Does Umno Know What “Mandat Rakyat” Means?

 

Hence, if Umno wants to “return the May 2018 mandate to the rakyat”, Umno must make sure that everyone involved in stealing money from 1MDB is sent to jail. Now, is this what Umno’s information chief, Shahril Sufian Hamdan, and Umno’s Supreme Council mean when they say they want to make sure that “the May 2018 mandate is returned to the rakyat”?

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

Over the last one year we have hearing a lot of talk about “Mandat Rakyat” or “The People’s Mandate”. However, no one has actually explained what “Mandat Rakyat” means.

Umno’s information chief, Shahril Sufian Hamdan, says Umno’s Supreme Council made a decision to “return the Mandat Rakyat to the people” without explaining what that means and how it is going to be achieved. (SEE NEWS ITEM BELOW)

Does Shahril know what “return the Mandat Rakyat to the people” means?

Shahril is suggesting that the people have lost their mandate and that Umno is going to make sure that that lost mandate is returned to the people. How was it lost and how is Umno going to return it to the people?

Perikatan, just like Pakatan, does not have the “Mandat Rakyat”, but the MPs do

Mandate merely means an official order or a commission to do something, or the authority to act in a certain way, or the authority to carry out a policy — such as the one given by the electorate to a party or candidate that wins an election.

For example, I gave my daughter the mandate to sell my house in Malaysia since I am not able to do it myself from Manchester. And, to legalise that mandate, I signed a power of attorney mentioning her as having the authority to manage the sale of my house. That is all it means.

In May 2018, 5.5 million Malaysian voters voted for DAP, PKR, PPBM and Amanah a.k.a. Pakatan Harapan. And they voted for a.k.a. Pakatan Harapan because of various reasons (it was not one reason).

The main reason, though, was because DAP, PKR, PPBM and Amanah a.k.a. Pakatan Harapan promised many things, which the voters liked.

The nonsense of the mandate

However, while 5.5 million Malaysian voters voted for Pakatan Harapan in GE14, 12.9 million Malaysians who were also eligible to vote DID NOT vote for the DAP-PKR-PPBM-Amanah coalition.

In short, only 5.5 million Malaysians gave the DAP-PKR-PPBM-Amanah coalition the so-called “Mandat Rakyat” or authority to act on their behalf. Another 12.9 million Malaysians did not.

But then, along the way, PPBM left the Pakatan Harapan coalition, and hence the government collapsed.

More importantly, 5.5 million voters gave the DAP-PKR-PPBM-Amanah coalition the mandate to form the government so that it could deliver its election promises. And one of those very crucial election promises was that the DAP-PKR-PPBM-Amanah coalition would punish those people who they alleged had stolen RM42 billion and maybe even RM50 billion from 1MDB.

Yes, that was Promise Number One that triggered the ouster of the Umno-Barisan Nasional government, the 1MDB matter.

Hence, if Umno wants to “return the May 2018 mandate to the rakyat”, Umno must make sure that everyone involved in stealing money from 1MDB is sent to jail. Now, is this what Umno’s information chief, Shahril Sufian Hamdan, and Umno’s Supreme Council mean when they say they want to make sure that “the May 2018 mandate is returned to the rakyat”?

The Rakyat gave Pakatan Harapan the Mandate to punish those who allegedly stole 1MDB’s money

But then Umno is angry with the Perikatan Nasional government because Umno leaders allegedly involved in the 1MDB scandal are being tried in court. They want Muhyiddin Yassin to drop all the charges and give amnesty to those Umno leaders facing trial.

Okay, let me try to understand this better.

The Perikatan Nasional government is fulfilling the “Mandat Rakyat” by punishing those suspected of stealing 1MDB’s money while Umno wants the charges against the Umno leaders dropped. And then Umno wants to bring down the Perikatan Nasional government so that they can “return the Mandate to the Rakyat”.

How does that work? The Perikatan Nasional government is already fulfilling the “Mandat Rakyat” regarding the 1MDB matter while Umno wants the Perikatan Nasional government to abandon the court cases in violation of that “Mandat Rakyat”.

Umno’s information chief, Shahril, and Umno’s Supreme Council clearly do not understand what “Mandat Rakyat” means. The mandate the rakyat gave the new government in May 2018 was to punish those who stole 1MDB’s money (plus some other “mandates”, of course — such as abolish GST, abolish toll charges for highways, no more detention without trial, more freedoms, more civil liberties, etc.).

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Kembalikan mandat rakyat jadi keutamaan MKT UMNO

(Sinar Harian) – Hasrat mengembalikan mandat kepada rakyat setelah Covid-19 terkawal menjadi keutamaan dalam Mesyuarat Majlis Kerja Tertinggi (MKT) UMNO pada Ahad.

Ketua Penerangan UMNO, Shahril Sufian Hamdan berkata, hasrat itu dikhuatiri tergendala selagi Parlimen ditutup dan darurat menjadi penghalang kepada proses semak dan imbang.

“Jika ada hujah mahu mengadakan pilihan raya kelak sebagai jalan keluar daripada kemelut politik, itupun tidak mampu berlaku selagi Parlimen tak bersidang dan darurat terpakai.

“Jangankan soal membuktikan keabsahan majoriti kerajaan Perikatan Nasional (PN), sedangkan bersidang pun tidak.

“Jangankan hendak melulus perbelanjaan, sedangkan bersidang pun tidak,” katanya melalui siaran di Facebook beliau pada Isnin.

Shahril Sufian yang juga Naib Ketua Pemuda UMNO berkata, keputusan diambil atas semangat musyawarah dan bijaksana bagi memperjuang agenda rakyat dan parti.

“Apabila bercakap agenda parti pun, ia bukan atas pertimbangan kepentingan pemimpin atau ahli parti semata-mata, tetapi juga kerana kita percaya kepimpinan oleh UMNO adalah yang terbaik untuk Malaysia.

“UMNO percaya selagi demokrasi berparlimen tergendala, selagi prinsip akauntabiliti dikesampingkan, selagi itulah pelabur menjauhi, selagi itu ekonomi hambar, akibat pembuatan dasar negara tidak terurus seperti sediakala,” katanya.

Dalam pada itu, beliau berkata, UMNO mengambil pendekatan komprehensif dan berhikmah yang memeriksa segala sudut sebelum menetapkan sebarang tarikh dalam hal pemilihan parti.

“MKT memutuskan untuk mendapat panduan daripada pihak berwajib berkenaan kaedah terbaik, mengambil kira kekangan prosedur operasi standard (SOP) Covid-19,” jelasnya.

Pada Ahad, MKT UMNO memutuskan untuk mendesak dan mengesyorkan kepada kerajaan supaya Parlimen kembali bersidang.

Setiausaha Agung UMNO, Datuk Seri Ahmad Maslan berkata, keputusan itu selaras dengan titah Yang di-Pertuan Agong, Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah yang menzahirkan pandangan bahawa Parlimen boleh bersidang dalam tempoh darurat.