AMANAH Deputy President, Sallehudin Ayub reported that AMANAH has 85,000 members on its first anniversary.
I congratulate Parti AMANAH on its success, for DAP can only boast of having 85,000 members after a decade of political struggle.
Today is a special day for BERSIH 5 launched off its Nov. 19 campaign with publicity convoys from six places in Malaysia – Johor Baru, Lumut, Kangar, Kota Baru, Sandakan and Miri.
The BERSIH 5 campaign for clean, free and fair elections is even more pertinent than in the four previous four BERSIH campaigns, as the proposed redelineation of electoral constituencies have demonstrated that we have an electoral system which is utterly rotten and corrupt to the core.
The Election Commission had violated the constitutional mandate as laid down in the Thirteenth Schedule of the Constitution which stipulates that in any constituency redelineation, “the number of electors within each constituency in a State ought to be approximately equal except that, having regard to the greater difficulty of reaching electors in the country districts and the other disadvantages facing rural constituencies, a measure of weightage for area ought to be given to such constituencies”, but have instead done the exact opposite – widening the disparity between the largest and smallest electorates in both parliamentary and state assembly constituencies.
The Election Commission was not only acting against the Thirteenth Schedule of the Constitution, but was working with a political agenda to gerrymander the constit uency redelineation so that in Parliament, it an achieve the twin objectives of returning UMNO-BN to power in Putrajaya and with a two-thirds parliamentary majority; while at the State Assembly level, ensure that UMNO-BN can win back Selangor state power and ensure that UMNO-BN maintain the state government in both Perak and Kedah, and even secure a two-thirds state assembly majority in Perak.
In any country with a modicum of regard for the rule of law and constitutional integrity, the Election Commission’s proposed redelineation of electoral constituencies would have been declared null and void as being unlawful and unconstitutional – but it is to be seen whether the Election Commission’s proposed redelineation of electoral constituencies can withstand a legal and constitutional challenge in the courts in Malaysia.
There is recently a major diversion campaign to create a smokescreen to camouflage the biggest financial and political scandal in the nation’s history – the 1MDB financial scandal which had gained for Malaysia the international infamy of a “global kleptocracy”, after the US Department of Justice (DOJ) lawsuit on July 20 for the forfeiture of US$1 billion of 1MDB-linked assets in the United States, the United Kingdom and Switzerland as a result of over US$3 billion international embezzlement, misappropriation and money-laundering of 1MDB funds and the “mystery” over “MALAYSIAN OFFICIAL 1” (MO1).
Instead of demonstrating that the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak is head of a government which is serious about integrity, accountability and transparency by giving a satisfactory account of the 1MDB scandal in Parliament and to the country, there is an attempt to divert public attention with talk about proposals to control political funding.
I fully agree with the many Malaysians organisations and individuals, like the Bar Coucil, which had declared that there is little credibility about proposals on political funding when the current focus should be on investigations into the RM2.6 billion (in actual fact, RM4.2 billion) found in Najib’s personal banking accounts.
There has ben increasing calls for a Grand Opposition Coalition to clean the Augean Stables of corruption in Putrajaya.
The Pakatan Harapan parties of DAP, PKR and Amanah are in support of such an idea of a Grand Opposition Coalition now that BERSATU, a new political party of UMNO leaders and members, had been formed.
The Common Policy Framework of Pakatan Rakyat, which was inspired by Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, can be the basis of the Grand Opposition Coalition to bring about fundamental political changes in Putrajaya in the 14th General Election, as this will demonstrate that the concept of a Grand Opposition Coalition to defeat UMNO-BN in the next general elections is not based on political opportunism or personal self-interests but grounded on institutional and electoral reforms in the national interests.
(Speech at the KL Federal Territory Parti AMANAH first anniversary ceramah at Kampong Baru, KL on Saturday, 1st October 2016 at 10 pm)