As amendment bill to the 1993 Kelantan Syariah Criminal Code has not yet been presented to Pakatan Rakyat Leadership Council for study, suggest deferment of any presentation to Kelantan State Assembly this month
Overnight, the political position of Datuk Seri Najib Razak seemed to have undergone a sea-change for the worse, particularly with the London Sunday Times report on Sunday, March 1, 2015 that its joint in-depth investigations into the RM42 billion 1MDB scandal with Sarawak Report website had been completed and they had obtained access to thousands of documents and emails relating to 1MDB, including its initial joint venture with the little known oil company PetroSaudi International from 2009.
As the news portal Asian Sentinel as aptly headlined its report, “Emails Blow Malaysia’s 1MDB Fund Wide Open”, the joint investigations by Sunday Times London and Sarawak Report had foiled abrupt attempts by 1MDB at the end last year to call in all of its computers, employee laptops and servers to wipe them clean of all emails.
This evening, in an email interview with Malaysiakini, Sarawak Report editor and founder Clare Rewcastle Brown confirmed that she is in possession of “thousands documents” on the dealings of 1MDB and businessman Taek Jho Low’s role in the 1MDB which were neither “forged nor hacked” material.
Although these are body blows to Najib politically, he remains a paradox of being a very weak Prime Minister whose major policy initiatives had all been dismal failures but a strong UMNO President largely because no strong UMNO contender has emerged to threaten his position – unlike his predecessor Tun Abdullah Badawi who was both a weak Prime Minister as well as a weak UMNO President, setting the stage for his easy replacement.
However, the political dynamics and disequilibrium both inside UMNO and outside will increase in intensity, focusing immediate attention not only on the forthcoming national UMNO Divisional Meeting on March 8 but also on the Kelantan State Assembly scheduled to meet on March 18.
The greater the political pressures on Najib arising from a host of political, economic, financial and family scandals, the more Machiavellian UMNO leaders and strategists will be to distract public attention from their political woes, which means the doubling up of plots and conspiracies to try to destabilize, divide and destroy PAS and Pakatan Rakyat as promoting “UG” (Unity Government between UMNO and PAS) and the false lure of Kelantan UMNO State Assemblymen offering support to Kelantan PAS for hudud implementation in the Kelantan State Assembly this month.
Pakatan Rakyat should not fall prey to the wiles and trickeries of UMNO leaders and strategists at this period when Najib is actually fighting for his political life (however strong and secure politically he may appear) or succumb to UMNO plots and conspiracies especially with regard to UG overtures and the false lure of offer to help Kelantan PAS to implement hudud in Kelantan.
I have received the Order Paper for the month-long Parliamentary meeting from 9th March to 9th April and there is no private member’s bill on hudud implementation.
Although it has been reported that the Kelantan State Assembly is to be held on 18th March, the amendment bill to the 1993 Kelantan Syariah Criminal Code has not yet been presented to the Pakatan Rakyat Leadership Council for study, as was decided by all the Pakatan Rakyat leaders from DAP, PKR and PAS at the meeting of Feb. 8.
As there may not be enough time for a study of the amendment bill to the 1993 Kelantan Syariah Criminal Code, I suggest a deferment of any presentation of such an amendment to the Kelantan State Assembly this month, not only to ensure adequate time to study the proposed amendment bill, but even more important, not to provide Najib and UMNO with a political life-life and the opportunity to further their “UG” and “hudud” political games solely to save themselves and to destabilize, divide and destroy Pakatan Rakyat unity and challenge to replace UMNO/BN in Putrajaya the 14th General Elections.