One question which I raised at the Save Malaysia People’s Congress in Shah Alam yesterday was whether Malaysia has become a most abnormal country out of sync with international aspirations, trends and developments.
As an example, I cited the example of the owner of the whistleblower website, Sarawak Report, Clare Rewcastle Brown who was named one of ‘The World’s 50 Greatest Leaders’ for role in the exposure of the 1MDB scandal but is blacklisted and persona non grata in Malaysia and her website blocked from access by Malaysian government as “detrimental to parliamentary democracy” for “undesirable content” in Sarawak Report which could “could create unrest and threatens national stability, public order and economic stability”.
Named in Fortune magazine’s “The World’s 50 Greatest Leaders”, Clare Rewcastle shares the company of German chancellor Angela Merkel and Myanmar NPD party leader Aung San Su Kyi (ranked No. 2 and respectively) for “transforming the world and inspiring others to do the same”.
Can the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak explain how Clare Rewcastle could be named among ”World’s 50th Greatest Leaders” for exposure of 1MDB scandal when she is blacklisted and declared persona non grata in Malaysia and access to her website blocked by Malaysian Multimedia and Communications Commission (MCMC)?
Bersih Chairperson Maria Chin Abdullah said at the People’s Congress yesterday that Parliament is one of the national institutions which have failed the people.
I cannot agree more for we have the spectacle where Prime Minister’s RM55 billion 1MDB and RM2.6 billion twin mega scandals are almost the daily subject of international news reports, being the subject of investigation of seven other countries, as well as the No. 1 conversational topic of 30 million Malaysians in warongs and coffee shops, but Members of Parliament cannot ask questions and get Ministers to give full and satisfactory accountability about them in Parliament.
Thanks to my six-month suspension from Parliament because of my persistent pursuit of answers to Najib’s twin mega scandals, I have been able so far to visit 98 parliamentary constituencies and the majority of Malaysians in these constituencies, including Kelantan, Kedah, Perlis, Pahang and Perak, want answers to these twin mega scandals – in particular, where the monies for the RM2.6 billion (or is it more?) deposited into Najib’s personal banking accounts came from and where such astronomical sums of money have gone to.
Some twenty years ago, Malaysia pioneered the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) as a “gift to the world”, promising “No Internet Censorship” in a 10-Point Bill of Guarantees to pave the way for Malaysia to become an Internet Superpower.
Today, under the Najib premiership, Malaysia has not only violated the “No Internet Censorship”, blocking websites like Sarawak Report and news portals like The Malaysian Insider (leading to TMI closure), Malaysia is clearly going against international aspirations, trends and developments highlighted by the blacklisting and demonization of Clare Rewcastle, who is regarded as among “The World’s 50 Greatest leaders” in “transforming the world and inspiring others to do the same”.
Does “the world” now excludes Malaysia?
Two days ago, CIMB chairman Datuk Nazir Abdul Razak said that lessons must be learnt and action taken on those responsible, to ensure scandals like the one involving 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) will never happen again.
He said: “The future is making sure that 1MDB – never again.
“In order to make sure 1MDB – never again, we got to look at the past and understand what happened so that we learn from the lessons.
“So that people who are responsible for it are held accountable for it and nobody does it again.”
Will the Najib government heed the advice of the CIMB Chairman?
If so, the first step is to remove the blacklist on Clare Rewcastle and the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) should invite her to be the “star witness” at PAC hearings to produce proof and substantiation of all her allegations about Najib’s twin mega scandals.
Is the PAC prepared to convene an immediate emergency meeting to extend such invitation to Clare Rewcastle, promising that no harm would come to her in whatever manner in her visit to Malaysia?