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Media Statement
by Lim Kit Siang in Parliament on Monday, 20th October 2008:
Will Abdullah again be humiliated at Umno
Supreme Council meeting tonight shortening his premiership or will he be
able to redeem dignity of his office by getting full endorsement for
meaningful reforms on judiciary, police force and anti-corruption
Will the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah
Ahmad Badawi again be humiliated at the Umno Supreme Council meeting
tonight or will he able to redeem dignity of his office after repeated
battering in the past few months?
Abdullah will again be humiliated if the Umno Supreme Council ends
tonight with a final modification of his original mid-2010 power
transition plan, shortening it from June 2010 to March 2009 and then to
December this year!
The mounting call led by Umno Vice President and Minister for
International Trade and Industry, Tan Sri Muhyideen Yassin, and the Umno
eminence grise Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad that the Umno party elections
revert back from March next year to December is a subtle subterfuge to
shorten Abdullah's remaining five months as Prime Minister by another
three months.
Will Abdullah be able to fob off the latest attempt in Umno to shorten
his premiership and even to redeem the dignity of his office by getting
full endorsement by the entire Umno leadership for meaningful reforms on
the judiciary, police force and anti-corruption before he steps down as
Prime Minister?
In his latest interview televised on CNBC last night, when asked about
his agenda for reforms and what he could possibly do over the next five
months, Abdullah said: "I wanted to reform; people liked the idea of
reform. I was not just responding to them because they needed reform."
The New Straits Times report on Abdullah's CNBC interview continued:
The prime minister said that he too certainly thought that the country's
judiciary, police force and Anti-Corruption Agency needed reforms.
"I was not able to do it for the first four years (while in power).
"I was able to do it only after we had already been returned to power
after the last election.
"So I want this reform in place and I can do it. Even in five months."
If Abdullah is required to shorten his premiership further by retiring
in December, that will be the end of his final fling with reforms.
Even if he is allowed five months before going into the political
sunset, very few believe that Abdullah is capable of implementing in a
meaningful manner the three reform measures which he had failed to
accomplish in the past five years.
Can Abdullah secure full endorsement from the Umno Supreme Council
tonight and the Cabinet on Wednesday for meaningful reforms for the
judiciary, the police force and anti-corruption in the next five months
� as no one, whether in the Umno top leadership and in the Cabinet,
seemed really committed or even interested in ensuring meaningful
reforms in these three areas, in particular the establishment of the
long-delayed and much-maligned Independent Police Complaints and
Misconduct Commission (IPCMC) to create an efficient, incorruptible,
professional world-class police service.
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Lim
Kit Siang, DAP
Parliamentary leader & MP for Ipoh Timor
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