Is it divinely ordained that former Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak should speak to an empty chamber in Parliament to underline how low he has fallen and how irrelevant he has become to Malaysians?
Such a question would naturally follow from the declaration in Parliament yesterday by the UMNO President and former Deputy Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Zahid Hamidi that the earthquake and tsunami in Palu, Indonesia that killed more than 1,900 people happened because there were over 1,000 people who were involved in LGBT activities.
Malaysians and in fact the world must thank Najib for posting a photograph on his Facebook page showing him delivering a speech in the Dewan Rakyat to rows of empty seats in front of him – which is indeed a rare sight!
In fact, there were several meetings in Parliament going on at the time Najib spoke, including the Public Accounts Committee and two Ministerial briefings on forthcoming parliamentary business.
But there could not be a more eloquent photograph of how low Najib had fallen from the mighty position of the Prime Minister of the country and how irrelevant he is now to Malaysians who want to rebuild and reset nation-building policies and see the rise a New Malaysia where all Malaysians, regardless of race, religion or region, whether inside the country or in any part of the world, can feel proud as Malaysians and no longer the butt of jokes or snide remarks because Malaysia was a rogue democracy, kakistocracy and a global kleptocracy!
May be Zahid is right, there is divine intervention to send out the clear and unmistakable signal that the time for any explanation by Najib in Parliament on the international 1MDB corruption and money-laundering scandal is long past, and the place for Najib to make his defence on the 1MDB scandal is no more in Parliament but in the court of law.
I shudder to think what would have happened if on May 9, 2018, Malaysians failed to make the peaceful and democratic transition of power, and Najib continued as the Prime Minister of Malaysia, especially if he needed the “kingmaker” role of PAS to continue as Prime Minister.
What would be the status of the 1MDB corruption and money-laundering scandal and other 1MDB-like corruption cases?
For nine years, Najib reduced Parliament to an abject status, where Members of Parliament could not ask questions or debate the 1MDB scandal although it had continued to dominate international news headlines, and MPs were disciplined for wanting to get to the root of the 1MDB scandal.
I was myself twice suspended from Parliament for six months each, and during the last week of the 13th Parliament, I was treated like a “parliamentary ghost” with the Speaker and Deputy Speakers claiming that they could not see me when I entered the parliamentary chamber.
In his 2016 New Year message on 31st December 2015, Najib told Malaysians that his RM50 billion 1MDB and RM2.6 billion donation twin mega scandals had been resolved and were no more issues.
Najib could not be more wrong. Nowadays, hardly a day passes without the 1MDB scandal – described by the United States Attorney-General Jeff Sessions as “kleptocracy at its worst” – dominating the news headlines. In fact, it is commonplace to have multiple news stories on a single day about the 1MDB scandal.
Today, for instance, the 1MDB scandal is on the front page of New Straits Times, “FIRST CIVIL SERVANT TO BE CHARGED”, about former Treasury Secretary-General Tan Sri Irwan Serigar Abdullah who is expected to be charged together with Najib tomorrow over debt payments to IPIC, bringing the total of charges of corruption, abuse of power and money-laundering against Naib to 38.
After the publication of three books on the 1MDB scandal last month, the 1MDB scandal is the single most reported issue in October.
In January 2017, I typed “1MDB” into the Google search engine, and I got 4.41 million results in just 0.32 seconds. I was shocked beyond belief just now when I typed “1MDB” into the Google search engine, and got 6.53 million results in just 0.43 seconds.
Had Najib given any credible, satisfactory and acceptable explanation for the 1MDB “kleptocracy at its wosrst” scandal in Parliament yesterday?
Najib had not even answered the “10 Questions on MDB for dummies” which I drafted on 3rd June 2015 meant for Cabinet Ministers but these 10 dummy questions have still to be answered, even by Najib despite his parliamentary appearance yesterday.
Two days ago, Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein made an intriguing offer to track down fugitive financier Jho Low in China to see closure of the 1MDB scandal.
Will Hishammuddin will be the first Minister in the last Najib Cabinet to admit that the international 1MDB corruption and money-laundering scandal is not a fake news, concoction by his political enemies or an international conspiracy to topple Datuk Seri Najib Razak, the sixth Prime Minster of Malaysia, but was “kleptocracy at its worst” and which plunged Malaysia into infamy and ignominy as a global kleptocracy.
Has Hishammuddin received Najib’s endorsement or approval to make such an offer?
Now, thanks to the historic decision of May 9, 2018, the 1MDB scandal has moved to the “end game” – although Malaysians and future generations will have to pay a heavy price for a long time for Najib’s “kleptocracy at its worst” caper.
(Media Statement by DAP MP for Iskandar Puteri Lim Kit Siang in Parliament on Wednesday, October 24, 2018)