17-Day Countdown to 13GE Polling Day – Najib’s T-Team of 222 Parliamentary and 505 State Assembly candidates for the 13GE is as “transformational” as his T-Cabinet in the past four years which have been dismissed as “half-past six” by Mahathir and “deadwood” by Daim

Caretaker Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s “T-Team” of 222 Parliamentary and 505 State Assembly candidates for the 13GE is as “transformational” as his T-Cabinet in the past four years which have been dismissed by Tun Dr. Mahathir as “half-past six” and former Finance Minister Tun Daim Zainuddin as “deadwood”.

What is the Report Card for Najib’s Transformation Agenda in the past four years?

It is a report card of red marks and failures, especially in Najib’s signature 1Malaysia Policy and National Key Result Areas (NKRA) objectives particularly in fighting corruption, reducing crime, uplifting educational standards and spur economic growth to build a competitive, prosperous and progressive future.

The biggest Najib “T-failure” is of course the utter hollowness and insincerity of Najib’s signature 1Malaysia policy to build a Malaysian nation where every Malaysian regards himself or herself as a Malaysian first and race, religion, region and socio-economic status second.

Deputy Prime Minister and UMNO Deputy President Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin had openly repudiated Najib’s 1Malaysia Policy from the very beginning, declaring that he is “Malay first, Malaysian second”.

As a result, in the past four years, neither the Najib Cabinet nor the UMNO/BN Supreme Councils had ever endorsed 1Malaysia Policy as the official Barisan Nasional Policy despite the fact that it continued to be the keystone of Najib’s raft of transformation policies – but relegated to be the centerpiece of the Najib gimmicry of a host of 1Malaysia creations, ranging from 1Malaysia burgers to 1Malaysia Shopping Vouchers to the abortive Gangnam 1Malaysia Style which the South Korea superstar Psy refused to perform with Najib, Rosmah and Ng Yen Yen at the Barisan Nasional Penang Chinese New Year Open House on Feb. 11.

In fact, never once had Najib himself, as a result of the open rebellion to the 1Malaysia Policy led by his deputy prime minister, ever declared publicly that he regards himself as “Malaysian first, Malay second”, despite the fact that I had declared in Parliament in March 2010 that I regard myself as “Malaysian first, Chinese second”!

The failure and lack of political will of the Najib Cabinet and Government to fight corruption especially “grand corruption” was best illustrated at the Senai International Airport on Tuesday morning when the caretaker Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin flew into South Johore on a government Executive Jet – the RM200 million Airbus 319 - to castigate me for contesting in Gelang Patah.

This a clear violation of the Transparency International-Malaysia (TI-M) Election Integrity Pledge signed with such fanfare by Najib, ensconced by the Barisan Nasional leaders, but immediately violated almost daily even before the ink is dry.

Is the Chief Secretary prepared to immediately ground all official aircrafts, helicopters and government fleet of vehicles and to direct that they should only be used for official caretaker government purposes, and not abused for Barisan Nasional campaigning, as what Muhyiddin had done with the government Executive Jet on Tuesday, and make public a daily log of the use of all these official aircrafts, helicopters and government fleet of vehicles from the dissolution of Parliament on April 3?

Najib’s T-Team of 222 Parliamentary and 505 State Assembly candidates for the 13GE is actually even worse than Najib’s T-Cabinet as far as commitment to 1Malaysia and Najib’s transformation programme is concerned, and this is best symbolized by the Barisan Nasional candidature of Zulkifli Noordin for Shah Alam.

Selangor BN co-ordinator Mohd Zin Mohamed has described Zulkifli Noordin as a “transformational candidate” – when he had proved himself to ber a politician who had no qualms in attacking the other religions in the country or even to tell lies and falsehoods, for instance, that I had provoked the May 13 riots in 1969 because I had led anti-Malay and anti-Islam victory processions in the streets of Kuala Lumpur on May 11, 12 and 13 when I was never in Kuala Lumpur during those three days.

Does all the moderate and progressive leaders in UMNO, MCA, Gerakan, MIC and the Sarawak and Sabah component parties of BN agree that Zulkifli is the model “transformational” candidate who should be the model for all the 222 BN parliamentary candidates and 505 State Assembly candidates?

Lim Kit Siang DAP Parliamentary Leader & MP for Ipoh Timur