DR M PRETENDS TO BE SENILE?

By : STEVE YAMAN

AS REPORTED on the front page of the Daily Express on Thursday, February 7, 2013, how could “DR M hints only now aware of wrongdoings under his watch” when it was done by design? Dr M said that the “order” was merely for those who qualified. What is the qualification for naturalizing a non-citizen to become a Malaysia and then immediately to vote?

“Ignorance of the law is no excuse”, so for a former prime minister to say that he made the 'order' merely for those who qualified; comprising of several hundred thousand people all Muslims is a gross understatement.

Under the Constitutios of Malaysia, those applying to become naturalized citizens must have "an adequate knowledge of the Malay language" and have resided (as Permanent Residents with red Malaysian identity cards) in the country for ten of the past twelve years, including the twelve months immediately preceding the application.

For Dr M to say that he was unaware of wrongdoings under his watch involving so many people is indeed mismanagement, fraud and treason because he is educated enough to understand and to ensure that the law is properly enforced and observed. As the person who held the highest post of prime minister of Malaysia, he must be held fully accountable and responsible for the gross misdeeds. He must face the music like the leaders of Taiwan, Korea, the Philippines, Indonesia, Iran, Egypt, et cetera who had made the wrong “order”.

How can Dr M pretend to be innocent and ignorant of so huge the number of people who were accorded instant citizenship and allowed to vote? The basic process, documentations and time for a non-citizen to get a permanent residence, apply for citizenship, and then vote will take more than 10 years.

In Sabah’s case, so many Indonesians, Filipinos, Indians, Pakistanis, etc were without proper documents and Muslims. They were only required to make “statutory declaration” to be given citizenships status and eligible to vote. This is totally unbelievable and unacceptable. It is inexcusable as it compromised Malaysia’s sovereign right.

Is it acceptable for a former prime minister to pretend not to know about such big wrongdoings? Even if he said that he is only aware of his wrongdoings now, the crime has no limitation to be brought to justice. Nobody is above the law including Dr M. During his watch, he even made sure that the Sultans and royal family are not above the law.

Therefore, he must answer for the wrongdoings he had done in the past. He cannot keep on pointing his finger to other people (ministers and other heads of government departments) because he was the chief executive and the boss running and managing the country.

How can he say that he only heard the “wrongful things” being done on the ground in Sabah when he ruled with iron hands and made “orders” that others had to execute whether they like it or not or be “executed”?

He had tried to fabricate Anwar Ibrahim in so many ways and so many times; and the courts finally judged that Anwar is innocent. Now he is pointing the finger at Anwar again trying to push the blame on Anwar. Is he not done with Anwar; or Dr M better luck next time? If Dr M is right, why don’t both of them appear in the RCI? It would be interesting to watch the drama unfold – at least we are sure he is now a “toothless tiger”.

Dr M should have kept quiet and retire gracefully – in that way a lot of people would have respected him as a good statesman. Now that he has talked too much and made a lot of people furious and fed up of him, he will have to pay for his past misdeeds. It is karma – and the saying goes “do unto others what you want others to do unto you”. You will only gain respect when you respect others, and “pee” when you pee at others.

Lim Kit Siang once said, “Dr M is a PM with a mind of his own. He is capable of doing great good but he is also capable of great evil. He can believe that he is right while the whole world is wrong, and he does what it takes to change it. Well, if you are right, then, fine. But if you are wrong, then you can cause great evil. There is nothing to act as a brake”.

There were too many scandals during the time of Mahathir – BMF, EPF, UMBC, the cooperatives, Operasi Lalang, sending of school administrators and principals to Chinese schools who were not well verse in Mandarin, attack on the judiciary, the election commission, the parliament, et cetera. This is now the “scandal of all scandals” because by having done the instant citizenship thing; he had managed to hang on to power to become the longest serving PM in Malaysia history.

All being said Dr M is the only person in Malaysia who could allow temporary receipts to be used as documents to vote during the 1994 state elections. This is unheard of in any country in the world; only in Malaysia. A former NRD director had sold 16,000 NRD receipts and collected a few million Ringgits; some of the money was even used for NRD activities. The corruption is shameless and no word can ever express the total decay of the administration and management of the BN government.

This is no longer acceptable and the people of Malaysia must now respond with great urgency to right what is totally wrong for the good of our future generations. We are heading into a steep downfall and we can no longer hold our heads in high esteem. It is time for the citizens to express total disagreement to gross incompetence of the management and administration of the country. In the 13th general election, we must change the managers for a better Malaysia – “Ini kali lah”!