Media statement by Lim Kit Siang on Sunday, 22^nd January 2012: 

Top five topics of all Malaysians during the Dragon Chinese New Year holidays

What will be the top five topics of all Malaysians during the Dragon Chinese New Year holidays?

I will pick the following five:

1. The Attorney-General’s appeal against Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s acquittal in the Sodomy2 charge by the Kuala Lumpur High Court, expressing the determination of the top UMNO leaders to want to see Anwar in jail.

2. The Court of Appeal decision to overturn the Kuala Lumpur High Court decision to acquit and discharge DAP National Chairman Karpal Singh on the sedition charge relating to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s illegal, unconstitutional and undemocratic coup d’etat against the Pakatan Rakyat Perak state government.

   Both these incidents have killed off public hopes that Malaysia is firmly set on the road to restoration of national and international confidence in our justice system, with a just rule of law and truly independent judiciary.

   The only inescapable conclusion is that Malaysia can only begin to seriously undo the ravages against the doctrine of separation of powers especially between the Executive and the Judiciary in the past 24 years years stemming from the arbitrary sacking of the then Lord President Tun Salleh Abas and two Supreme Court judges Tan Sri Wan Suleiman Pawanteh and Datuk George Seah in 1988.

3. RM300 million National Feedlot Centre (NFC) “cattle condo” scandal highlighting the worsening state of corruption an cronyism in the country which even before this scandal had fallen to the worst Transparency International (TI) Corruption Perception Index (CPI) 2011 ranking of No. 60 and score of 4.3 in the past 17 years with both set to plunge to new depths in 2012. This is why there is no public confidence in the independence, integrity and professionalism in the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), which has not been able to shake off its early image as a tool of the Barisan Nasional to hound and persecute Pakatan Rakyat leaders, resulting in the cold-blooded murder of Teoh Beng Hock - a crime which is still crying out for justice!

4. The fraud and hypocrisy of the International Conference on the Global Movement of the Moderates when racism, extremism, hate and downright falsehoods had reached new heights under Najib’s 33-month premiership, with the chief culprit none other than the UMNO newspaper, Utusan Malaysia. What was most significant about the Conference was what did not happen - Najib’s failure to respond to my five tests to demonstrate that the Prime Minister qualifies to be regarded as the voice of moderates in Malaysia!

5. These four top topics for all Malaysians in the Dragon Chinese New Year holidays lead to the fifth – that there can only be hope and salvation for the country and real change if Malaysians regardless of race, religion and region, grasp the first opportunity in 54 years to effect UBAH, get rid of UMNO/Barisan Nasional in Putrajaya and instal a new Pakatan Rakat federal government with Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim as the seventh Prime Minister of Malaysia.

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