Media Statement by MP for Iskandar Puteri, Lim Kit Siang in Parliament on 3 December 2020:

Call on Muhyiddin Cabinet to extend Parliament  meeting by another day to allow 2019 Suhakam annual report to be debated to prove that it is not a kakistocracy afraid of human rights issues

I call on the Muhyiddin Cabinet to extend Parliament meeting by another day to allow the 2019 Suhakam annual report to be debated to prove that it is not a kakistocracy afraid of human rights issue, as well as to debate  various motions to refer Members of Parliament to the Privileges Committee for their breaches of parliamentary privileges in the current meeting.

It would be most unfortunate if the country is wedged between a kleptocracy until May 9, 2018 general election and the kakistocracy  resulting from  the “Sheraton Move” plot in February 2020 which toppled the Pakatan Harapan Government which had tried to shake Malaysia off from the trajectory of a failed state, kleptocracy and kakistocracy.

However hard, uphill and even daunting the road, the only way for Malaysia is to reclaim the nation’s honour, rebuild and fulfil its potentials in keeping with what  Bapa Malaysia Tunku Abdul Rahman proclaimed on 31st August 1957, to be “a multi-racial and multi-religious population who co-existed and live in peace and prosperity”.

As the Tunku said in  the Proclamation of Independence sixty-three years ago, Malaysia  ‘shall be forever a sovereign democratic and independent State founded upon the principles of liberty and justice and ever seeking the welfare and happiness of its people and the maintenance of a just peace among all nations.’

Malaysia would have reneged on these founding nation-building principles which are also promulgated in the Constitution and the Rukun Negara when the Malaysian Parliament dared not even debate the Suhakam annual reports and  to continue the practice started by the Pakatan Harapan Government in Parliament last December.

Can the Prime Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin explain why he agreed to a parliamentary debate on the Suhakam annual report but disagreed when he is Prime Minister?

Was he a wolf in a sheep’s clothing?

The Perikatan Nasional Government has dishonoured the pledge of Bapa Malaysia that the country should be a “beacon of light in a difficult world” by becoming a kakistocracy after having become a kleptocracy.

There are many human rights issues to be debated in the 2019 Suhakam annual report, whether it be Teoh Beng Hock’s murder at the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACCO) premises and why the murderers in MACC had escaped justice in the last 11 years; the enforced disappearances of Pastor Raymond Koh and social activist Amri Che Mat after more than a decade, and what happened to the special task force set up by Muhyhiddin in June 2019 when he was the Home Minister; deaths in police custody; prison reforms;  the impact of Covid-19 epidemic on Malaysians, prisoners,  migrant workers and  refugees; disinformation, misinformation  and what the  Suhakam Chairman Tan Sri Othman Hashim has described as “race-baiting by senior politicians” in his message in the latest 2019 Suhakam annual report; digital divide and most important of all, corruption and public integrity in Malaysia.

I have said that 2020 had been a shameful year for the Malaysian Parliament.  

But there was one glimmer of light – which was highlighted by the statement of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) Chairman, Wong Kah Woh yesterday that the PAC would invite Transparency International to give a briefing on its Global Corruption Barometer (GCB) Asia 2020 Report which stated that 71 per cent of Malaysians feel that corruption in the government is a serious problem.

Malaysians should applaud the PAC to striking out into a new territory, which would not have happened if Pakatan Harapan Government had not carried an important parliamentary reform to provide that the PAC Chairman must come from the Opposition.

But the PAC should conduct a public hearing and the Standing Orders Committee should act immediately to enable the PAC to do this.

I had proposed that Parliament should set up a Select Committee on Corruption and Integrity.  This has been supported by G25, the group comprising top civil servants.

Why is the government dragging its feet on the establishment of the Select Committee on Corruption and Integrity before Parliament adjourns?

It is still not too late for Parliament to debate the Suhakam annual report and set up the Select Committee on Corruption and Integrity, if the Perikatan Nasional government is not afraid of issues on human rights, corruption and public integrity.

Will the Perikatan Nasional government bestir itself?

Lim Kit Siang,
MP for Iskandar Puteri.