Two nights ago, the DAP Selangor State Assemblywoman for Damansara Utama, Yeo Bee Yin, announced that she was responding to the DAP’s call to contest in Johor in the imminent 14th General Election, as Parliament could be dissolved as early as in a fortnight’s time.
This is a very bold, courageous and selfless decision, for Bee Yin would be leaving the Damansara Utama state assembly seat, which she won with the biggest majority of all Selangor state assembly seats five years ago – a huge majority of 30,689 votes, having polled 37,303 votes as against her MCA opponent who polled 6,614 votes in the 2013 general elections.
She entered the Selangor State Assembly in 2013 as the youngest legislator in the 56-member legislature.
Why is Bee Yin leaving Damansara Utama which she won with 30,680-vote majority, instead of staying behind in Selangor in the very comfortable State Assembly seat?
Bee Yin is following the example of DAP leaders, like Liew Chin Tong the DAP Johor Chairman and MP for Kluang and Teo Nie Ching, the MP for Kulai to leave comfortable and safe seats in Penang or Selangor for the unknown in Johor, facing high risks of whether she would get elected or not, because for DAP leaders worth their salt, there can be no “comfort zones” as they must be prepared to take risks so that Pakatan Harapan can succeed in its mission to create a national political tsunami in the 14th General Election to save Malaysia from kleptocracy.
I said in Parliament yesterday in what was probably my last speech in the 13th Parliament, I do not know whether I would be back in Parliament in the 14th General Election, but Malaysians must have a Parliament which they can feel proud of – a Parliament which understands the Malaysian Dream of all Malaysians for Malaysia to be top world-class nation and dares to address the great Malaysian issues of the day, like the 1MDB scandal, and not one which is like the traditional three monkeys, eyes that see not, ears that hear not and mouth that speaks not.
I expressed the hope that the new Parliament to be elected in the 14th General Election would be one which can give space to the Malaysian Dream of all Malaysians, regardless of race or religion, and one where more young Malaysians like Bee Yin can take their rightful places in the Malaysian Parliament.
Tonight, we see history being made in Gelang Patah, Johore and Malaysia – as what was unimaginable in the past is now taking place before our eyes.
We have PPBM from Gelang Patah and Johore with us, on the eve of the Ayer Hitam gathering on Sunday when the Chairman of Pakatan Harapan Tun Mahathir Mohamad will announce the Pakatan Harapan candidate for the parliamentary seat for Ayer Hitam.
Let all parties in Pakatan Harapan – DAP, PKR, AMANAH and Bersatu – work hard and in unison to create history in Johor and Malaysia and for the first change of Federal Government in the 61 year history of the nation’.
Let all Pakatan Harapan leaders and activists be prepared to make great personal sacrifices to create history in Malaysia, like Bee Yin is doing.
One of the first things a new Pakatan Harapan Federal Government in Putrajaya will do is to submit formal claims to the United States, Switzerland and other countries to ask for the repatriation of “dirty money” linked to the 1MDB scandal which have found their way to their shores – like the RM430 million 1MDB-linked funds in Switzerland and the US$1.7 billion of 1MDB-linked assets which the United States Department of Justice (DoJ) is targeting in its forfeiture action under the Kleptocratic Assets Recovery Initiative in the American courts.
The Najib government is not laying any claim for these 1MDB-linked billions in foreign countries, on the pretence that there is no 1MDB scandal and that 1MDB had not lost any monies at all.
The Najib government has to take this ridiculous stand because of its denial complex although the whole world knows about the 1MDB scandal, which has made Malaysia suffer the 3Is of infamy, ignominy and iniquity of being regarded worldwide as a global kleptocracy.
But the new Pakatan Harapan Federal Government in Putrajaya will immediately abandon this charade and ridiculous stand.
We will appoint an Attorney-General and heads of national institutions to actively pursue the repatriation of these 1MDB billions from other countries to Malaysia, apart from uncovering the crimes of corruption, embezzlement and money-laundering in the 1MDB scandal and bringing the 1MDB criminals to book.
The RM430 million 1MDB-linked funds in Switzerland, the billion-ringgit Equanimity luxury superyacht impounded in Bali early this month, the US$35 Bombardier jet seized in Singapore last month, and the billions of US dollars worth of 1MDB-linked assets like the hotels and real estate including New York’s Park Lane Hotel, the US$30 million penthouse at Time Warner Center in New York, the US$107 million interest in EMI Music Publishing, the strings of million-dollar jewelleries, films and paintings, all belong to the people of Malaysia – and the Pakatan Harapan Federal Government will officially lay claim to them with the other governments on our entering Putrajaya!
(Speech at the DAP Gelang Patah ceramah on Friday, March 16, 2018 at 10 pm)