Archive for March 2nd, 2018
Call on Najib to give assurance that there will be no contempt of the Yang di Pertuan Agong and that Parliament officially opened on Monday will not be dissolved mid-session for 14GE
Posted by Kit in Election, Elections, Parliament on Friday, 2 March 2018
The sixth meeting of the 13th Parliament will be officially opened by the Yang di Pertuan Agong on Monday with a policy address on the government policy measures in the pipeline.
The Parliamentary meeting scheduled from March 5 to April 5 is quite odd and most unprecedented as there had never been a sixth annual official opening of Parliament in the nation’s 61-year history under the first five Prime Ministers.
This is because under our political system, Parliament has a tenure of five years and it is never intended to have a sixth annual parliamentary meeting.
Furthermore, the policy address of the Yang di Pertuan Agong is meant to outline the government’s policy direction and specifics for the next 12 months
But the present Najib does not have 12 months, as its term will expire in less than six months.
As Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, who will be Malaysia’s eighth Prime Minister if Pakatan Harapan wins the 14th General Election, will be released from the Sungai Buloh prison in less than 100 days, Najib should be holding 14th General Election before Anwar can freely tour the country to campaign for Pakatan Harapan and the election of Tun Mahathir Mohamad as Malaysia’s seventh Prime Minister.
This would mean that the 14th General Election should be held in less than 75 days before mid-May.
But there are those who expect Parliament to be dissolved this month itself, after the Election Commission has rushed its report and proposals on the redelineation of parliamentary constituencies to the Prime Minister for adoption by Parliament.
I call on the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak to give an assurance that there will be no contempt of the Yang di Pertuan Agong and that Parliament officially opened on Monday will not be dissolved mid-session for the holding of the 14GE.
Otherwise, Parliament will only be a plaything in the hands of the Prime Minister, which clearly is not the intention of the nation’s founders who deliberated and agreed on the fundamental principles of the country’s Constitution.
(Speech at the Chinese New Year Open House of DAP Johore State Assemblyman for Stulang, Andrew Chen in Johor Baru on Thursday, 1st March 2018 at 7 pm)
Najib government has finally come out of the cold, openly claiming that the 1MDB scandal is “fake news”, even embracing Jho Loh becoming his defender and apologist
Posted by Kit in Fake News, Financial Scandals on Friday, 2 March 2018
The Najib government has finally come out of the cold, openly claiming that the international multi-billion dollar 1MDB money-laundering scandal is “fake news”, even embracing 1MDB mastermind Jho Low becoming his defender and apologist.
The Minister for Multimedia and Communications, Datuk Seri Salleh Said Keruak has out-Jho Loh even Jho Loh himself in asserting that there is no proof that the billion-ringgit Equanimity luxury yacht seized by the Indonesian authorities in Bali on Wednesday belonged to Jho Low.
This is because Jho Low had as good as admitted to the ownership of Equanimity yacht when in his reaction to the yacht’s seizure by the Indonesian authorities in Wednesday, the 1MDB mastermind accused the United States Department of Justice (DoJ) of “global overreach”.’
Through his spokesperson, Jho Low said:
“The US Department of Justice has stayed asset forfeiture proceedings in this case and has still not taken any steps to prove that any impropriety has occurred.
“It is therefore disappointing that, rather than reflecting on the deeply flawed and politically-motivated allegations, the DOJ is continuing with its pattern of global overreach – all based on entirely unsupported claims of wrongdoing.”
The superyacht, reportedly worth US$250 million (RM1 billion), is among several assets being sought by the DOJ for allegedly being acquired using funds it says were misappropriated from Malaysian state fund 1MDB.
The DOJ believes that at least US$4.5 billion has been misappropriated from 1MDB by Malaysian government officials among others and is looking to recover around US$1.7 billion of in assets allegedly acquired using these stolen funds.
The DOJ’s involvement was in response to the funds being laundered through the US financial system.
The DOJ has temporarily filed for a stay on the forfeiture of these assets, which is through a civil suit, pending a parallel criminal case.
Salleh said the furore raised over the seizure of the yacht is yet another failed attempt by the Opposition to mislead Malaysians using fake news’.
Salleh also said there was also no proof that funds from 1Malaysia Development Bhd were used to purchase the RM1 billion vessel, the Equanimity.
He said the source of the allegations was the DoJ civil suit, which had been on hold since last August.
Salleh said: “Until today, apart from bare allegations contained in the suit, the DoJ has not shown any tangible proof that Low is the actual owner of the yacht or that it was purchased with funds from 1MDB.
“Furthermore, the DoJ has yet to prove any of its allegations in a court of law, despite nearly two years passing since its sensationalised press conference of July 2016.”
Salleh’s statement is virtually a mea culpa by the Najib administration on the 1MDB scandal, and reveals the real character of the Azalina Committee on Fake News as no more than Azalina Committee to Suppress the 1MDB Scandal as Fake News.
(Media Statement in Gelang Patah on Friday, March 2, 2018)
We must not allow fake news to steal the next general election in Malaysia
In other countries, authoritarian leaders are using fake news to explain away atrocities and human rights violations as in Syria, Venezuela and even Myanmar.
Malaysia, however, is providing the world a new example where fake news are being used to explain away corruption and abuses of power, particularly the international multi-billion dollar 1MDB money-laundering scandal, which has been described by the United States Attorney-General Jeff Sessions as the world’s worst case of kleptocracy and earned for Malaysia the infamy, ignominy and iniquity of a global kleptocracy.
Has Parliament ever discussed Malaysia’s epithet of being regarded by the world as a global kleptocracy? Read the rest of this entry »
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