Najib’s 2015 Budget overshadowed by outrageous parliamentary replies and blatant government double standards in past three days

The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak would not have expected that his 2015 Budget to be presented in Parliament at 4 pm today would have been overshadowed by outrageous parliamentary replies of his Ministers and blatant government double standards in the past three days.

The reply by the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Nancy Shukri to the Penang Chief Minister and DAP MP for Bagan, Lim Guan Eng, on the first day of the current 28-day Budget Parliament on Tuesday must take the cake for being the most outrageous parliamentary statement in the five-year Najib premiership making even the most affable bristle at the cynical contempt for what is right and wrong.

Nancy said in her reply that no action would be taken on Perkasa chief Ibrahim Ali over his threat to burn the Malay-language bible as he was “only defending the sanctity of Islam”.

Nancy did not do herself any favours when she said yesterday that the Attorney-General’s Chambers decided not to prosecute Ibrahim under the Sedition Act because his threat to burn copies of the Bible with the term “Allah” was in line with the federal constitution.

It is time the Attorney-General, Tan Sri Gani Patail surfaces and explain where in the Federal Constitution does it give protection and immunity to Ibrahim to utter threat to burn copies of the Bible with the term Allah.

At the same time, Gani should also explain:

• Whether he agrees with the Sepang police chief Mohd Yusoff Awang that Petaling Jaya Utara Umno deputy division chief Mohamad Azli Mohamed Saad would not be probed for sedition for his call to abolish vernacular schools;
• Why the AG’s Chambers decided on “No Further Action” in the case of the Federal Territories UMNO Youth threat to torch the DAP headquarters under Section 506 of the Penal Code for criminal intimidation and under Section 427 for causing mischief and whether he could reply to a query by a Malaysiakini reader: “AG, what if they threaten to torch Umno HQ?”
• Why there have been no outcome to previous and current sedition police reports made against Prime Minister Najib for his “crushed bodies, lives lost” speech at the UMNO General Assembly in 2010 and former Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir for his seditious warning in the 13th General Election that I was contesting in Gelang Patah constituency to create a “racial confrontation” between the Malays and Chinese in Johore – despite the “probe within 24 hours” oath made publicly by the Home Minister, Datuk Seri Zahid Hamidi on any sedition report made on Sept. 22 last month?
• Why he had sanctioned the sedition blitzkrieg with 12 charged under the Sedition Act up to September this year, eight in 2013, and one each in 2009 and 2012; whether he had been given the “green light” for the sedition blitz by the Prime Minister who had promised in 2012 to repeal the Sedition Act as well as running contrary to Najib’s pledge to make Malaysia the world’s “best democracy” - attracting international censures including from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)?

In his 2015 Budget speech this evening, will Najib take note that his “moderation” pledge reiterated for the third time at the United Nations General Assembly last month had gone awry, and what he proposes to do to rescue his wasatiyyah (moderation) campaign of justice, balance and excellence from abysmal failure?

Would Najib be able to save his two most important initiatives on wasatiyyah, namely his 1Malaysia campaign and the Global Movement of Moderates (GMM), which are facing pathetic ends. The GMM has even come under the cross-hair not only of extremists but also the Attorney-General’s Chambers to the extent that it had to ask the media not to report the proceedings of the GMM forum on the “Future of Malaysia” with NGOs, because the GMM cannot ensure the freedom and liberty of the participants and protect them from the sedition “white terror” which had deluged Malaysia for over a month.

Yesterday, former Bar Council chairperson Ambiga Sreenivasan said that if she is investigated under the Sedition Act it might turn out to be a good thing because the truth would emerge.

She said if she is charged, she know she will be in good company.

Ambiga is right about the latter but I am not so sure about her former sentiment.

It would appear that one test today of whether one is a patriot is whether one is persecuted under the obnoxious Sedition Act, which is not being used against sedition but legitimate and patriotic criticism and dissent.

This is a sad sign of the times and reflection of the grave deterioration and degeneration of what Najib had promised to make Malaysia the “best democracy in the world”!