LimKitSiang.com

Haziq sex video is the greatest challenge to Pakatan Harapan since the 14th General Election and PH leaders must unite to forge ahead and not to be derailed from the New Malaysia agenda

For four days, the country has been agog, haunted and hounded by the Haziq sex video implicating a minister, which demonstrates its potency to destroy the Pakatan Harapan coalition and derail the PH’s New Malaysia agenda.

There is no doubt that the Haziq sex video is the greatest challenge to Pakatan Harapan since the 14th General Election in May last year and PH leaders must unite to forge ahead and not to be derailed from the New Malaysia agenda.

Are Malaysians to save Malaysia on 9th May 2018 in the 14th General Election from the trajectory of a failed, rogue and kleptocratic state only to allow the Haziq sex video to destroy the unique “Save Malaysia” mission a year later?

The new Inspector-General of Police, Hamid Badar has asked for time to determine whether the Haziq sex video is authentic or not as the police had not obtained any leads yet on the authenticity of the sex video clips.

Malaysians must trust the police under a new Inspector-General of Police to carry out its duties independently, fairly and in a trustworthy manner to investigate the Haziq sex videos and the masterminds behind Haziq although they might have doubts about the role of the police under previous IGPs.

This is why I advocate that the important principle must be re-established that no one in Malaysia is above the law, whether the Prime Minister, Cabinet Minister, Attorney-General, Inspector-General of Police or other high officers of the state.

This is why I am pushing for an investigation into the involvement of high public officials, be it the Attorney-General or IGP at the time, who were involved in the unprecedented plot against Malaysian parliamentary democracy in the “Week of Long Knives July/August 2015” to help cover-up the 1MDB mega scandal.

The 14th Parliament is to meet for the fourth time for 12 sittings from 1st to 18th July. Are we going to allow the July Parliament to follow the Opposition dictates to be obsessed with the Haziq sex video or can PH MPs turn it into the most historic Parliamentary session of the Pakatan Harapan government where we begin to deliver the promises of a New Malaysia which had inspired Malaysians to bring about the historic peaceful and democratic change on May 9, 2018?

Instead of the July 2019 meeting of Parliament being known as a Haziq sex video session, I would like to see it be known as the IPCMC Parliament.

For the first time in many decades, we have an Inspector-General of Police who is prepared to commit himself to the goal of making the RMP a top world-class police force, acknowledge openly the problem of police corruption and share his vision to eradicate police corruption, and declare his support of the IPCMC which was first mooted by Police Royal Commission with a former Chief Justice as Chairman and the longest-serving IGP as Deputy Chairman.

Datuk Seri Hamid Bador was himself the victim of political interference with the police force in 2015 which forced him into early retirement as Deputy Head of the Special Branch.

He recounted how a police constable tried to solicit a bribe from him when he turned to farming after his early retirement which provided a unique insight to his commitment to eradicate police corruption in Malaysia.

The new IGP recently said that he was eagerly waiting for the Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC) to finally take shape so that he could focus on his officers’ welfare.

The National Governance, Integrity and Anti-Corruption Centre (GIACC) director-general Tan Sri Abu Kassim Mohamad had briefed the Parliamentary Caucus on Governance and Institutional Reforms that the IPCMC Bill is ready.

Let us then make the July meeting Parliament a IPCMC Parliament by passing the IPCMC Bill next month so that the IPCMC could be set up some 14 years after it was first mooted in 2005.

To show that we are now in a New Malaysia with room for greater consultation with the civil society, such a IPCMC Bill should be made public for feedbacks at least one week before it is debated in Parliament.

Hamid would then have less than 700 days to make the RMP a top world-class police force, recognised and respected worldwide for its anti-crime and anti-corruption record as well as efforts to improve police welfare.

All PH leaders must be conscious of the challenge in the second year of the PH government to be more successful than the first year to deliver the various New Malaysia promises.

The PH government had made a good start in making several important appointments to pave the way for far-reaching institutional, political and democratic reforms for a New Malaysia, viz:

  • Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat as Chief Justice, taking over from Richard Malanjum who had retired on April 2;
  • Mohamad Ariff bin Md Yusof as Speaker of Parliament;
  • Tommy Thomas as Attorney-General;
  • Azhar Azizan Harun or better known as Art Harun as Chairman and Dr. Azmi Sharon as Deputy Chairman of Election Commission;
  • Datuk Nor Shamsiah Mohd Yunus as Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) Governor;
  • Zulkifli Zainal Abdin as Chief of Armed Forces;
  • Ismail Bakar as Chief Secretary;
  • Syed Zaid Albar as Security Commission Chairman;
  • Nik Azman Nik Abdul Majid as Auditor-General;
  • Abdul Kassim Ahmad as Director-General of National Centre for Governance, Integrity and Anti-Corruption;
  • Latheefa Koya as Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Chief Commissioner succeeding Datuk Seri Mohd Shukri Abdull.

What is noteworthy in the list of new appointments is the number of women in the top public posts – whether as Chief Justice, Bank Negara Govenor or MACC chief - which is unprecedented in the nation’s history.

In fact, never had there been so many women in the Cabinet in the nation’s history, viz:

  • Dr. Wan Azizah Wan Ismail – Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Women, Family and Community Development;
  • Zuraidah Kamaruddin – Minister for Housing and Local Government;
  • Rina Mohd Harun – Minister for Rural Development;
  • Teresa Kok – Minister for Primary Industries;
  • Yeo Bee Yin – Minister for Energy, Science, Technology, Environment and Climate Change;
  • Fuziah Salleh – Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department;
  • Teoh Nie Chin – Deputy Minister for Education;
  • Hannah Yeoh Tseow Suan - Deputy Minister for Women, Family and Community Development;
  • Isnaraissah Munirah Majilis – Deputy Minister for Energy, Science, Technology, Environment and Climate Change.

Let us focus of what the PH Ministers and Deputy Ministers can deliver in the second year of PH government in the march towards the New Malaysia vision.

Lim Kit Siang MP for Iskandar Puteri