For the past 11 days, the Al-Ma’unah arms heists had hogged all the newspaper headlines and air time but Members of Parliament are supposed to live in a world of their own who could not reflect these national concerns in Parliament although they could talk irrelevancies and even "nonsense" under the various bills in the past four days.
The Al-Ma’unah arms heists tops the talk of the nation, whether in coffee shops, teh-tarik stalls and offfices but not in Parliament ? What type of a Malaysian Parliament is this? This is a national shame!
Members of Parliament, whether Barisan Nasional or Barisan Alternative, should be mindful that they would be failing in their duties as elected representatives of the people entrusted with the responsibilities in the recent general election last November to be the voice of the people if they could not conduct a full debate in the current meeting of Parliament on the burning issues in the country, such as the Al-Ma’unah arms heists and the worst crisis of confidence in judicial accountability, independence and impartiality.
It is a positive sign that on the first two days of Parliament, MPs from the Barisan Alternative and the Barisan Nasional had sought, though unsuccessfully, to adjourn the Dewan Rakyat to debate the Al’Maunah arms heists.
The Speaker, Tun Mohd Zahir Ismail rejected the attempts by the DAP MP for Kepong, Dr. Tan Seng Giaw and the Chairman of Barisan Nasional Backbenchers’ Club Dr. Jamaludin Jarjis (Rompin) on the ground that they failed to comply with the "urgency" requirement under the Standing Orders 18 of the Dewan Rakyat.
The Dewan Rakyat Standing Orders are behind times, too outmoded and unsuitable to contemporary needs of the people or parliamentary democracy and must be overhauled as it does not redound to the credit, credibility or public respect for the Speaker to convey the impression that he is presiding over a museum instead of a contemporaneous Parliament which could address the most topical issues of the day .
The fact that there had been two separate attempts by the Barisan Alternative and the Barisan Nasional to adjourn Parliament to debate the Al-Ma’unah arms heists provides a silver lining as it shows that MPs from both sides want justice to be done to Parliament by having a full and proper debate on the Al-Ma’unah arms heists.
The time has come for MPs, both from Barisan Nasional and Barisan Alternative, to rise above party interests and unite to salvage Parliament from being adjudged irrelevant and inconsequential by jointly petitioning for a full debate on the Al-Ma’unah arms heists and the worst crisis of confidence in the judicial accountability, independence and impartiality in the current meeting of Parliament.
Parliament will be failing in its duty if it does not seek answers as to how a ragtag Al-Ma’unah gang of 15 people led by a 29-year-old "mentally-unstable", ex-army private could empty two high-security armouries of vast cache of high-calibre weapons, including some 100 M-16 rifles, heavy and light machine guns, grenade launchers, high-exposive shells and thousands rounds of ammunition.
What would have happened if such fearsome firepower, enough to equip a small army and to start a war, had fallen into the hands of professionally-trained people rather than into the hands of the Al-Ma’unah gang most of whose members had not held a gun before and did not know how to make use of the huge stash of weapons?
Parliament is also the proper venue for the government to explain the failures of its various agencies contributing to the Al-Mau’nah arms heists, causing the unnecessary loss of three lives.
For instance, the Home Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Badawi should explain why the Registrar of Societies approved the registration of Al-Ma’unah under the Societies Act in 1999 when the Defence Ministry had as early as 1995 identified the concept of Ma’unah as deviationist.
The armed forces Religious Corps (Kagat) had published a 144-page booklet titled Ajaran Sesat - Satu Ancaman Terhadap Keselamatan Negara (Deviant Teachings - A Threat to National Security) distributed to all military units in 1995 which singled out Al Ma’unah, simply called Ma’unah (saviour) as an example in the chapter on the characteristics of deviationism in practices and teachings.
After the Al-Ma’unah arms heists, the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Senator Datuk Paduka Dr. Abdul Hamid Othman said that the Islamic Development Department (Jakim) had identified the "Al-Ma’unah" group as among the 44 deviationist groups nationwide.
Abdul Hamid should explain to Parliament why Jakim had been so remiss in monitoring Islamic deviationist groups as to allow the Al-Ma’unah arms heists to take place without warning, when Al-Ma’unah had a website on the Internet stating its objectives.
Parliament is also the proper place for the Defence Minister, Datuk Najib Tun Razak to explain why the government has refused to appoint an independent inquiry into the Al-Ma’unah arms heists involving members from outside the armed forces and the Defence Ministry.
This is because while the nation should be concerned about Islamic deviationist groups which espouse violence to achieve their purported ends, what is of greater concern is the shocking breakdown of military discipline and security as happened in the two Grik army camps as it is such military lapses which pose the greatest threat to national security and safety.
Najib has announced that two army inquiry boards had been set up into the Al-Ma’unah arms heists, the first one on what happened at the two Grik army camps at Kuala Lui outpost and the Battalion 304 camp and the second one on general security in armed forces and their installations, intelligence capabilities, potential for sabotage and loyalty and attitude of personnel.
Last Friday, Najib had said that the first inquiry would take two or three months to be completed.
Does this mean that the White Paper on the Al-Ma’unah arms heists promised by the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamad would not see the light of day until the end of the year? Such dilatory tactics are most unsatisfactory and unacceptable.
The White Paper on the Al-Ma’unah arms heists should be presented in the current meeting of Parliament to allow for a full parliamentary debate. Although the eight-day Dewan Rakyat meeting is scheduled to end on 20th July, there should be an extension for another week to allow for the White Paper to be tabled and a full debate to be held.
(14/7/2000)