Media Statement (2) by Lim Kit Siang in Petaling Jaya on Friday, 9^th April 2010: 

Najib’s launching of Malaysia-United States (Congressional) Caucus on April 14 should be deferred until there is full Malaysian parliamentary representation including PR MPs

The launching of the Malaysia-United States (Congressional) Caucus by the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak on April 14 should be deferred until there is full Malaysian parliamentary representation including from Pakatan Rakyat Members of Parliament.

The Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Nazri Aziz was insulting the intelligence of Parliament and the country when he gave a nonsense justification yesterday for the Prime Minister’s decision to bring two independent Members of Parliament to the United States for the launch of the Malaysia-United States (Congressional) Caucus in his forthcoming trip to Washing to meet US President Obama.

As I said in Parliament yesterday, I congratulated the two “independent” MPs, Datuk Seri Zahrain Hashim (Bayan Baru) and Zulkifli Noordin (Kulim-Bandar Baharu).

There is no need for any “sour grapes” for their selection from Pakatan Rakyat MPs, as it is the Barisan Nasional MPs who should feel angry and aggrieved – as “independent” MPs are being treated as first-class MPs while BN MPs downgraded to second-class status by the Najib leadership.

The attempt by Nazri to “justify the unjustifiable” and “defend the indefensible” can only provoke disbelief and dismay at the intellectual depths of Malaysia’s Cabinet Ministers.

Nazri said the two independent MPs were included in the delegation to the United States next week to ensure that neither the Barisan Nasional nor the Opposition would be affected if bloc division vote was called for any arising matter.

Nazri cannot be so lacking in the basic 3Rs with regard to arithmetic as not able to realize that if Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Rakyat send equal number of MPs for the launching of the Malaysia-US (Congressional) Caucus, the balance for bloc division voting in Parliament by the two sides of the House would have been maintained.

What is the more important question is how could the Prime Minister lend his name and office to the launching of a purported Malaysia-US (Congressional) Caucus which is not fully representative of the Malaysian Parliament but is at best a Barisan Nasional-US (Congressional) Caucus?

It is not only the good name and prestige of the Malaysian Parliament, but also that of the Prime Minister and the country which would be dragged through the mud.

Is the Prime Minister going to be confronted with questions by the international media (or even worse, by Democratic or Republican Senators or Representatives) in his next visit to the United States why he fail to comport himself as Prime Minister for all Malaysians, races, regions and MPs, as in inaugurating a Malaysia-US (Congressional) Caucus when it is nothing but a BN-US (Congressional) Caucus?

When the name of Parliament is used internationally, it must be at the behest of all MPs, embracing both BN and PR, and not by any one political party or Minister.

Although I have great political differences with Najib, I do not want to see the Malaysian Prime Minister made a laughing stock when he goes overseas – all because of misguided notions that BN MPs can pass off internationally as representing all Malaysian MPs from all political parties.

The postponement of the launching of the Malaysia-US (Congressional) Caucus to a date when PR MPs could be represented would save Najib from international embarrassment of not walking the talk of his multi-million ringgit propaganda blitz of 1Malaysia.

It will also not trivialize the launch of the Malaysia-US (Congressional) Caucus which had lain dormant for ten years.

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