All UMNO members must form the first line of defence of national institutions and hold Najib personally responsible for the punitive transfer of the two MACC Directors Bahri and Rohaizad out of MACC if he does not countermand the order to the duo to report to the PMO tomorrow
Which country in the world is there a Prime Minister who had pledged to make anti-corruption one of his chief planks of policies but is himself accused of having an astronomical sum of money, in this case RM2.6 billion or a figure with nine zeroes, deposited into his private banking accounts just before Parliament was dissolved for holding of general elections?
Which country in the world has a Prime Minister who is accused of a major corruption malpractice, involving RM2.6 billion deposited into his personal banking accounts, but who could not for over a month say a simple “Yes” or “No” to confirm whether there was such a RM2.6 billion deposit, and had to strategize long and hard with his communications advisers on how to explain the RM2.6 billion deposit before finally making the admission – five full weeks after the allegation first appeared in the Wall Street Journal on July 3, 2015?
Which country in the world has a multi-agency Special Task Force formed, comprising Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM), the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), the Royal Malaysian Police (RMP) and the Attorney-
General’s Chambers (AGC), to investigate into the country’s biggest financial scandal, the RM42 billion 1MDB scandal and the RM2.6 billion deposited into the PM’s personal banking accounts, but which is not allowed to complete its investigations when three of the four agencies in the Special Task Force was crippled by the powers-that-be – the Attorney-General sacked, the Bank Negara Governor under a “cloud” and the MACC officers arrested and transferred out with immediate effect?
Which country in the world has an anti-corruption agency whose officers had to make a final resort to seek divine intervention through special prayers (solat hajat) to carry out their anti-corruption duties and to protect themselves as they were overpowered by stronger forces which interfered with their anti-corruption duties?
Which country in the world of parliamentary democracy has seen key national institutions coming under a second wave of attacks on their independence, impartiality, integrity and professionalism with the coming of a New Dark Age, affecting the press, Parliament, the Cabinet and Executive, and institutions including the Attorney-General’s Chambers, the police, anti-corruption agency, the central bank – all suspect under a ridiculous theory of an international conspiracy to “criminalise” the Prime Minister and topple the elected government of Malaysia?
Which country has a Prime Minister who can introduce a new version of his “I help you, you help me” credo by virtually telling UMNO leaders and members not to attack him after taking money from him?
Which country in the world is there a Prime Minister who arrogates to himself all the powers and roles of judge, jury and prosecutor, clearing himself of the charge of corruption even before the anti-corruption agency had interviewed and questioned him, let alone the matter being decided by the Attorney-General and courts.
The answer for all these seven questions are one and the same – Malaysia.
They illustrate how far Malaysia had deviated from the path of a moderate and normal democratic country which upholds the rule of law, good governance and sound practices of parliamentary democracy.
I agree with Danny Quah, the Penang-born Professor of Economics and International Development at the London School of Economics and Political Science, who wrote in The Diplomat early this week that Malaysia has “gone rogue” – deviating from the ideals of democracy, rule of law, free speech and egalitarianism.
We must stop Malaysia from sliding down the slippery slope and end up as a failed state with a rogue government, a rogue Parliament and a rogue parliamentary democracy.
As the first step to save Malaysia from ending up as a rogue and failed state, I call on all UMNO members to form the first line of defence of national institutions and hold Najib personally responsible for the punitive transfer of the two MACC Directors Datuk Bahri Mohamad Zin and Datuk Rohaizad Yaakob out of MACC if he does not countermand the order to the duo to report to the PMO tomorrow.
The UMNO divisional meetings all over the country should be in the forefront of this first line of defence of the national institutions from another wave of assault on their independence, impartiality, integrity and professionalism.
Can the high-handed, punitive, arbitrary and completely indefensible “immediate transfer orders” to Bahri and Rohaizad to the Prime Minister’s Office tomorrow be rescinded?
If not, the next step and the second line of defence for national institutions is for conscientious and patriotic Ministers to demand in Cabinet on Wednesday for Bahri and Rohaizad’s transfer orders to be rescinded immediately.
The conscientious and patriotic Ministers should even demand the suspension of those responsible for the transfer orders, including the Chief Secretary to the Government Tan Sri Ali Hamsa.
Can we expect Khairy Jamaluddin, Paul Low and even Shahidan Kassim to play key roles in this second line of defence of the institutions in Cabinet to defend MACC, even at the risk of losing their Ministerial posts?
Najib has said after the Cabinet reshuffle that he does not want “Yes Men” in his Cabinet, but the Bahri and Rohaizad cases will be an acid test whether Najib’s reshuffled Cabinet is nothing but a “Yes Cabinet”!
The third line of defence of the national institutions are the members of the five so-called independent oversight panels of the MACC who should speak up to protect the MACC from pressure or interference in carrying out its statutory duties to combat corruption.
I commend the MACC’s consultation and corruption prevention panel (PPPR) demanding that two officers transferred out of MACC be returned.
PPPR chairperson Johan Jaafar said the abrupt transfers would only raise more suspicion and fuel conspiracy theories.
Are all the members of the five oversight panels of MACC on the same page as Johan and prepared to resign collectively in protest if they cannot save MACC and secure Bahri and Rohaizad’s immediate return to MACC?
Parliament will be the fourth line of defence of national institutions and the Malaysian public especially in the 14th General Election constitute the fifth line of defence to protect MACC and national institutions from another wave of attacks, starting with the immediate return of Bahri and Rohaizad to MACC tomorrow!
Bahri’s wife, Datin Noor Haslina Abdullah has joind her daughter, Elia Bahri in her FaceBook in protesting her husband’s innocence.
She posted in her Facebook page that she still could not believe what had happened to her husband, and she would continue holding special prayers for him and hoped that others would also do the same for Bahri and his team as they had been “persecuted”.
Can UMNO divisions, branches and the three million UMNO members save Bahri and Rohaizad in the first line of defence of national institutions in Malaysia?
Malaysians will know by tomorrow.