Malaysians still demanding answer to 'Mana RM2.6 billion?'

MP SPEAKS The fourth of my five whistlestops visit to Perak was on Saturday as part of the “Solidarity with Lim Kit Siang and Mana RM2.6 billion?” nationwide campaign.

I started in Kopisan in Gopeng, went to Kampar, and now am coming from Bidor, and will end up in Hutan Melintang after this visit.

Everywhere I went, since the first day of this nationwide campaign after my six-month suspension from Parliament for wanting the Prime Minister Najib Razak to give full and satisfactory accounting for his twin mega scandals – the RM2.6 billion donation in his personal banking accounts and the RM55 billion 1MDB scandal – I found the question “Mana RM2.6 billion?” close to the hearts and minds of all Malaysians, regardless of race, religion or region.

They are also close to the hearts and minds of the three million Umno members and one million PAS members, although their respective leaders, Najib and Abdul Hadi Awang, are in an advanced “courtship”, based on the understanding that these twin mega scandals should be banished from the public domain of Malaysian politics.

In fact, in May this year, Hadi publicly said Najib should not bow down to pressures from the 1MDB scandal and should not resign as prime minister.

In July, Hadi was quick to come to the defence of Najib after The Wall Street Journal expose of RM2.6 billion deposits into Najib's personal banking accounts before the May 2013 general election, demanding for credible witnesses to substantiate The Wall Street Journal allegation of financial embezzlement as Najib is not “an angel but an ordinary human being”.

Rare unanimity

Najib and Hadi have reached rare unanimity that Najib need not answer the question “Mana RM2.6 billion?” on the lip of every thinking Malaysian, but I do not believe this is the position of the 30 million Malaysians, including the three million Umno members and one million PAS members, who want Najib to immediately answer this question without any more delay, procrastination or prevarication.

Politics in Malaysia is in a great flux and unprecedented political configurations are in store in the coming weeks and months, basically to shore up Najib’s weakening political position, whether in Umno or in the country.

The BN coalition may be relegated to a secondary position for the first time since its formation by then prime minister Abdul Razak Hussein in 1973, overtaken by some new political arrangements between Umno and PAS.

Although Najib sailed through without mishap the recent 25-day Parliamentary meeting, where his 2016 Budget was passed without challenge, and the five-day Umno general assemblies, where his detractors inside Umno, like former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Umno deputy president Muhyiddin Yassin were silenced, Najib’s seeming political strength is clearly at the expense of Umno’s increasing political weakness and even irrelevance.

Muhyiddin had warned in his speech to 1,000 BN leaders in Pagoh at the end of last month that Malay support for Umno had dwindled to 30 percent, when Malay support for Umno over the years had always been above 50 percent.

Muhyiddin further warned that unless this political reality, in particular the unhappiness of the people over Najib’s twin mega scandals is faced by the Umno leadership, Umno may be defeated in the 14th general election in two years’ time.

Najib is too much of a political realist not to know the political reality on the ground – in particular Umno’s plunging stocks not only among Malaysian voters, even among Malay voters.

Political lifeline

To salvage his political position as prime minister and Umno president, while keeping his twin mega scandals under “lock and key” as much as possible, Najib needs a political lifeline.

This seems to be offered by Hadi with the PAS president’s acquiescence with Najib’s mega scandals and a stance of asking no embarrassing questions and taking no embarrassing positions like holding placards all over the country demanding: “Mana RM2.6 billion?”

Hadi not only has no moral position on Najib’s twin mega scandals, he is quite comfortable in coming to Najib’s political rescue with a Umno-PAS co-operation to shore up Najib’s political position both inside Umno and in the country as a whole.

I doubt such a compromising position with Najib’s twin mega scandals will sit well with the three million Umno members and one million PAS members, let alone the general Malaysian public.

Even ordinary Umno and PAS members are daily confronted with the question “Mana RM2.6 billion?” in marketplaces and streets which they not only have no answers but resonate with them as well.

The country is now in a political “no man’s land”, in a situation Malaysians had never been before.

The challenge before all Malaysians, regardless of race, religion, region or even politics is not how to save an individual, whether Najib or Hadi; not to save any political party, whether Umno or PAS; but how to save Malaysia from becoming a failed and a rogue state.

This is evidenced by no respect shown for the supremacy of the Malaysian constitution (like the National Security Council Bill which is a usurpation of the constitutional powers of the Agong, the cabinet and 13 state governments).

There’s also the breakdown of the rule of law and collapse of good governance principles with rampant corruption, abuses of power and massive political and socio-economic injustices in the country.

Let this message go out to all Malaysians loud and clear – the question is how to save Malaysia and the 30 million Malaysians, not how to save an individual, whether Najib or Hadi; and not how to save a political party, whether Umno or PAS.

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LIM KIT SIANG is the MP for Gelang Patah and DAP parliamentary leader. -Mkini