15-Day Countdown to 13GE – Unprecedented automatic dissolution of Negri Sembilan State Assembly further highlights the ‘illegitimacy’ of the Najib premiership

The unprecedented automatic dissolution of Negri Sembilan State Assembly at midnight tonight further highlights the “illegitimacy” of the Najib premiership particularly after the fifth anniversary of the “political tsunami” on 8th March nineteen days ago, giving his Cabinet and Government an “expired” character.

Is Najib really heading for the automatic dissolution of Parliament, now claimed to be April 30 and not April 27, 2013, after the further “automatic dissolution” of the State Assemblies of Pahang, Johore, Malacca, Selangor, Perak, Perlis and Kelantan before Parliament’s “automatic dissolution” to be followed by the other states of Sabah, Penang and Terengganu?

It is not only a supreme irony, but most pathetic, that after almost four years as the country’s longest unelected Prime Minister and on permanent campaign mode, Najib is still trying to scrape the bottom of the barrel to eke out as many days as possible before he faces the ultimate and unavoidable “tryst with destiny”, the dissolution of the 12th Parliament for the holding of the 13th general elections in the country.

I agree with the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz that it is within Najib’s power to allow Parliament to be automatically dissolved before the holding of the 13GE, but he surely knows that this is an act which raises the most eloquent question about Najib’s credibility and legitimacy as Prime Minister of Malaysia.

Nazri claims that Najib is not jittery about dissolving Parliament. Nazri should “tell it to the marines” as it is an open secret, not only in UMNO/BN, but to Malaysians and the world that Najib is mortally afraid to prove the RAHMAN prophecy right with him as the last Umno/BN Prime Minister!

As a result, with a Prime Minister who had been on a permanent election campaigning mode in the past four years, important matters of governance had been seriously neglected as the business of government had virtual been on auto-pilot – especially so after Parliament had used up its five-year natural life on 8th March this year.

This is why the Prime Minister had not convened an emergency meeting of Parliament to pay national tribute and honour to the 10 fallen national heroes from the police and army who sacrificed their lives in Lahad Datu and Semporna in the Sabah Sulu crisis in the defence of national sovereignty and security of the people of Sabah!

If Pakatan Rakyat forms the next Federal Government in Putrajaya in the 13GE, one the first tasks of the 13th Parliament will be to pass an unanimous resolution to pay full tribute and to honour the ten fallen national heroes from the police and army in Lahad Datu and Semporna.

I call on Najib to stop being a PM on auto-pilot and to take the courageous and responsible decision to convene an emergency meeting of Parliament on the Sabah Sulu crisis within 24 hours unless he intends to dissolve Parliament immediately.

Let me advise Najib – he has exhausted all the advantages of incumbency where the Prime Minister can choose the most ideal time to dissolve Parliament and to hold the 13GE.

This is because Najib is now left with only six weeks before Parliament must be automatically dissolved, and every day could be a day of disaster for the Umno/BN – with little hope of him able to turn the last six weeks of the 12th Parliament’s constitutional to his advantage.

What could Najib achieve in the remaining six weeks of Parliament which could redound to his credit which he could not achieve for more than four years?

In fact, things are happening quick and fast, undermining the further credibility, authority and legitimacy of Najib’s premiership and the continued rule of Umno/BN after 56 years as the permanent government.

In the past few days, issues which have cropped up deleterious and detrimental to the Najib premiership and the UMNO/BN coalition government include:

  • Najib’s immediate and multiple violation of the Transparency International-Malaysia’s Election Integrity Pledge which he signed last month to conduct clean, ethical and principled election campaign – as witnessed by the escalation of the politics of hatred, lies, falsehoods and violence by UMNO/BN leaders and operatives.
  • The Global Witness videos alleging the involvement of Sarawak Chief Minister Tan Sri Taib Mahmud in corrupt practices in the granting of logging concessions from the state government and also tax evasion, and the indifference, disinterest and inaction by the Prime Minister, the Attorney-General, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission and all relevant government agencies responsible for law enforcements in the country.
  • Fourteen thousand people who signed an online petition urging the Prime Minister to set up a royal commission of inquiry (RCI) to probe the corruption in Sarawak involving Sarawak Chief Minister’s family as exposed by the Global Witness video documentary on a sting operation on some of Taib’s relatives and alleged business associates.

Najib will face more problems every other day with the prolongation of his agony when to dissolve Parliament, but his fear of being the last Umno/BN Prime Minister has immobilised himself from daring to dissolve Parliament to seek a mandate from the 13.3 million voters – despite all the glowing claims and reports by Umno/BN leaders that the Umno/BN is poised on a great victory in the 13GE.

Lim Kit Siang DAP Parliamentary Leader & MP for Ipoh Timur