Media Statement (3) by Lim Kit Siang Siang in Petaling Jaya on Sunday, 17^th May 2009: 

BN Supreme Council meeting tomorrow – dare UMNO, MCA, Gerakan and MIC leaders speak the truth to Najib to cut losses in Perak and face state general election?

Tomorrow is the first Barisan Nasional Supreme Council meeting of Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak and it is shaping up to be an acid test whether the BN Supreme Council is going to be a new meeting of equals or of just like the past, between the Umno hegemon with subservient characters from the other Barisan Nasional component parties.

The May 31 Penanti state assembly by-election in Penang will be on the agenda, but even more important is the three-and-a-half-month-long Perak political and constitutional crisis which have brought one national institution after another into disrepute as well as undermined Malaysia’s international image and competitiveness.

Not only Pakatan Rakyat parties of DAP, PKR and PAS, but also independent organisations and NGOs like Suhakam, Bar Council, Council of Churches, Chinese guilds and associations, but also individual leaders from BN component parties have spoken up for the only viable solution to the Perak constitutional and political impasse – dissolution of the Perak State Assembly to return the mandate to Perakians in state wide general elections.

The question is whether Umno, MCA, Gerakan and MIC top leaders dare to speak the truth to Najib at the Barisan Nasional Supreme Council meeting tomorrow that Najib should put national interests above party and personal interests, cut losses in Perak and face Perak state general elections to allow the people of Perak to decide their own political future.

The Perak political crisis would have been behind the country for two months if my proposal in mid-February for a dissolution of the Perak State Assembly and the holding of Perak state general elections within 30 days been heeded by the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak – with Perakians and Malaysians able in the past two months to single-mindedly focus on acting in unison to face the world’s economic crisis in a century!

It the tragic to see the Perak political and constitutional crisis being dragged out for three-and-a-half months without any proper solution which respects the sovereign rights of the Perakians to elect the state government of their choice in sight.

What is worse, with each passing day, more and more damage is being done to the credibility, integrity and legitimacy of key national institutions, whether the police, the Election Commission, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Agency, the civil service, the media, judiciary, the monarchy and the office of the Prime Minister!

Or dare Najib own up to the BN Supreme Council meeting tomorrow that the unethical, undemocratic, illegal and unconstitutional power grab he orchestrated in Perak in early February has turned out to be his greatest mistake in his preparation to become the sixth Prime Minister, and demonstrate the courage to rectify colossal error by proposing the dissolution of Perak State Assembly and the holding of new state general elections?

*Lim Kit Siang, DAP Parliamentary leader & MP for Ipoh Timor