Tunku Abdul Aziz

Sibu, that remarkable town on the mighty Rejang that the Foochows built all those long years ago with sweat, blood and tears, notched another milestone: the Chinese community decided that May 16 was to be the day when they would show the rest of Malaysia, and indeed the world, that Najib’s largesse however packaged had all the smell of moral decay, or not to put too fine a point on it, undisguised vote buying. This illegal and immoral practice is apparently endorsed and encouraged by both the Election Commission and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission. Sibuans on the other hand would have none of it.

What was so distressing was that the EC and MACC were ever so quick to affix their “No Action” tab on what clearly was corruption committed by Najib who offered financial inducements to the voters of Sibu to return the Barisan Nasional candidate. Similarly they took no action against Najib for his shenanigans in the Hulu Selangor by-election. Most surprising of all, there was not even a whimper from the self-proclaimed anti-corruption fighter, Transparency International Malaysia. Have they decided to flow with the tide of political corruption as well? Najib’s practice of bribing voters into supporting his election agenda shows a complete and utter disdain for public opinion and the law.

What is the point of spending hundreds of millions on beefing the MACC up, already bloating and bursting at the seams with gross inefficiency, when the prime minister bribes the voters of Sibu, with complete arrogance and impunity? To our complete surprise, the good citizens of Sibu, unlike some of their fellow citizens elsewhere, turned up their collective nose and gave Najib the elbow, more or less telling him to “take a running jump into the Rejang.”

I had misjudged the mood and the strength of character of the people of Sibu, thinking that the dangling by Najib of the millions of ringgit from his slush funds would be enough to overcome any moral scruples they might have had. I spent six days in Sibu shaking hundreds of Chinese, Malay and Iban hands. And never for a moment did it dawn on me that the Foochows of Sibu would stand up to Najib, who in the end was reduced to a figure of fun and ridicule, being described as Santa Claus dispensing ill-will instead of good cheer. Money may buy some of the people some of the time, but in Sibu principles won the day. They had had a surfeit of corruption, in all its manifestations, in their dealings with the Taib administration, and they did not need anymore of it.

It took a lot of courage and determination to withstand the onslaught of raw power of a prime minister, particularly one of indeterminate ethical provenance. As if that was not intimidating enough, they had a chief minister, so I was told who rules with an iron fist in a silken glove to contend with and whose voracious appetite for self-enrichment has long been whispered about by people too frightened to speak up against grand corruption at the top. His unbridled excesses would make Robert Mugabe look like Mother Teresa. And where is the much touted independent corruption commission?

To all those who voted for change for a better Sibu, a Sarawak free from the shackles of wonton, unremitting greed of one man and his family, and a Malaysia fit for all, regardless of who we are, I have this to say. You have, by your robust, ethical response to Najib’s unprincipled behaviour, earned for yourselves an honourable place in the pages our country’s history. Sibu has restored my faith in my fellow citizens who possess in large measure attributes that once inspired my old English headmaster at the Sultan Abdul Hamid College in Alor Setar to coin the phrase “the excellency of man.”

What Sibu has done will resonate in the weeks, months and years to come in the rest of this country. Najib’s approach to the Sibu campaign was unbelievably crude as well as insulting to the dignity of the Sibuans, particularly the proud Foochows. For him to apply the principle of one size fits all when he merrily parachuted into Sibu on what he thought was a his fail-safe “vote for money’ mission was totally ill-advised and insensitive. Najib is a believer in the exercise of power through the money bag.

The voters of Sibu knew Najib’s weaknesses more than he was prepared to concede, and while they were happy enough with the goodies he threw at them, they were suspicious of the proverbial “Greek bearing gifts.” In the event, the citizens of Sibu shut the city gate in his face, having taken the money and voting for the opposition. Good try, Najib. Winning the hearts and minds with your heart and not your pocket is a better option; it is more honourable and less likely to get you into trouble with the MACC, if and when it finally decides to open its eyes.

JAWAPAN LISAN DEWAN NEGARA TUNKU ABDUL AZIZ BIN IBRAHIM PADA 4 MEI 2010

SOALAN:

Tunku Abdul Aziz bin Tunku Ibrahim minta PERDANA MENTERI menyatakan hasil siasatan SPRM terhadap laporan polis, Sharmila Turaisingam 12 Januari 2008 dan pengakuan bersumpahnya yang mana bercaggah dengan peerangan SPR melalui jawapan lisan Dewan Rakyat 16 Oktober 2008.

JAWAPAN:

YB DATUK LIEW VUI KEONG
TIMBALAN MENTERI DI JABATAN PERDANA MENTERI

Tuan Yang Dipertua,

Untuk makluman Ahli Yang Berhomat, kes Sharmila Turaisingam ini sukar untuk diadakan siasatan kerana laporan yang dibuat hanyalah pada tahun 2008 sedangkan pendaftaran pemilih beliau berlaku pada tahun 1999. Mengikut peruntukan Peraturan 15 (2) Peraturan-peraturan Pilihan Raya (Pendaftaran Pemilih) 1971 yang berkuatkuasa ketika itu, Puan Sharmila Turaisingam sepatutnya membuat bantahan semasa rang daftar pemilih dipamerkan jika tidak berpuas hati dengan namanya didaftarkan sebagai pemilih.

Memandangkan tidak ada sebarang bantaha oleh mana-mana pihak ketika itu, maka selepas lima tahun dari tarikh permohonan dibuat semua dokumen permohonan daftar pemilih telah dimusnahkan oleh SPR. Oleh kerana ketiadaan dokumen permohonan daftar pemilih yang dibuat maka adalah sukar siasatan dilakukan bagi mengesan pihak yang bertanggungjawab membuat permohonan berkenaan.

Kes ini nampaknya, tidak menunjukkan dengan jelas adanya unsur-unsur jenayah atau rasuah yang memerlukan siasatan lanjut dilakukan kerana tidak ada sebarang laporan yang dibuat mendakwa ada pihak-pihak tertentu telah menggunakan nama beliau untuk mengundi ketika pilihan raya malah beliau tidak mengalami sebarang kerugian akibat namanya didaftarkan sebagai pemilih.

Berdasarkan kepada peruntukan undang-undang pilihan raya, kes ini dianggap selesai kerana penama tersebut telah membuat permohonan pertukaran alamat pemilih dari Kelantan ke alamat sebenar beliau tinggal sekarang di Selangor pada 12 Januari 2008.

Sekian, terima kasih.

JAWAPAN LISAN DEWAN RAKYAT PADA 29 APRIL 2010

SOALAN:
Tunku Abdul Aziz Ibrahim minta PERDANA MENTERI menyatakan keperluan bagi meminda Peraturan Pilihan Raya (Pendaftaran Pemilih) 2002 dan Peraturan-peraturan Pilihan Raya (Pengundian Pos) 2003 bagi membolehkan anggota tentera dan polis membuang undi seperti pengundi biasa.

JAWAPAN:

YB DATUK LIEW VUI KEONG
TIMBALAN MENTERI DI JABATAN PERDANA MENTERI

Tuan Yang Di Pertua,

Untuk makluman Ahli Yang Berhormat, sistem pengundian pos yang diperuntukkan oleh Peraturan-peraturan Pilihan Raya (Pengundian Pos) 2003 yang telah digubal berdasarkan Perkara 119 (1) (b) Perlembagaan Persekutuan adalah bertujuan untuk membolehkan anggota-anggota pasukan keselamatan seperti Angkatan Tentera Malaysia (ATM), selain Polis Di-Raja Malaysia (PDRM) khususnya Pasukan Gerakan Am (PGA), yang senantiasa bersiap-siaga untuk bertugas menjaga serta mengawal ketenteraman awam dan keamanan negara daripada ancaman musuh, termasuk pasangan-pasangan mereka, menunaikan hak dan tanggungjawab mereka sebagai warganegara bagi memilih wakil rakyat yang mereka sukai, tanpa perlu meninggalkan balai atau kem atau tempat mereka bertugas untuk berada di pusat-pusat mengundi di merata-rata tempat untuk menunaikan tanggungjawan masing-masing mengundi pada hari mengundi.

Andainya sistem pengundian ini dihapuskan, ia boleh menjejaskan keselamatan dan ketenteraman awam kerana mereka terpaksa meninggalkan balai atau kem atau tempat mereka bertugas untuk membuang undi di tempat-tempat mengundi di seluruh negara. Keadaan ini boleh menyebabkan mereka tidak boleh menjalankan tanggungjawab menjaga keselamatan dan keamanan negara serta memelihara ketenteraman awam pada hari berkenaan.

Berasaskan kepada kepentingan menjaga keselamatan negara serta memelihara ketenteraman itu dan juga bagi mematuhi kehendak Perlembagaan Persekutuan, maka kerajaan berpendirian bahawa, sistem yang membenarkan anggota-anggota keselamatan negara ini dan pasangan mereka mengundi menggunakan kaedah pos, masih perlu dikekalkan. Namun begitu, kerajaan masih mengkaji cara yang lebih efektif dan efisien untuk menambahbaik keadaan pengundian ini.

Sekian, terima kasih.

Malaysian Insider

OCT 10 — Datuk Seri Najib Razak does not disappoint. He is true to his values whatever they might be. He upholds his principles with messianic zeal. His principles are of indeterminate provenance, but Najib is not known to worry himself to distraction over such small matters. He has made many of us happy. It has nothing to do with his 1 Malaysia vision that he seems incapable of articulating to save his life, let alone convincing Malaysians who have decided that half a century of untruths and specious, convoluted political and social arguments should be more than enough for even the most sanguine of them.

Najib has made us happy not because in a fit of mental aberration or misplaced exuberance he has added to his fantasy world the even a more preposterous 1 World vision that flashed across his mind. I bet it was a very brief moment in time. Najib has made us deliriously happy because he has just done something blatantly cynical to confirm what we have known all along about his attitude to corruption. Najib does not disappoint.

His choice of Tan Sri Mohd Isa Samad as the BN candidate for the Bagan Pinang by-election has left absolutely no doubt in our minds about Najib’s real attitude to corruption. He, ever the pragmatic, suave man about town leader of a country already systematically mired in corruption, sees it as nothing more that a necessary evil. If you cannot fight it, join it.

His matter of fact response that “Even those convicted by the courts get another chance” must surely single him out, like a sore thumb even among the corrupt leaders of 1 Malaysia, as someone totally devoid of ethical values. It also points to a complete lack of the political will to curb corrupt practices in our country. The gap between his rhetoric and constructive action against corruption is growing ever wider under Najib. Just in case he forgets, the Kuala Lumpur-based diplomatic corps and the wider international community are watching this development with some concern. Najib does not disappoint.

Bagan Pinang is a little backwater of a community on the Negri Sembilan coast. However, the choice of a candidate that even Umno, the party that sits well with corruption and takes it in its stride, was constrained to discipline marks a low point indeed. The much detested and reviled corruption-tainted and Isa has now been declared perfectly “kosher” to represent the country’s ruling coalition. Politics is indeed the art of the possible.

Can we trust a government that is prepared to trade integrity? And for a rural state assembly seat which, the winning or losing of which, is not going to have a material effect on the political fate of BN in overall terms? I, unlike Najib, do not subscribe to the second chance dispensation because political corruption will ravage national values and systems. Are we blind to the fact that it was Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s special brand of corrupt political stewardship, now still in place unfortunately, that has stifled our potential for dynamic growth, and kept us, in spite of the resources at our disposal, at the wrong end of the global competitiveness league table?

Political corruption if not dealt with decisively will destroy our nation because the national decision-making processes will be distorted and manipulated. “State capture” by corrupt elements will be the end result. We cannot allow the country’s future to be hijacked by unprincipled politicians, by default. Fighting corruption is our individual and collective responsibility as citizens. It cannot be left to the tender mercies of the corrupt in the corridors of power.

Now that Najib has dropped all pretence of queasiness about bedding down with corruption, he could do us all a big favour and save taxpayers a lot of money by closing down the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission, the National Institute of Integrity and all the other related agencies because he has made his position on corruption so clear. They are of no use to man or beast.

And while we are about it, Najib may want to propose a general amnesty for all who have been convicted of corruption as well as those who have committed corrupt acts, but lucky enough not to be caught. This is totally consistent with his belief that the corrupt deserve a second chance, an official passport to Najib’s 1 Malaysia where anything goes and the devil looks after his own. Najib does not disappoint.

Malaysians are now being treated to a display of arrogance unprecedented in the history of BN administration, and the choice of Isa, in all the circumstances, flies in the face of what little is left that is decent and honourable in our national life, worth preserving. Even by Umno’s and, by extension, Najib’s own standards, this is a very low point, and that is putting it charitably. Najib does not disappoint.

Little Bagan Pinang will without a doubt deliver the seat that Najib so devoutly yearns to have. He needs it to prop his shaky leadership. Bagan Pinang will in the end be remembered in history as the place where Umno lost its moral bearing, credibility and legitimacy to lead the Malays. Umno’s ugly nakedness in surrendering ethical values and principles to political expediency is here for all to see: it will be its undoing. Najib does not disappoint. He never does!