What Malaysians want is for Najib to break his silence on the RM2.6 billion “donation” scandal which has hogged both national and international news
The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak has finally broken his silence over the Bersih 4 rally, criticizing organisers for timing the demonstration in a way that it would clash with the Merdeka celebration.Najib could have made the Bersih 4 rally an outstanding part of the Merdeka celebrations, especially if he is ready to make an appearance at the Bersih 4 rally and have a dialogue with the Bersih 4 organisers and principal supporters on the state of democracy, economy and nation-building 58 years after Merdeka in 1957.
But what all Malaysians want from the Prime Minister is for him to break his silence on the RM2.6 billion donation scandal in his personal bank accounts, which had hogged both national and international news.
In the past two months, Malaysia have repeatedly made international headlines – but for all the wrong reasons which are either most unedifying to the nation or prejudicial to the good name and standing of Malaysia in international circles.
Najib must have set another world record when he became the first head of government to pull out of an international conference which had the country had lobbied hard and long to host and which had earlier featured the Prime Minister as the main draw of the conference.
This is the 16th International Anti-Corruption Convention in Putrajaya from Sept 2 – 4, 2015.
It is a sad but eloquent commentary on the state of corruption and good governance in Malaysia that the Prime Minister had to pull out of the IACC so as to avoid Malaysia becoming an international laughing stock and the Prime Minister spared the supreme embarrassment of declaring the IACC open and delivering a keynote address when the past two months had been Najib’s darkest days in his six-year premiership with regard to the issues of integrity, transparency and anti-corruption?
In fact, the headline of a Sydney Morning Herald report today blared “Malaysia’s Prime Minister Najib Razak dodging anti-corruption spotlight” read:
“Embattled Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak has cancelled a speech at the world’s top anti-corruption conference as he refuses to explain $US700 million ($982 million) in his personal bank account.
“Mr Najib was listed as a speaker to the up to 2000 delegates from more than 100 countries attending the International Anti-Corruption Conference in Kuala Lumpur next week.
“But the Prime Minister’s photograph and biography have been removed from the website of the conference which the Malaysian government is hosting.”
What a terrrible shame and disgrace to the nation, on the occasion of the 48th Merdeka anniversary.
The theme of the 16th IACC is “Ending Impunity: People, Integrity, Action”; and Malaysia through Najib today provides the worst example on the globe on this theme!
In any event, the right place for Najib to come clean on the two scandals which are now fully identified with and personalized by him – the RM50 billion 1MDB scandal (according to Muhyiddin Yassin in his final speech as Deputy Prime Minister to Cheras UMNO Division on 26th July 2015) and the RM2.6 billion “donation” scandal – is either through his dialogue at the Bersih 4 rally or his 58th Merdeka Day message over television.
It has not escaped notice that up to now, Najib has failed to respond to the query raised by his former Cabinet colleague who was Minister for International Trade and Industry for over two decades, Tan Sri Rafidah Aziz who questioned whether Najib's acceptance of RM2.6 billion, said to be from a Middle Eastern donor, has opened Umno to being manipulated by foreigners.
She said: "Umno is the backbone of the BN government. Influencing Umno would mean influencing the government."
Rafidah said that the RM2.6 billion incident had taken money politics plaguing Umno to new heights, and that other Umno leaders were also in some way responsible for the fiasco.
The RM2.6 billion “donation” has raised very serious questions about our national sovereignty and the independence of the Najib government.
None of the previous Prime Ministers, whether Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Razak, Tun Hussein, Tun Mahathir or Tun Abdullah had received a single sen of foreign money to influence the outcome of our general elections from 1959 to 2008.
Najib should fully explain why he has received RM2.6 billion funding from an allegedly Arab source to influence the outcome of the 13th General Elections in 2013, which seriously compromised the independence of the Malaysian government and the sovereignty of Malaysia.
In the Proclamation of Independence on August 31, 1957 read out by the first premier Tunku Abdul Rahman, this nation was dedicated to be “for ever a sovereign democratic and independent State”, which allows no room for a RM2.6 billion donation from a foreign country to influence the outcome of our general elections, as it compromises our national independence and sovereignty.
There is no better occasion to address this issue than in the Prime Minister’s Merdeka Day Message.