Call on Speaker Pandikar to ensure that Parliament does not become a rubber-stamp to approve the the Prime Minister’s Constituency Redelineation Proposals without ample time for MPs to study them and to get public feedback

Desptite considerable media speculation, neither the highly anticipated Election Commission Report on new constituency redcelineation proposals which the Election Commission submitted to the Prime Minister on March 9 nor is the Prime Minister’s motion to give effect to the Election Commission’s new constituency proposals are on the table of MPs today.

I call on the Speaker of Parliament, Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia to ensure that Parliament does not become a rubber-stamp to approve the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s Constituency Redelineation Proposals without ample time for Members of Parliament to study them and to get public feedback.

As correctly pointed out by the Bersih acting chairperson Sharul Aman Mohd Saari, Najib can under Section 9 of the Thirteenth Schedule of the Constitution further alter the Election Commission’s final report on the redrawing of electoral boundaries before tabling it to Parliament.

The Prime Minister can for instance reinstate the Election Commission’s first constituency redelineation proposals for Selangor, which had been substituted by the EC’s second constituency redelikneation proposals.
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Call on Najib and UMNO/BN leaders to heed the cries from the heart of UMNO veterans like Rais Yatim and Rafidah

There is great rumbling in the deep bowels of UMNO and Malay society that things are not right with Malaysia, especially with regard to the great shame that the international multi-billion dollar 1MDB money-laundering scandal has brought to Malaysia by giving the nation a virtual instant epithet of a global kleptocracy.

These rumblings first surfaced publicly early this month after the seizure of 1MDB mastermind Jho Low’s billion-ringgit luxury superyacht Equanimity by the Indonesian authorities and FBI in Bali at the end last month.

Former International Trade and Industry Minister Tan Sri Rafidah Aziz broke the ice when publicly lamented in her FaceBook about the Malaysian government becoming the modern-day Malaysian “Emperor with New Clothes”, asking why the Malaysian authorities had not been able to find 1MDB mastermind Jho Low’s billion-ringgit luxury superyacht when she herself could spot it while on a diving trip in Thailand.

This was followed by the tweet of the former Information Minister, Tan Sri Rais Yatim asking why the Minister for Communications and Multimedia, Datuk Seri Salleh Said Keruak was so hasty in defending Jho Low instead of defending justice with regard to the seizure of the luxury superyacht Equanimity. Read the rest of this entry »

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Will the 14th General Election again fall on May 5 for Malaysians to finally fulfill their Malaysian Dream to have an united, clean, just, forward-looking, progressive and prosperous Malaysia

The Dewan Negara sitting has been moved forward so that it will end on the same day as the Dewan Rakyat on April 5, the latest indication that Parliament will be dissolved after the end of the Parliamentary meeting on April 5.

If Parliament is dissolved on April 6, two possible dates for Polling Day, if the traditional Saturday is observed, will be April 28 or May 5, the latter the same day as the 13th General Election five years ago in 2013.

Johore will be the front-line state in the 14th General Election. Yesterday, at the 52nd DAP anniversary celebrations in Ayer Hitam in Johor, the titanic battle for the parliamentary constituency of Ayer Hitam was launched with the announcement of the DAP-Pakatan Harapan candidate, Liew Chin Tong, the Johore DAP Chairman and current MP for Kluang. He will be contesting against the MCA Deputy President and Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Wee Ka Siong, who had been three-term MP for Ayer Hitam since 2004. Read the rest of this entry »

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Will the rumblings in the deep bowels of UMNO and Malay society against the global shame of 1MDB scandal lead to a revolt against Najib and UMNO in the 14th General Election?

Will the rumblings in the deep bowels of UMNO and Malay society against the global shame of the international 1MDB money-laundeirng scandal lead to a revolt against the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak and the UMNO in the forthcoming 14th General Election?

The question becomes imperative with signs of such rumblings in the deep bowels in UMNO and Malay society against the 1MDB scandal, as illustrated by the following:

· Former information minister Tan Sri Rais Yatim sticking to his guns in his criticism of UMNO Ministers and leaders becoming apologists and defenders of 1MDB scandal and the 1MDB mastermind Jho Low, in particular his tweet why the Minister for Communications and Multimedia, Datuk Seri Salleh Said Keruak was so hasty in defending Jho Low instead of defending justice with regard to the recent seizure of the billion-ringgit luxury superyacht Equanimity by the Indonesian authorities and FBI.

· Former International Trade and Industry Minister Tan Sri Rafidah Aziz lamenting about the Malaysian government becoming the modern-day Malaysian “Emperor with New Clothes”, asking why the Malaysian authorities had not been able to find 1MDB mastermind Jho Low’s billion-ringgit luxury superyacht when she herself could spot it while on a diving trip in Thailand.

· UMNO Veterans Club secretary Mustaha Yaakub’s denunciation of the supporters of Jho Low as those who betrayed the coutnry and UMNO, as he was responsible for the 1MDB scandal and action should be taken against him. Read the rest of this entry »

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All the eleven previous MCA President would not do what Liow Tiong Lai had done, losing all moral compass as to stoop so low and tell baldfaced lies which confirm his epithet as “Tung Shin Liow”

All the eleven previous MCA Presidents and Acting Presidents would not do what the current MCA President, Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai, did in Johor Jaya yesterday, losing all moral compass as to stoop so low and tell bald-faced lies which confirm his epithet as “Tung Shin Liow”.

According to the MCA’s Star, Liow unleashed an attack on DAP, accusing the DAP of taking the Chinese support for granted after getting huge support from the Chinese community in garnering 85% of the Chinese votes in the last general election.

At the MCA 14TH General Election mobilization rally in Johor Jaya, Liow said the DAP could not and would not defend the rights and interests of the community, declaring: “The DAP says it does not represent the Chinese community after winning big in the last elections.”
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I have been a victim of UMN/BN “fake news” for the last four decades – UMNO leaders accuse me of being anti-Malay while MCA leaders accuse me of being anti-Chinese and had sold out the rights of the Chinese to the Malays

“Fake News” is the latest fashion of the day. The present preoccupation with fake news was started by Donald Trump, the President of United States, and it has been taken up with gusto by the Prime Minister of Malaysia, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, not so much to combat fake news, but to provide the circumstances and wherewithal to concoct and peddle fake news with immunity and impunity while suppressing truth and embarrassing news emanating from the Opposition and civil society.

What Najib, just like Trump, is doing is to launch a “fake anti-fake news” campaign!

I have myself been a victim of UMNO/BN “fake news” for the last four decades – UMNO leaders accused me of being anti-Malay and anti-Islam while MCA leaders accuse me of being anti-Chinese and sold out the rights of the Chinese to the Malays! Read the rest of this entry »

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If Pakatan Harapan can win Ayer Hitam parliamentary seat, it has two important implications: Pakatan Harapan can form the Federal Government in Putrajaya and the Johor State Government in Nusajaya

All eyes not only in Johor, but the whole of Malaysia, are on Ayer Hitam tomorrow, where Pakatan Harapan Chairman Tun Mahathir Mohamad will announce the Pakatan Harapan candidate for the Ayer Hitam parliamentary constituency and take on the Deputy MCA President and Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Wee Ka Siong.

Up to now, national attention is focused on personalities – who will contest against Wee in the Barisan Nasional safe seat and where Wee had been MP for three terms since the 2004 General Election.

But even more important than the battle of the candidates, of who versus who, is the meaning of the battle of the Ayer Hitam constituency in the 14th General Election.

If Pakatan Harapan can win the Ayer Hitam parliamentary constituency, it has two important implications: firstly, that Pakatan Harapan can form the Federal Government in Putrajaya in the 14th General Election with Tun Mahathir as Malaysia’s seventh Prime Minister and Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim as Malaysia’s eighth Prime Minister; and secondly, that Pakatan Harapan can also form the new Johore State Government in Nusajaya or Iskandar Puteri.

Malaysia will then, after six decades of nation-building, join the rank of normal democracies like India, South Korea, Japan, the Philippines and even Indonesia, where voters can peacefully and democratically exercise their constitutional right to change the government whether at the Federal or State level without any threat, dire warning or occurrence of chaos or catastrophe!

Malaysia becoming a and normal and mature democracy is more important from the national historical perspective, although the issue of personalities, as to which candidate will emerge triumphant in the titanic electoral battle in Ayer Hitam will the capture the imagination of the peoples in the 14th General Election and be the national cynosure in the great electoral battle in the next 60 days.

(Speech at the DAP kopitiam dialogue at Pengkalan Rinting, Johor Baru on Saturday, 17th March 2918 at 8 pm)

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I fully support UMNO veterans who declare that it is treason to defend Jho Low who had caused Malaysia to be scorned worldwide as a global kleptocracy

I fully support UMNO veterans who declare that it is treason to defend 1MDB scandal mastermind Jho Low who had caused Malaysia to be scorned worldwide as a global kleptocracy.

The question is whether the Prime Minister and UMNO President Datuk Seri Najib Razak support this view.

Recently, we have the Minister for Communications and Multimedia, Datuk Salleh Said Keruak who said that there is no evidence the billion-ringgit luxury superyacht Equanimity seized by the Indonesian authorities in Bali recently is owned by Jho Low and the Inspector-General of Police, Tan Sri Fuzi Harun who made an even more startling statement that there is “nothing to link Jho Low with IMDB”. Read the rest of this entry »

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DAP will field more youths and women as parliamentary and state assembly candidates and I look forward to Yeo Bee Yin and Hannah Yeoh as new DAP MPs in new Parliament

DAP will field more youths and women as parliamentary and state assembly candidates in the 14th General Election and I look forward to Yeo Bee Yin and Hannah Yeoh as among the new DAP MPs in the new Parliament.

I asked just now how many are older than me, and two persons identified themselves by a show of hands.

Three of us are the oldest in this gathering, but although we are septuagenarians or octogenarians (and Tun Mahathir is a nonagenarian, who will be 93 years old in another four months’ time), Malaysians in their seventies, eighties and even nineties, just like new generation of young Malaysians whether in their teens, twenties or thirties, have a Malaysian Dream we want to fulfill – not for the sake of ourselves as far as the septuagenarians, octogenarians and nonagenarians are concerned, but for our children and children’s children and for the country.

We all want Malaysia to be more united, harmonious, tolerant, developed, progressive, prosperous and democratic, a country where all Malaysians, regardless of race, religion, politics or class can feel proud of the country because it is a top world-class nation in every field of human endeavor.

But this is not the case, for after six decades of nation building, Malaysia has failed Malaysians and we have fallen down the ladder of nations in human excellence, achievements and accomplishments.

We have lost our way in the past six decades with countries more economically, educationally and politically backward than Malaysia having overtaken us on all fronts of human endeavor, becoming not only richer and more developed and prosperous, but less corrupt and more democratic and more respectful of the principles of good governance and the rule of law.

The 14th General Election will be the occasion for Malaysians, regardless of race, religion, politics or age to set things right in the country by re-setting nation-building policies and directions and by returning to the fundamental principles of harmony, tolerance, moderation and checks-and-balance to make Malaysia a top world-class nation in every field of human endeavor instead of becoming a global kleptocracy scorned and mocked by other nations!

(Speech at the DAP kopitiam ceramah at Stulang, Johor Baru on Saturday, March 17, 2018 at 1 pm)

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Greatest feat of Ka Siong as UMNO’s “ninja assassin” is to concoct a RM20 billion Penang undersea tunnel scandal out of nothing – to distract attention from Najib’s RM50 billion 1MDB scandal

The greatest feat of MCA Deputy President Datuk Seri Wee Ka Siong as UMNO’s “ninja assassin” to assassinate DAP and Pakatan Harapan’s reputation and integrity is to concoct a RM20 billion Penang undersea tunnel scandal out of nothing – to distract attention from Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s RM50 billion 1MDB scandal, which is acknowledged all over the world and “shot” Malaysia in a matter of three years into a global kleptocracy!

I am utterly shocked that Wee has so lost his moral compass – which Malaysian tycoon Robert Kuok has emphasized in his Memoirs as one of the two factors which decided the rise or fall of nations – that he could so brazenly and irresponsibly concoct a RM20 billion Penang undersea tunnel out of nothing. Read the rest of this entry »

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No “comfort zone” for DAP leaders, who must be prepared to take risks so that Pakatan Harapan can succeed in its mission to create a national “political tsunami” in the 14GE to Save Malaysia from kleptocracy

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. Read the rest of this entry »

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Challenge to Najib to hold a freewheeling “Answer All on 1MDB” media event in Sydney to reply to 1MDB queries and issues which he had been avoiding and evading for the past three years

Before I left Kuala Lumpur this morning for Gelang Patah, I had issued a media statement asking whether the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak would be going to Sydney to attend the ASEAN-Australia Special Summit for this weekend, as the two issues of 1MDB scandal and Malaysia as a global kleptocracy had been dogging him in his international itinerary.

Since then, Putrajaya has issued a statement confirming that Najib would be going to Sydney for the ASEAN-Australian Special Summit.

I challenge Najib to hold a freewheeling “Answer All on 1MDB” media event in Sydney to reply to 1MDB queries and issues which he had been avoiding and evading for the past three years. Read the rest of this entry »

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Wong Nai Chee should advise Najib to tender public apology to Robert Kuok in Parliament next week or resign as Prime Minister’s political secretary and refuse to be a MCA candidate in the 14GE if his advice is not accepted

MCA Alor Gajah has questioned where Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak’s political aide Wong Nai Chee was, when Malaysian tycoon Robert Kuok was subject to a gratuitous, malicious, baseless and savage attack by UMNO leaders recently in their opposition to Wong’s candidacy as Barisan Nasional parliamentary candidate in Alor Gajah in place of the current incumbent Koh Nai Kwong.

I am very interested in the question as to what are Wong’s political contributions in the past, when MCA Alor Gajah asked what right Wong had to contest in the Alor Gajah parliamentary seat.

During my speech in Parliament yesterday in the debate of thanks on the Yang di Pertuan Agong’s Royal Address, I specifically referred to the recent four-day UMNO bashing of Malaysian tycoon Robert Kuok, where he was subjected to four days of demonization and gratuitous, baseless, malicious and savage UMNO attacks over the false accusation that he had funded the DAP to topple the Barisan Nasional.

I had called on the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, to tender an official and public apology to Robert Kuok in Parliament during the Ministerial winding-up of the debate next week for the gratuitous, malicious, baseless and savage attacks which UMNO leaders had made on Robert Kuok recently.

As Wong is Najib’s political secretary, Wong should advise Najib to tender the public apology to Robert Kuok in Parliament next week or resign as Prime Minister’s political secretary and refuse to be a MCA candidate in the 14GE if his advice is not accepted.

(Speech (2) at the DAP kopitiam dialogue in Pekan Nenas, Johor on Friday, March 16, 2018 at 1 pm)

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Is Wee Ka Siong the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department performing the role as UMNO’s “Ninja assassin” to assassinate Penang Pakatan Harapan State Government’s reputation and integrity?

In the past month, the MCA Deputy President Datuk Seri Wee Ka Siong had been very busy, making almost daily attacks on the Penang Pakatan Harapan State Government with wild allegations that it is utterly corrupt over the undersea tunnel project.

If Wee has a reputation as an anti-corruption warrior in Malaysia, this would be understandable, but the reverse is actually the case. Read the rest of this entry »

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Will Najib back out of the ASEAN-Australia Special Summit as he is again dogged by the 3Is – infamy, ignominy and iniquity – 1MDB scandal and Malaysia as a global kleptocracy

Will the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak back out of the ASEAN-Australia Special Summit in Sydney this weekend as he is again dogged by the 3Is – infamy, ignominy and iniquity – of the international multi-billion dollar 1MDB money-laundering scandal and Malaysia as a global kleptocracy?

Although the Swiss Parliament yesterday rejected the motion seeking the repatriation of the Swiss government’s seizure of some RM430 million of 1MDB-embezzled funds from Swiss banks to the people of Malaysia, Najib and the Malaysian Government have not come out of the Swiss Parliamentary motion and scrutiny smelling like roses.

The Swiss motion by Swiss Social Democratic Party (SP) MP, Carlo Sommaruga was defeated by 138 votes against it and 53 vote for it. Read the rest of this entry »

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Kit Siang supports filing of a motion to review the Speaker’s rejection of questions and motions concerning 1MDB scandal

I support the filing of motion in Parliament to review the Speaker’s rejection of questions and motions concerning the 1MDB scandal.

Three DAP MPs, Nga Kor Ming (Taiping), Ngeh Koo Ham (Beruas) and V. Sivakumar (Batu Gajah) have received an ultimatum from the Speaker, Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia, demanding that they make an open apology to him for their remarks about the Speaker’s rejection of an emergency motion on the seizure of the luxury superyacht Equanimity of Jho Low and questions related to the 1MDB scandal or face “stern action”.

Under what section of the Dewan Rakyat Standing Orders does it give the Speaker the powers to unilaterally decide what is said outside Parliament constituted contempt of the Speaker and empower the Speaker to impose punishments?

The Speaker was ill-advised to send such ultimatum to the three DAP MPs demanding public apology or to face “stern action”.

The Speaker should consult with Parliamentarians from both sides of the divide on matters affecting Parliament and not just consult with the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department in charge of parliamentary affairs.

I am prepared to stand corrected, but Pandikar has clearly exceeded his powers in writing such an ultimatum to the three DAP MPs for their remarks outside parliamentary proceedings.

(Media Statement in Parliament on Thursday, 15th March 2018)

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Wee should spell out the “larger picture” of MCA – whether it is continue to be UMNO’s catspaw like what the MCA Deputy President is doing to blacken Penang Pakatan Harapan state government’s reputation to distract attention from 1MDB scandal and Malaysia’s global kleptocracy?

MCA Deputy President Datuk Seri Wee Ka Siong should spell out what is the “larger picture” he wants ordinary MCA members to look at – whether it is for MCA leaders to continue to be UMNO’s catspaw like what Wee is doing to blacken Penang Pakatan Harapan state government’s reputation so as to distract national and international attention from the multi-billion dollar 1MDB money-laundering scandal and Malaysia’s global kleptocracy?

Wee today asked MCA party members to look at the bigger picture amid a revolt in Alor Gajah following an attempt to field Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak’s aide in the parliamentary constituency in the coming polls.

Wee should spell out this “bigger picture”, whether the MCA members must agree that UMNO President can override the MCA President in the nomination of MCA candidates for the 14th General Election?

If so, the present MCA national leadership would be creating another MCA history – after creating history where the three top MCA national leaders, the MCA President, Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai, the MCA Deputy President, Datuk Seri Wee Ka Siong, and the MCA Secretary-General Datuk Seri Ong Ka Chuan dare not contest in Chinese-voter majority seats but must depend on UMNO’s Malay votes to win in Parliament and get into Cabinet?

(Media Statement in Parliament on Thursday, 15th March 2018)

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Malaysians must have a Parliament which they can feel proud – a Parliament which understands the Malaysian Dream of all Malaysians and not one which is like the traditional three moneys, eyes that see not, ears that hear not and mouth that speaks not

Last night was the launch of the book by the DAP Selangor State Assemblywoman for Damansara Utama Yeo Bee Yin, the youngest member of the Selangor State Assembly, “Reimagining Malaysia”.

A small-town girl from Batu Anam, Segamat who have become an engineer after being recipient of the Gates Cambridge University Scholarship, Bee Yin tells in the book the story of her personal journey, her hopes and dreams for the country.

As I said in the foreword to the book, I believe most Malaysians have a dream to want to make Malaysia a better country for the people and themselves, which is shunted aside or snuffed out altogether by the exigencies of life, including parental expectations and pressures.

We must find ways to respond to these inner voices and give them room for expression.

Recently, it was reported that low wages and a lack of jobs have forced about 5,000 Malaysians to work and live illegally in South Korea, suffering human rights abuses and even denial of wages, many left to fend for themselves after suffering workplace accidents and getting fired.

Apart from the question as to what the Malaysian Embassy in Seoul is doing to look after the interests of these 5,000 illegal Malaysians in South Korea, the question we must ask is why these 5,000 Malaysians have gone to South Korea? Read the rest of this entry »

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If MCA national leaders have a fraction of the guts and gumption of David Choi and dare to speak up on the great rights and wrongs in the country, MCA would not be reduced to the ridiculous straits of a 7/11 party

MCA leaders should not allow themselves to be pushed around by UMNO but even more important, they must have the guts and gumption to speak up on the rights and wrongs in the country.

Examples of such UMNO bullying are the two recent Barisan Nasional elections preparations functions, one at Bandar Tun Razak and the other at Rembau.

Examples of MCA having to develop the guts and gumption to speak up on the great rights and wrongs in the country are aplenty, over issues big and small.

On the one hand there is the sacking of Pahang division leader David Choi who last November had apologized to a Taiping farmer arrested for sharing a video deemed insulting to MCA deputy minister Chong Sin Woon, after Chong’s offensive “deity” jibe after the Penang floods. On the other hand, is the thunderous silence of the MCA leader s whether in Parliament or Cabinet about the international 1MDB money-laundering scandal and worsening corruption in the country, as evidentced by Malaysia falling to the lowest ranking of Transparency International Corruption Perception Index 2017 – lowest in 23 years. Read the rest of this entry »

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Is Malaysia destined for “greatness” under Najib’s premiership – to be regarded worldwide as a global double kleptocracy?

Is Malaysia destined for “greatness” under the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, to be regarded worldwide as a global double kleptocracy?

Yesterday, the DAP MP for Taiping, Nga Kor Ming, offered Najib free legal services to sue international news weekly, the Economist, for its 8th March, 2018 article: “Stop, thief! Malaysia’s PM is about to steal an election”.

I fully endorse this offer of free legal services from DAP, and Najib can choose anyone of the following nine DAP lawyer-MPs to defend his reputation and that of the nation – Gobind Singh Deo (Puchong), Nga Kor Ming (Taiping), Ngeh Koo Ham (Beruas), M. Kulasegaran (Ipoh Barat), Lim Lip Eng (Segambut), Thomas Su (Ipoh Timur), Teo Nie Ching (Kulai), Ramkarpal Singh (Bukit Gelugor), Chong Chieng Jen (Bandar Kuching).

But it is almost a full week, and there has been thunderous silence from Najib, with no response whatsoever from Najib on the Economist’s article calling him a thief who is to steal the 14th General Election – or the MSNBC television host Rachel Maddow who called Najib a thief in the Rachel Maddow Show programme on March 9 because of the international multi-billion 1MDB money-laundering scandal.

Is Malaysia set under Najib as Prime Minister to be known worldwide not only as a global kleptocracy, but a global double kleptocracy? Read the rest of this entry »

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