Today calls for celebration. I have become the most powerful person in Malaysia, but how come I do not know about it?

I am honoured that the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, had used the international conference on 13th Invest Malaysia Kuala Lumpur (IMKL) to announce that I am the most powerful person in Malaysia who could do what even the Prime Minister himself could not do – to make two former Deputy Prime Ministers, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin and the longest-serving former Prime Minister of Malaysia, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, as my stooges and puppets to do my every beck and call, although I am “hiding” at the back to “dupe the Malays”.

What immediately come to mind is whether the Malays are so easy to “dupe” after some six decades of UMNO government in Malaysia, and if so, whether it is an indictment and confession of the failure of UMNO government and policies that after 60 years of UMNO rule, it is so easy to “dupe” Malays in the country, “hiding” in the back?

I stand to be corrected, but I think in the worst of times during Mahathir’s premiership of Malaysia for 22 years, when he was under the worst-possible pressures, he never resorted to any international conference, whether inside or outside the country, to “cry baby” about the Malaysian Opposition, and what is worse, tell downright lies, fake news and false information about the Malaysian Opposition leaders.

Does Najib really believe the lies he said in his keynote address at the 13th Invest Malaysia Conference today that Mahathir, Anwar and Muhyiddin have become my stooges and puppets – that I am controlling the puppet strings hiding behind Mahathir’s back?

When did Mahathir, Anwar and Muhyiddin become my stooges and puppets?

In Anwar’s case, was it before and after he was imprisoned in Sungai Buloh Prison in February 2015?

In Muhyiddin’s case, was it before or after he was sacked as Deputy Prime Minister in July 2015 for refusing to blindly accept Najib’s version of the 1MDB scandal?

What about Mahathir – when did Mahathir become my stooge and puppet? Why should a 92-year-old Mahathir, who had been Prime Minister for over one third of Malaysia’s 60-year history, suddenly become Lim Kit Siang’s stooge and puppet?

I was astonished that Najib and his UMNO/BN leaders, propagandists and cybertroopers have decided on the script to demonise me as “dictator of dictators” not only in DAP but also in Pakatan Harapan, with Mohamaed Sabu, Rafizi Ramli, Azmin Ali, Nurul Izzah, Wan Azizah, Anwar Ibrahim, Muhyiddin Yassin and Mahathir as my stooges and puppets to carry out my alleged anti-Malay and anti-Islam agenda, but I am completely nonplussed and floored when Najib himself personally launched such a ridiculous attack on me – even at an international conference like the 13th Invest Malaysia Conference today.

I have enough respect for Najib to know that he does not believe in the lies he had told about me and Pakatan Harapan.

But what makes Najib think that national and international investors and opinion would believe in the lies which Najib doled out this morning?

The biggest problem with Najib is that he is the first Malaysian Prime Minister in 60 years who has zero credibility, both at home and internationally.

He launched the 1Malaysia concept and slogan, which have now been completely abandoned and forgotten, as Najib and UMNO/BN leaders are the most guilty parties inciting racial and religious polarization and animosities, even falsely portraying the forthcoming 14th General Elections as a battle between the Malays and Chinese – which is not only untrue but also as if the Indians, Kadazans and Ibans do not exist in the country.

Najib initiated the Global Movement of Moderates to ask moderates of all religions and in the world to unite, but as I said during parliamentary question time this morning, there is an excellent article in The Malaysian Insight yesterday powerfully dissecting Najib’s GMM initiative, concluding that GMM failed on all three scores, as after seven years, it is not global, not a movement and nothing to do with “moderates”.

Najib launched the National Transformation Programme, which he succeed beyond expectations, transforming Malaysia overnight into a global kleptocracy – which no Malaysian, regardless of race, religion or region, wanted.

The single biggest event in the first day of the reconvened Parliament yesterday was the parliamentary scandal where questions of over 30 MPs on the 1MDB scandal were rejected on baseless and indefensible grounds.

I was one of them. I asked the Prime Minister “menyatakan samada kerajaan Barisan Nasional akan sudi menerima balik wang dan barang kemas yang bernilai berbilion-bilion ringgit yang disita oleh Jabatan Keadilan (Department of Justice) Amerika Syarikat dari mereka yang bersalah dalam pengubahan wang haram tabung 1MDB”. 

This question was rejected on two grounds, firstly under Standing Orders 23(1)(c) barring questions which are misleading, offensive or frivolous and secondly under S.O. 23(1)(h) barring questions seeking “an expression of opinion, the solution of an abstract legal case or the answer to a hypothetical proposition”.

Any reading of the Parliamentary Standing Orders with common sense and reason will know that these two provisions do not apply to bar my question.

As I said in my protest in Parliament yesterday over the blanket ban on scores of questions submitted by 30 MPs on the 1MDB scandal, my question is particularly relevant as American actor Leonardo DiCaprio and Australian supermodel Miranda Kerr had handed over their multi-million US dollar gifts from 1MDB kingpin Jho Low to the US Department of Justice (DOJ), following the third series of US DOJ kleptocracy suits to forfeit US$1.7 billion of 1MDB-linked assets in the United States, United Kingdom and Switzerland which had been stolen from some US$4.5 billion 1MDB funds money-laundered through American banks.

But the most important event in Parliament yesterday was totally blacked out by UMNO/BN mainstream media, whether New Straits Times, Berita Harian and Star, or given a distorted report by Utusan Malaysia, giving the impression that everything was fine with the Najib government in Parliament yesterday.

Clearly, Najib’s speech at the 13th Invest Malaysia Conference today is proof that he is still rattled by the Pakatan Harapan success on 14th July to announce the PH structure, logo and new leadership line-up.

Najib’s greatest enemy does not come from DAP or Pakatan Harapan but he himself, simply because he has zero credibility – and that applies to his Ministers as well.

This is why Najib faces three challenges in the 14GE, something which no Prime Minister or UMNO President had to face in past general elections:

• Loss of support of the majority of Malays in the country.

• Loss of support of the majority of the 1.6 million civil servants in the country.

• Loss of the support of the highest percentage of UMNO members (at present, 3.5 million UMNO members) by any UMNO President in UMNO history.

Can Najib overcome these three challenes just by telling lies, fake news and false information about DAP and Pakatan Harapan leaders at international conferences?

[Media Conference Statement in Parliament on Tuesday, July 25, 2017 at 3.30 pm]