71-Day Countdown to 13GE – charade of Sabah RCI, Malaysia’s high-risk in defence corruption and worst-ever press freedom ranking proof of failures of Najib’s transformation slogans/policies and why country needs Federal government change in 13GE
Every day, Malaysians are provided new evidence of the failures of the transformation slogans and policies of the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak and why the country needs a change of federal government in the 13th General Elections around the corner.
Today, we need only refer to three current developments.
The first is the charade of the of Sabah Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) into illegal immigrants entering into its second week of public hearings.
What have concerned Sabahans and Malaysians that the RCI would not be able to get to the bottom of the whole truth about the illegal legalization of illegal immigrants in Sabah causing a five-fold increase of the state’s population from 600,000 in 1970 to the current 3.3 million seem to have been justified, and this is best summed up by a Malaysiakini reader who commented:
“Now we have it. There will be 100 odd witnesses in the RCI who will claim and counter-claim until it is all so messed up that no further action will be taken. It is all a sandiwara (act).”
But the real flaw of the RCI is the gross omission in its eight terms of reference to identify those responsible for the treacherous acts against the country in the long-running “citizenship for votes” scandals in Sabah state – or to be specific, to probe and identity the masterminds of Project M and Project IC.
Unless and until the Sabah RCI is given an additional term of reference to specifically probe and identity the masterminds of Project M and Project IC in Sabah, the Sabah RCI can only end up as a charade.
Is the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, prepared to give the Sabah RCI a ninth term of reference to probe and identify the masterminds of Project M and Project IC and to recommend the actions to be taken against such acts of treason against the country?
Secondly, Malaysia’s ranking by a leading international transparency watchdog as having high corruption risk in its defence spending and operations, placing it in the same league with countries such as Bangladesh, Pakistan, China, Russia, Kazakhastan and Jordan.
In the Government Defence Anti-Corruption Index, the world’s first global analysis of corruption risk in defence establishments worldwide released by Transparency International UK yesterday, Malaysia scored D- in the band range of A to F.
This lowly ranking is a repudiation of Najib’s Government Transformation Programme (GTP) and National Key Result Areas (NKRA) programme which have combating corruption as one of the top priority agendas, as the new anti-corruption index is produced after a two-year study with country research done between July 2011 and November 2012 – which fall fully smack into Najib’s GTP and NKRA programmes in the past four years.
Among Asean countries, Singapore and Thailand outperformed Malaysia, both scoring D+, while Indonesia and Philippines fell behind Malaysia in band E.
Each government was assessed in five main areas of possible defence corruption risks - political, financial, personnel, operations and procurement risks.
Malaysia scored the lowest in financial risks and operations risks, with 25 percent and 10 percent out of 100 percent respectively.
The country report on Malaysia said “Political corruption vulnerability is high, as there is no defence and security committee and parliament’s role in the sector is limited to approving a general, aggregated budget”.
Thirdly, Malaysia plunging to a historic low of No. 145 ranking in the latest 2013 World Press Freedom Index – the worst since the start of the annual index by Reporters Without Border (RSF) in 2002.
Under the unflattering heading of “Cambodia and Malaysia: drift towards authoritarianism” for South-East Asia, RSF said Malaysia’s 2013 press freedom ranking “presented a sorry record, falling 23 places to a position below the one it had in 2002”, as a result of “a campaign of repression by the government, illustrated by the crackdown on the Bersih 3.0 protest in April, and repeated censorship efforts, continue to undermine basic freedoms, in particular the right to information”.
QED - why there must be a change of Federal Government in Putrajaya in the 13GE.