Extend Parliament for one more day, debate Suhakam report

 

MP SPEAKS | I call on the Muhyiddin cabinet to extend the 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 issues, 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 the 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 Aug 31, 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 Harapan government in Parliament last December.

Can Muhyiddin Yassin explain why he once agreed to a parliamentary debate on the Suhakam annual report but disagrees when he is now 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 MACC premises and why the murderers in MACC had escaped justice in the last 11 years and 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 plus the issues of disinformation, misinformation.

And then there is what Suhakam chairperson Othman Hashim (above) has described as “race-baiting by senior politicians” in his message in the latest 2019 Suhakam annual report; the 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) chairperson, 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 percent of Malaysians feel that corruption in the government is a serious problem.

Malaysians should applaud the PAC for striking out into new territory which would not have happened if the Harapan government had not carried out an important parliamentary reform to provide that the PAC chairperson 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 also 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 PN government is not afraid of issues on human rights, corruption and public integrity.

Will the PN government bestir itself?

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LIM KIT SIANG is the DAP MP for Iskandar Puteri. - Mkini

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