TRULY LAND OF THE FOOLISH THEN: Don't laugh, Ibrahim Ali can be PM one day!

The cat is out of the bag. The extremist and racist Perkasa is the unofficial 14th member of the Barisan Nasional coalition with greater heft and more influence than “7-11” MCA and the other 12 BN component parties combined.

We must thank the Perkasa President Ibrahim Ali for his hubris at the annual general meeting of Perkasa a week ago getting much too big for his shoes for this expose of this top Umno/BN secret for the past four years.

Clearly relishing the idea of being Prime Minister of Malaysia one day, Ibrahim toyed with the possibility of a political “reverse take-over” when he offered Perkasa as an alternative to UMNO, asserting that Perkasa is the “most structured political party in the country with 500,000 members”.

Claiming that Umno and BN will not be able to win in the recent general elections without Perkasa’s assistance, particularly in Perak and Kedah, Ibrahim said that although Perkasa supported BN during the last general election it is not guaranteed who it would side with in the future.

This prompted the riposte by UMNO veteran, former Minister and Negri Sembilan Mentri Besar and currently Felda Chairman Mohd Isa Abdul Samad who asked: “We protected Perkasa and it received plenty of benefits from us. How will it replace us?”

Incredible duplicity

This led to the spilling of the beans that Perkasa had been receiving government funds with the Perkasa secretary-general Syed Hassan Syed Ali admitting receiving funds from government agencies such as the National Security Council (MKN), National Civic Bureau (BTN) and Special Affairs Department (Jasa) and the Selangor Perkasa chief Abdul Bakar Yahya saying these funds were intended to help BN in the 13th and 14th general elections.

The revelations about the secret government funding of Perkasa has raised numerous questions about the accountability, transparency, integrity and credibility of the Najib premiership as well as about his commitment and credentials as a moderate and to his 1Malaysia signature policy as Perkasa stands in total opposition to the 1Malaysia policy (with full backing from Perkasa advisor Tun Dr. Mahathir) with its strident and unashamed Ketuanan Melayu stance.

Malaysians are entitled to immediate information as to when the Najib administration started funding Perkasa, who was the person who authorised it, whether the former Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir was responsible for the decision, whether apart from the National Security Council (MKN), the National Civics Department (BTN) and the Special Affairs Department (Jasa) there are other government agencies involved in funding Perkasa and the total amount of funds disbursed to Perkasa by each such government agency all these years.

Most important of all, whether Ministers and leaders from MCA and the other 12 BN component parties had given their approval for the secret government funding of Perkasa or whether they were kept completely in the dark about the BN/UMNO government’s secret funding of Perkasa.

Lim Kit Siang is the DAP adviser