Najib's night of the LONG KNIVES

The 728 cabinet reshuffling said only one thing and one thing only: Prime Minister Najib Razak is a self-serving Prime Minister.

In late June of 1934, Hitler launched a purge on important officials from his Nazi party who were showing signs of disloyalty towards him, killing almost a hundred people in what was known as the Night of the Long Knives. Hitler’s cabinet issued a document legitimising the purge as “to suppress treasonous assaults ...as acts of self-defence by the State.”

In the similar vein, Najib had his Deputy Prime Minister and other ministers sacked and replaced because of their open criticism of him and his government especially on the 1MDB scandal.

July 28, 2015 was Najib’s and UMNO’s Night of the Long Knives, the purge within his own party to rid it of dissidents.

Five reasons why Najib is a self serving Prime Minister

This is the most self-serving cabinet reshuffle ever seen in our country. Just as Najib is being implicated and investigated, instead of answering the allegations against him and proving his innocence, the Prime Minister chose to silence his critics by,

gagging media freedom by suspending the Edge publication,

restricting the movement of dissidents by barring opposition MPs Tony Pua and Rafizi Ramli from overseas travel,

effectively freezing the Public Account Committee (PAC) which was investigating the 1MDB scandal by appointing four out of eight PAC members including its chairman from Barisan Nasional into ministerial posts

removing the Deputy Prime Minister and other Ministers who were seen as speaking out against the 1MDB scandal

expanding the already large cabinet from 35 ministers and 27 deputy ministers to 37 ministers and 31 deputy minister. This way, the PM will have more pork barrels to dish out to his loyalists.

PAC should carry on but with opposition member appointed as chairman

The PAC has no reason to be disbanded or frozen. As minimum membership is six and there are currently nine (Standing order 77(2)), the PAC should be allowed to continue to play its role especially in the investigation of 1MDB and other pressing scandals.

However, in steps with the best practices of other democracies in the world, the new chairman of the PAC should be an opposition MP and the said chairman can be appointed among the remaining members. (Standing order 77(3))

What and who will be next?

Just like Hitler, Najib began the gagging of dissent by targeting the opposition and the media and then moving on to his own party colleagues. It is scary to imagine what will be the Prime Minister’s next course of action and who will be the next target of silencing.

Therefore I echo the calls of my honourable parliamentary colleagues to table a motion of no confidence against the Prime Minister in order to restore the normal function of democracy in our country. MPs from both sides of the divides should set aside political differences to uphold the interest of the country. Parliament should convene an emergency sitting in this regards and should not wait until the next sitting in October.

Steven Sim Chee Keong

MP for Bukit Mertajam

National Political Education Director, DAPSY Malaysia

State Publicity Secretary, DAPSY Penang