Media Statement
by Tony Pua, DAP National Publicity Secretary and Member of Parliament for Petaling
Jaya Utara in Kuala Lumpur on Monday, 15 July 2013
It has only
been 10 weeks since the 13th General Election was concluded, but the
Prime Minister, Dato’ Seri Najib Razak who won with a fairly comfortable 44
seat majority in Parliament, appears to have completely lost his bearings. The Government of the day, instead of seizing
the initiative and giving direction to the country, is stumbling and fumbling
from one controversy to another.
During the
entire election campaign, Dato’ Seri Najib has presented himself as a reformist
to all Malaysians, as the man who will make Malaysia the “best democracy in the
world”. However, Dato’ Seri Najib has
been unable to put his own house in order with Cabinet Ministers split into 2
factions, one claiming no intent to repeal the Sedition Act, while the other
still maintaining that the Cabinet has decided to repeal it. The most obvious signal that the Act will not
be repealed as promised is the fact that it has been used repeatedly over the
past 10 weeks to charge political activists.
Then we have
found Cabinet Ministers and Barisan Nasional (BN) component parties publicly
squabbling over the tabling of the Adminstration of Islamic Law (Federal
Territories) Amendment Bill 2013 which allowed for the conversion of an
underaged child to a Muslim by a single parent. This Bill is significant as it is the very
first piece of legislation sought to be passed by the BN Government, which sets
the tone and agenda for the 13th Parliament. The spat is also serious
because the Cabinet has actually “approved” the Bill to be tabled, before the
subsequent volte-face which proved to be a major embarrassment for the ruling
party. Throughout the entire heated
controversy, the Prime Minister remained silent as a mouse.
While publicly
calling for a post-election “national reconciliation”, the Prime Minister has
failed to condemn the extremist elements in UMNO and BN, particularly via their
mouthpiece, Utusan Malaysia for continuing to spew racist insults against the
minorities, and inflammatory comments to incite hatred among the majority
Malays. Instead of defending the right
thinking Malaysians such as the CEO of AirAsiaX, Azran Osman who expressed
disgust over Utusan’s anti-Chinese stance, Dato’ Seri Najib allowed the
unfettered demonisation of Azran as a traitor to the Malays by UMNO’s Members
of Parliements.
When there is a
crisis of confidence in the Royal Malaysian Police occuring with 10 deaths in
custody within just 6 months, while violent crimes have become a norm in the
cities, Dato’ Seri Najib has let the debate over the set up of the Independent
Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC), as well as the reversal of
his earlier reforms such as the repeal of the Emergency Ordinance (EO) rage
unchecked.
Dato’ Seri
Najib has let his new Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Paul
Low fumble over the justification of Enforcement Agency Integrity Commission
(EAIC) as opposed to the IPCMC. He has
let the new Home Minister, Dato’ Seri Zahid Hamidi go on a rampage in blaming
the repeal of the Emergency Ordinance by Dato’ Seri Najib himself, for the
apparent rise in crime.
The Prime
Minister has called upon Malaysians to give him the mandate to carry out his
promised reforms, and yet the reverse seems to be happening with Dato’ Seri
Najib quietly conceding to the party hardliners.
And when
Transparency International released the latest Global Corruption Barometer
(GCB) report which indicated a severe deterioration on the perception of
corruption by Malaysians in the country from
49% in 2011 to 31% in 2013, Dato’ Seri Najib did not make a squeal. This is despite the fact that the GCB is a
Key Performance Indicator for his flagship Reducing Corruption National Key
Result Area (NKRA).
He only let his
Performance Management and Delivery Unit admit that the Government has not done
enough to battle corruption and concede that “radical reforms” are needed. However,
there are no “radical reforms” to be seen as measures to improve transparency
and accountability such as the public declaration of assets by Ministers, open
and competitive tenders for multi-billion ringgit privatisation contracts are
rejected outright.
Malaysians are
asking, “where is our Prime Minister?” The are beginning to wonder if he has
gone into hiding to avoid having to confront the difficult controversies
engulfing the country. The nation is
like a rudderless ship crying out for a leader to put his foot down, and yet
what Malaysians are getting are fueding first officers in the absence of their
captain.
We call upon
Datuk Seri Najib Razak to pick up his courage and demonstrate his political
will in ensuring that Malaysia remains on the path to reforms and
transformation has he has promised. The
problems Malaysians face today will not go away quietly if he were to remain
tongue-tied. Instead he will lose not
only the confidence of ordinary Malaysians, but even that of his own political
party.
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