The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak said in Sabah on Saturday that Malaysia don’t want to be a mediocre country as his 2050 National Transformation (TN50) agenda is to become a class one nation.
But Najib cannot be more wrong as Malaysia is far from a mediocre country or we would not have become a “global kleptocracy” in a matter of seven short years since his taking over as the sixth Prime Minister of Malaysia in April 2009!
The Concise Oxford Dictionary (Eighth edition 1990) defined “mediocre” as “(1) of middling quality, neither good nor bad; 2. second-rate”.
Malaysia is not “neither good nor bad” or “second-rate” but extremely “bad” and first-rate, probably top of the class of nations in the realm of “kleptocracy”.
In fact, I can think of no country which had leapt to the realm of a “global kleptocracy” in so short span of time – a feat none of the previous five Prime Ministers, including Najib’s father, Tun Razak, would even have contemplated let alone accomplished!
I do not feel pride but great mortification that I could stand up in Parliament recently and express outrage that Malaysia is regarded worldwide as a “global kleptocracy” – ruled by PPP, Pencuri, Perompak and Penyamun – without any sense of shame or outrage or action by Barisan Nasional Ministers or MPs to rebut or refute such international infamy and ignominy or to purge and cleanse Malaysia’s international reputation if there is basis for such an appalling epithet. And not a single Barisan Nasional Minister protested!
It is still not too late to salvage and redeem Malaysia’s reputation and declare to the whole world that Malaysia does not want to be in the league of global kleptocracies but want to be a class one nation in terms of democracy; united, tolerant and successful plural nation-building as a confluence of the great religions and civilizations in the world and economic prosperity and justice for all Malaysians, regardless of race, religion or region.
Parliament has still two weeks before adjourning to March next year.
The least and last thing Parliament must do before it adjourns this year must be to defend the country from the infamy and ignominy of the appalling epithet of a “global kleptocracy” through an unanimous motion to rebut and refute the epithet of a “global kleptocracy” or to cleanse and purge Malaysia of any kleptocratic phenonemon in the country so that Malaysia is a first-class country, not among the bad and kleptocratic ones, but among the good and exemplary nations.
If the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak is prepared to move such a motion in Parliament, all Pakatan Harapan MPs will support him.
In fact, such a motion should be the first item of Parliamentary business when Parliament reconvened on Oct. 17 for the 25-day 2017 Budget meeting.
But there was no such motion to defend the nation’s honour and reputation, but horror of horrors, there was the unprecedented ruling by the Speaker of Parliament invoking and mis-applying the sub judice rule arising from lawsuits in a foreign land to censor and outlaw question, debate and discussion not only about the US Department of Justice (DOJ) largest kleptocratic action for the forfeiture of US$1 billion 1MDB-linked assets in the United States, United Kingdom and Switzerland, but anything concerning the 1MDB scandal.
I have been pondering as what could be the rationale behind such a unprecedented Speaker’s ruling on sub dice which is the first of its kind in the world.
Even the most senior UMNO/BN parliamentarian, Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, had spoken up against it, saying that MPs should not be barred from discussing active cases in other countries as the sub judice rule only applied locally.
I do not think Najib Razak is so frail, fragile or brittle that he needs such protection from a perverted sub judice ruling in Parliament, but undoubtedly, the Barisan Nasional Strategic Communications Director and Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Abdul Rahman Dahlan had created a most delicate and difficult problem for Najib with his unauthorized admission in a BBC interview that the “MO1” (“MALAYSIAN OFFICIAL 1) mentioned 36 times in the US Department of Justice (DOJ)’s largest kleptocratic lawsuit to forfeit over US$1 billion 1MDB-linked assets in the United States, United Kingdom and Switzerland was none other than Najib himself?
Was Najib or any other Minister to endorse Abdul Rahman’s admission and admit in Parliament that the “MO1” in the largest US DOJ kleptocratic suit is none other than Najib, or is Parliament to be told that Abdul Rahman, the “powerful” Minister in charge of Economic Planning Unit, was wrong and misguided?
It has not escaped notice that no other Minister had endorsed Abdul Rahman’s “bravado” admission that “MO1” is none other than Najib, all including Najib are prepared to be regarded as “idiots” – after Abdul Rahman’s outburst in August that only an idiot does not know that “MO1” is Najib.
The Speaker’s perverted sub judice ruling banning all question, debate and discussion on the kleptocratic DOJ suit with its reference to MOI was apparently the only way to save the situation caused by Abdul Rahman’s bravado admission with the BBC interview and banning the embarrassing issue from being raised in Parliament.
This is why Abdul Rahman tried to make amends, with his ridiculous statement that MPs could discuss matters related to the US DOJ lawsuit on 1MDB anywhere outside Parliament although they are banned by the Speaker from touching on the matter inside Parliament.
Abdul Rahman should realise that he is not helping matters but is only adding oil to the fire which he created with his unauthorized “bravado” admission on BBC that MO1 is Najib.
It is the height of ridicule that MPs are allowed to talk on DOJ suit anywhere in the country except in Parliament. What type of a parliamentary democracy is this?
But what takes the cake in this “tragic-comedy of errors” is the recent announcement by a leader of a wing of a Barisan Nasional component party that David Trump’s shock victory as US President had been so inspirational that they are going to borrow Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan in the run-up to the 14th General Elections.
How can any BN component party march into the 14th General Elections with the slogan “Make Malaysia Great Again” when Malaysia is already great in becoming a global kleptocracy in seven short years?
Or to get down to earth, how could such a slogan be used when not a single BN leader, whether from UMNO, MCA, Gerakan, MIC, or the Sarawak/Sabah component parties dare to question Najib about the 1MDB scandal or Malaysia’s “global kleptocracy” as those who dare to do so, like former Deputy Prime Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, former Rural and Regional Development Minister, Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal and former Kedah Mentri Besar, Datuk Seri Mukhriz Mahathir found themselves outside UMNO/BN in no time?