency, accountability and good governance – not just by one community, religion or region, but by all Malaysians, whether Malays, Chinese, Indians, Ibans, Kadazans, Orang Asli, by Malaysians of all religious faiths and in every state in the country.

As far as the RM2.6 billion “donation” scandal is concerned, Malaysians want answer to two questions: Firstly, where the RM2.6 billion came from and secondly, where the RM2.6 billion have gone to?

Why is it so difficult for the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak to answer these two simple questions, that the Prime Minister want so many “heads to roll” in order to avoid answering them?

Willi Najib go to Parliament on Monday, Nov. 16 on the last day of the three-day Ministerial winding-up of the parliamentary debate on the 2016 Budget to answer these two questions or would he continue to “run and hide”?

However, if all Malaysians, regardless of race, religion or region, demand that these two questions must be answered without any more delay, there will be no place for Najib or any UMNO/BN Minister or leader to run and hide.

We await another manifestation of the Deepavali message of the triumph of light over darkness in the RM2.6 billion and RM50 billion 1MDB twin mega scandals!

(Speech at the DAP Gelang Patah Deepavali celebration at Taman Universiti, Skudai on Saturday, November 7, 2015 at 9 pm)