Defend the independence of national institutions like Parliament, Judiciary, Police, MACC, the offices of Attorney-General and Auditor-General as a first step to uphold the principles of Rukunegara in the war against the “Malu Apa” viral pandemic in Malaysia

One question which had been haunting me for some time is whether the Malaysian Constitution adopted as the basis for the building of a Malayan and later Malaysian nation in 1957 would have been accepted and adopted if it had been presented to the highest legislature of the land today.

There are legitimate doubts that the 1957 Constitution would have been passed by the highest legislature of the land today especially as the Constitution is viewed with considerable disfavour by those who believe that while corruption is deplorable, one should support a Muslim who is corrupt and not a non-Muslim who is clean, honest and upright; or those committed to the toxic politics of race and religion to disunite and polarise Malaysia and condemn the nation to the fate of a kleptocratic, kakistocratic and a failed state.

The stand that a corrupt Muslim leader should be supported in favour of a clean, honest and upright non-Muslim is not only against all reason and sense of fair play, it is against the Constitution and the Rukun Negara principles formulated and derived from the Constitution – a country where the people believe in God, loyal to King and country, committed to the supremacy of the constitution and the rule of law and are inspired by good moral precepts.

For the past seven months, the country like the rest of the world, had been stricken by the Covid 19 pandemic. But there is another pandemic which had afflicted Malaysia for the past two years – the “Apa Malu” campaign and mentality which have no concept of right and wrong, or are completely alien to principles of justice, freedom and integrity, which could only lead Malaysia to a kleptocratic, kakistocratic and a failed Malaysia.

We must restore people’s hope and heart for a fairer, freer and better Malaysia, as promised by the Constitution and the Rukunegara principles.

As a first step, let us defend the independence of national institutions like Parliament, Judiciary, Police, MACC, the offices of Attorney-General and Auditor-General to uphold the principles of the Constitution and Rukunegara in the war against the “Malu Apa” viral pandemic.

The MACC has started calling up Pakatan Harapan leaders to question them with regard to Finance Minister’s so-called revelation that a total of 101 projects with a procurement value of RM6.61 billion had been awarded through direct negotiations during the 22-month Pakatan Harapan government, giving the impression that corruption was involved.

Former Finance Minister and DAP Secretary-General, Lim Guan Eng had pointed out that the Pakatan Harapan government was only responsible for 5.3 percent of the directly awarded contracts worth RM6.6 billion revealed by Tengku Zafrul, as most of the RM6.61 billion went to legacy projects (67.7 percent) and contracts for supplies or services (26.5 percent) taken on during the Barisan Nasional administration.

The KVDT2 project is a case in point.

If Tengku Zafrul and Wee are sincere, honest and upright, they should have praised the Pakatan Harapan government for saving the country RM790 million in Phase 2 of Klang Valley double-tracking project by paring the RM5.265 billion contract signed by the Barisan Nasional government a day before Parliament was dissolved in March 2018 to RM4.475 billion.

Now Wee says that even this figure is overpriced – that it should be cut down further by RM1.867 billion to RM RM3.398 billion.

Wee was a Minister in the Prime Ministers Department in the Najib cabinet when the RM5.265 billion KVDT2 project was approved? Did he object?

If Pakatan Harapan Ministers are to be called up by the MACC based on the Finance Minister’s lies and half-truths in Parliament, will the MACC also call up not only the former Transport Minister, Liow Tiong Lai but also Wee himself for the RM5.265 billion KVDT2 contract, in particular why the contract was signed a day before Parliament was dissolved in March 2018?

Lim Kit Siang MP for Iskandar Puteri