Kit Siang: Why was Syahredzan's Dewan Negara nomination delayed, nullified

 

Following the admission by former premier Muhyiddin Yassin that Dr Mahathir Mohamad held a dismissive attitude towards the reforms promised by Pakatan Harapan in its manifesto, DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang has questioned the rationale behind the inordinate delay in the appointment of his political secretary Syahredzan Johan to the Dewan Negara.

The Iskandar Puteri MP said DAP had nominated Syahredzan to fill the Dewan Negara vacancy in September 2019 during Harapan's rule.

"The Harapan government in its 22 months had made a number of mistakes, thinking that it had five years to fulfil its election promises."

"Now, from the confessions of Muhyiddin during the Malacca general election, we know there were forces inside the Harapan government which were working at cross-purpose from the Harapan election manifesto," he said in a blog post today.

"For instance, I had wondered why there was inordinate delay in the DAP nomination of Syahredzan Johan as a senator although the decision was taken in September 2019, and it was one of the decisions which were nullified by the Sheraton Move conspiracy in February 2020," he said.

Besides Syahredzan, human rights activist Ivy Josiah was tipped for an appointment to the Dewan Negara in October 2019 with her name being submitted by PKR.

Back then, the Harapan ruling coalition had 26 senators, while BN had 27 and ally PAS had four. The other 11 sitting senators either represented non-aligned parties or special interest groups.

The Dewan Negara comprises 70 appointed members and reviews legislation that has been passed by the Dewan Rakyat.

Harapan had wanted an upper hand in the Dewan Negara in order to push through all the bills that were brought up to the house.

However, a long list of Dewan Negara vacancies was kept vacant despite parties such as DAP and PKR submitting names to the Prime Minister's Office.

This allowed any potential new government a free hand in choosing ministers or deputy ministers to be appointed as senators, as was borne out following the Sheraton Move when Perikatan Nasional appointed such figures as current Finance Minister Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz.

The senator nomination 'conspiracy' took another twist on Nov 25, 2019, when the then Harapan-led Malacca government's motion to nominate PKR leader Halim Bachik, aligned to party president Anwar Ibrahim, was defeated after two PKR assemblypersons Ginie Lim and Muhammad Jailani Khamis left just before the vote.

Both were viewed as aligned to party deputy president Azmin Ali at the time. Azmin was one of the chief architects of the Sheraton Move.

Jailani later defected in March 2020 helping to bring down the state's Harapan government and giving the state's senator slot to PN and not Harapan.

Ginie Lim stayed with PKR but was recently dropped by the party as a candidate. - Mkini