Kuala Perlis is my seventh stop in the visit to four parliamentary constituencies in Kedah and three parliamentary constituencies in Perlis yesterday and today.
Kangar (which includes Kuala Perlis) is the 92nd parliamentary constituency I am visiting since my six-month suspension from Parliament on Oct. 22 for demanding full and satisfactory accounting from the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib for his RM55 billion 1MDB and RM2.6 billion “donation” twin mega scandals.
The seven parliamentary constituencies in Kedah and Perlis I visited in the last two days are: Sungai Patani, Merbau, Kuala Kedah, Alor Setar, Padang Besar, Arau and Kangar.
The purpose on my nation-wide visit of the parliamentary constituencies is to take the pulse of the people on Najib’s twin mega scandals, and there is no doubt that uppermost in everyone’s minds are teeming questions as where the billions in Najib’s personal banking accounts came from, where they have gone to, and whether the RM2.6 billion (mushroomed now to RM4.2 billion) donation scandal is part of the RM55 billion 1MDB scandal.
So many question, and which are increasing by the day, which remain unanswered – sending out the disturbing message not only to Malaysians but to the world that Najib has got many things to hide!
In the whole process for the past year, Malaysia is acquiring the notoriety of being among the most corrupt nations in the world – how sad for patriotic Malaysians!
Since March 4, there is an added issue which I am taking the pulse of the people during my visit to the parliamentary constituencies – the people’s reactions and feedback to the Citizen’s Declaration to Save Malaysia signed by 45 political and civil society leaders, involving former Prime Minister, Tun Dr. Mahathir, former Deputy Prime Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin as well as former Cabinet Ministers, bridging the political divide with signatories from the government coalition and the Opposition, calling for Najib’s removal as well as for democratic and institutional reforms.
I have visited five parliamentary constituencies in Kelantan (Ketereh, Machang, Tanah Merah, Tumpat and Kota Bahru), four parliamentary constituencies in Kedah (Sungai Patani, Merbok, Kuala Kedah, Alor Setar) and three parliamentary constituencies in Perlis (Padang Besar, Arau and Kangar) since March 4 to get the people’s feedback to the Citizen’s Declaration to Save Malaysia launched on March 4.
I find the voters in the 12 parliamentary constituencies in Kelantan, Kedah and Perlis which I visited after the signing of the “Citizen’s Declaration” of March 4 support the Save Malaysia campaign calling for Najib’s removal as well as for democratic and institutional reforms although they have some questions and reservations.
In the final analysis, however, they are in support of the larger picture and objective –that the paramount question is how to cure Malaysia of the great sickness which has caused the nation to fail in achieving the great national promises when we aspired when the nation attained Merdeka 59 years ago with our rich human talents and natural resources.
Why is Malaysia regressing in every field of human endeavor, whether political, economic, educational, human rights, the rule of law, national unity, and even in the field of sports – as the film “Ola Bola” remind Malaysians how we have fallen from a great Asian football nation in the early decades of independent nationhood to No. 171 in the current FIFA ranking for Malaysia!
Malaysia must shake off the spectre of Najib’s twin mega scandals, which had been haunting and hounding Malaysia’s national and international image for the past year.
The arrest of two Australian journalists in Kuching who wanted to question Najib about his twin mega scandals have again catapulted Malaysia into new international notoriety.
Malaysia has not recovered from the adverse international publicity over the recent ban on The Malaysian Insider and other repressive actions to continue to hide the truth about Najib’s twin mega scandals from the Malaysian public, we are already landed with another “black eye” to the nation’s frail and vulnerable international reputation.
Najib as Prime Minister should lay down the policy for the Attorney-General to follow and not the other way round – and he should make it clear to his chief law officer to be “hands off” the two Australian journalists to allow them to return to Australia without any further restraint as well as to revoke the ban on The Malaysian Insider and cease and desist from embarking on a spree to put more draconian laws on the statute books in the current session of Parliament.
(Speech at the Perlis DAP “Mana RM2.6 billion?” kopitiam ceramah held at Kuala Perlis, Perlis on Sunday, 13th March 2016 at 5 pm)