I have just learned of the news of the revocation of police permit for the debate between former Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad and the Tourism and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz, less than 24 hours after the police had earlier given its approval for the debate.

This is most shocking, outrageous and preposterous.

Only last month in South Korea, eight judges of the South Korean Constitutional Court unanimously decided to uphold the impeachment motion of the South Korean President Park Geun-hye in December, removing her from the highest office in the country, and she was arrested yesterday on charges related to abuses of power and corruption.

This is the strength and resilience of democracy and human rights in South Korea when sixty years ago, any notion of democracy and human rights in South Korea was non-existent as it was ruled by a dictatorship – at a time when we achieved Merdeka on August 31, 1957 with the pledge in the Proclamation of Independence of “peaceful and orderly advancement as a constitutional monarchy based on parliamentary democracy”.

Forty-nine years ago on November 24, 1968, I had a six-hour “Great Cultural” public debate with Professor Naguib Alatas, then representing Parti Gerakan, with a packed audience at the MARA Auditorium in Kuala Lumpur, but today, a debate between a former Prime Minister and an incumbent Cabinet Minister to be held at Dewan Sultan Muhammad Ke-5, Kompleks Karangkraf, Shah Alam organised by Kumpulan Media Karangkraf next Friday has to be aborted because of revocation of police permit for the debate.

Are we making progress in democracy and human rights or are we regressing and going backwards in the past six decades, where a debate between a former Prime Minister and an incumbent Cabinet Minister in private premises could be regarded as a security threat and has to be banned by the police in a gross abuse of powers!

Those who had predicted that the powers-that-be in the Najib administration will never allow the Dr. M – Nazri debate had been proven right, for they had read correctly the political mood, character and quality of the Najib administration.

Clearly, the Najib government is running scared of the ordinary people demanding accountability for 1MDB scandal; Najib has no answer to these demands and is unable to clear Malaysia of the curse, infamy and ignominy of being regarded worldwide as a global kleptocracy

This is the reason for the farce and tragedy of the Dr. M – Nazri debate – from the venue change from Padang Rengas to Kuala Kangsar originally scheduled for March 25 and then shifted to Shah Alam for April 7, with the issue of police permit yesterday and the sudden police ban within 24 hours which came today!

I would have attended the Dr.M–Nazri debate in Shah Alam next Friday, just as I would have attended the debate if it had been held in Padang Rengas or Kuala Kangsar on March 25, as all Malaysians want to know more about the 1MDB scandal, which had caused Malaysians to be looked askance when abroad – the result of the curse, infamy and ignominy of Malaysia being regarded worldwide as a “global kleptocracy”.

Nazri was not in the centre of any decision-making process in the multi-billion dollar 1MDB international money-laundering scandal but he cannot disclaim responsibility as he is bound under the principle of collective Cabinet responsibility for all government decisions and actions.

Second Finance Minister, Datuk Seri Johari Abdul Ghani has admitted that he does not have the full picture of the 1MDB scandal, and this is why no action could be taken against anyone for the 1MDB scandal. Johari cannot be more wrong.

Nazri may know only about 25 per cent of the 1MDB scandal while Johari may know close to 50 per cent of the 1MDB scandal but nobody doubts that there is one person in government – the Prime Minister-cum-Finance Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak – who has the full picture of the 1MDB scandal, bearing in mind Article 117 of the 1MDB Memorandum and Articles of Association which provided that Prime Minister Najib’s written consent was required for any major 1MDB decision or transaction!

I suspect former Second Finance Minister, Datuk Seri Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah has more information about the 1MDB scandal than either Nazri or Johari, which might be the reason why Husni had finally quit his Ministerial post after suffering great stress detrimental to his health, causing him to fall ill, over the 1MDB scandal.

The revocation of police permit for Dr M-Nazri debate are evidence that the Najib government is running scared of the people demanding accountability for 1MDB scandal; that Najib has no answer to these questions and is unable to clear Malaysia of the curse, infamy and ignominy of being regarded worldwide as a global kleptocracy.

If Malaysians want to know the truth about the largest kleptocratic scandal in the world – the 1MDB scandal – they have only one choice: which is to vote in a new federal government in Putrajaya with the platform to conduct the fullest, deepest and widest investigation into the 1MDB scandal as the Najib government will never allow any professional, independent and wide-ranging investigation into the 1MDB scandal.

(Speech at the Batu DAP Solidarity Dinner held in Batu Pahat on Saturday, 1st April 2017 at 9.30 pm)