Call on voters of Sarawak to solidly vote for DAP to deliver two powerful “Yes” and one even more powerful “No” on May 7

I call on the voters of Sarawak to solidly vote for the 31 DAP candidates to deliver two powerful “Yes” and one even more powerful “No” in the 11th Sarawak state general election on Saturday on May 7.

The May 7 Polling Day will decide the success or failure of the two-pronged DAP objective in the 11th Sarawak state general election to defend the 12 State Assembly seats won five years ago and to achieve a breakthrough in Dayak-dominated constituencies and to send a clear, categorical and unmistakable message that a new political era has arrived in Sarawak where rural areas like Samalaju, Kemena, Murum, Mulu, Tasik Biru, Mambong, Bukit Semuja, Kedup, Simanggang, Pakan, Bukit Goram, Pelagus, Ngemah have joined their brothers and sisters in the urban areas in Kuching, Sibu, Sarikei, Bintangor, Bintulu and Miri to demand for political change and meaningful development.

The message of the two powerful “Yes” and the even more powerful “No” which the voters of Sarawak must send out to the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, the caretaker Sarawak Chief Minister, Tan Sri Adenan Satem, Malaysia and the world are:

The first loud and clear “Yes” is to Adenan as the next Chief Minister of Sarawak for the next five years. Adenan himself said many a time that he is 72 years old and wanted only another five years as Sarawak Chief Minister as he wants to retire and play with his grand children. The first “Yes” includes a “Yes” to Sarawak Barisan Nasional forming the Sarawak state government for the next five years as the issue of who is going to be the Sarawak Chief Minister for the next five years was as good as decided and resolved on Nomination Day on April 25, 2016.

The second loud and powerful “Yes” is to have a strong, effective and principled Opposition in the Sarawak State Assembly to ensure that Adenan deliver his promises to give top priority to the rights and interests of Sarawakians, and even more important, to check him from any abuses and excesses of power, bearing in mind Lord Acton’s maxim: “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power tends to corrupt absolutely”!

The ideal result on May 7 is to deny Adenan two-thirds State Assembly majority, which will require a collective Opposition strength of 28 out of the total of 82 State Assembly seats.

This appears very difficult to achieve, and I will personally be delighted if DAP can win over 20 State Assembly seats on May 7 – which will also start the Sarawak DAP on the new journey to aim to form the Sarawak State Government with like-minded Sarawakians in the next 12th Sarawak State Government in 2021.

Adenan said he would not be around for the next 12th Sarawak state general election as he would have retired. It should be a time for the resetting of Sarawak politics as it will decide who will be the next Sarawak Chief Minister. Why should he be from the Sarawak Barisan Nasional only.

Then there is the third and even more significant verdict by the voters of Sarawak, to be heard loud and clear not only in Sarawak and Malaysia, but throughout the world – a powerful and ear-splitting “NO” to Najib to hijack the 11th Sarawak State General Election as an endorsement of his premiership and in particular approval for his role and responsibility in the RM55 billion 1MDB global financial scandal.

This is why Najib has done what no other Malaysian Prime Ministers had done before – virtually hijacking the Sarawak general election into a mini-referendum for his premiership and mishanding of the RM55 billion 1MDB scandal, even more concerned about the outcome of the May 7 Polls than Adenan to the extent that Najib was in Sarawak on Nomination Day, visited Sarawak more than 60 times by now, directed his Deputy Prime Minister and Ministers to campaign in the Sarawak state general elections and even shifting the Cabinet meeting from Putrajaya to Kuching yesterday!

We are not seeing Adenan’s Team or Adenan’s Way but Najib’s Team and Najib’s Way.

Najib wants the Sarawak voters on May 7 to say “Yes” to his premiership and the RM55 billion 1MDB scandal – but the voters of Sarawak must do the opposite, deliver a powerful and ear-splitting “NO” which will not only resonate throughout Malaysia but the whole wide world that Sarawakians want Najib to step down as Prime Minister unless he could give a full and satisfactory accounting of the 1MDB scandal by before Polling Day on May 7.

Yesterday, coinciding with the shifting of the Cabinet meeting from Putrajaya to Kuching, the Ministry of Finance announced that it is fully implementing the various recommendations contained in the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) report on 1MDB, like the abolition of the 1MDB Board of Advisers with the Prime Minister as the chairman, the removal of Article 117 and to change all references from the Prime Minister to the Minister of Finance in the 1MDB memorandum and articles of association, the transfer of ownership of Bandar Malaysia Sdn Bhd, TRX City Sdn. Bhd, Air Itam lands and Pulau Indah land to the MOF Inc, etc.

These MOF measires are too little and too late, totally inadequate to the enormity of the heinous crimes committed in Malaysia’s first global financial scandal which has now placed Malaysia among the top most corrupt nations in the world.

What the MOF is doing is the classic case of “locking the stable door after the horse has been stolen”!

Are there no gross corruption, rampant criminal breach of trust and misappropriation of funds or is the 1MDB scandal to go down in Malaysian and world history as among the leading corruption scandals which fall under the category of “heinous crime without criminals”?

What is the use of change of reference to Prime Minister to the Finance Minister whether in 1MDB Memorandum and Articles of Association or elsewhere when these two posts are held by the same person, i.e. Najib or will Najib announce before Sarawak polling day on May 7 that he will relinquish the post of Finance Minister?

Further, the MOF is guilty of conflict of interest in deciding what to do with the PAC report on 1MDB, as the Finance Minister is none other than the Prime Minister, who is the person behind all major decisions of 1MDB under Article 117 of the 1MDB M&A.

The Ministry of Finance is in the dock, but it is now acting as judge and jury!

The PAC report on 1MDB is studded with fundamental flaws.

For instance, the PAC Report on 1MDB did not append the Auditor-General’s Interim Report on 1MDB submitted to the PAC in June last year; nor did it attach the Auditor-General’s 300-page final audit report on the 1MDB submitted to the PAC in March.

Furthermore, it has now been disclosed that the PAC Chairman, Datuk Hasan Arifin had committed a serious breach of parliamentary privilege when he unilaterally and arbitrarily edited the PAC report to hide reference of the key role of one of the masterminds of 1MDB scandal – the Penang billionaire Jho Low.

Clearly, the PAC report on 1MDB scandal is only the tip of the iceberg, as anyone who have read the 106-page PAC report will find that it is a “Whodunnit” mystery with the mastermind behind Malaysia’s first global financial scandal fingered, but still to be openly identified.

Malaysians do not have an opportunity to express their dismay and disgust about the 1MDB scandal. Sarawak voters must therefore speak on behalf of Malaysians to deliver a powerful “NO” on May 7 to declare their rejection of Najib’s handling of the 1MDB scandal so far and to demand that Najib step down as Prime Minister if he cannot provide a full and satisfactory accounting of Malaysia’s first global financial scandal before Polling Day on May 7.