THE TRUTH OF WHAT KU LI SAID

This is just like blaming the rape victim for getting raped rather than blaming the rapist. So what game is Ku Li trying to play here? Has he forgotten what he said 30 years ago?

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

What Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah a.k.a. Ku Li said today (SEE BELOW) is something that I had been writing about for many years now. The only difference is Ku Li lamented about the lack of separation of powers between the three branches of government — the executive, the judiciary and the legislative. I, however, spoke about the FOUR branches of government — the executive, the judiciary, the legislative and the monarchy.

Maybe Ku Li forgot that Malaysia has a fourth branch of government that is meant to maintain checks and balances and ensure that there is separation of powers between the four. And that fourth branch of the government, the monarchy, is supposed to be Malaysia’s last bastion in the event that everything else fails.

What Ku Li failed to mention is that in the early days these four branches of government worked well and democracy was more or less upheld during the time of the first three prime ministers from 1957 to 1981. It was after that, during the time of the fourth prime minister, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, that this entire thing was dismantled and power became concentrated in the hands of the executive.

This has been my bone of contention and also of those who felt that Malaysia was heading towards a very dangerous precedence. The erosion of the powers of the other three branches of government and the concentration of powers in the hands of the executive was turning Malaysia into a dictatorship. And this was the main reason, explained Ku Li, why he opposed Dr Mahathir during his Team B days.

So it is not, as Ku Li said, the three branches of government that let us down. It is Umno, back in the 1980s, which let us down by muzzling the three branches of government and allowing the executive absolute powers. And Ku Li decided to rejoin Umno back in the 1990s, the party that is the cause of all these problems. And Dr Mahathir was still Prime Minister and the Umno leader when Ku Li decided to rejoin Umno.

This is just like blaming the rape victim for getting raped rather than blaming the rapist. So what game is Ku Li trying to play here? Has he forgotten what he said 30 years ago?

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3 branches of government badly let down nation, says Ku Li

(The Malaysian Insider) – Malaysia’s first prime minister Tunku Abdul Rahman wanted a country where the separation of powers between the executive, judiciary and legislative are practised, but Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah said the nation has been “badly let down” by the three branches of government.

The Umno federal lawmaker said the executive had often been browbeaten by the head of government, while the judiciary had been weakened in the past and is perceived to be less effective.

“With regards to the legislature, it is not unknown that matters which are within the purview of the Dewan Rakyat had often been discussed by the executive committee of the ranking party within the coalition forming the government of the day,” he said in his keynote address at a conference on national unity in Kuala Lumpur today.

This, said Tengku Razaleigh, better known as Ku Li, amounted to usurping the power of the lower house of Parliament. The Gua Musang MP also said politics in Malaysia has long been colluding with businesses, which had led to unbridled corruption.

“It would seem that honour has deserted our leaders and insatiable greed for wealth has taken over its place.”

Later, Tengku Razaleigh told reporters that interference in the three branches of governance has been taking place quite often lately.

“It never happened last time, but now, we can see lots of it happening, repeatedly,” he said without going into details.

“I feel we should give serious attention to this and it should be discussed, but the decision should be made at the appropriate level.”