Angry accusations of interference in Malaysia’s internal affairs highlights BN’s state of denial at Thierry Rommel’s truthful comments that Malaysia is under emergency rule with limited political freedoms, no clean and fair elections and that the New Economic Policy (NEP) fosters corruption, uncompetitive and inefficient practices
____________
Press Statement
by Lim Guan Eng
________________
(Petaling Jaya,
Thursday):
Deputy Prime Minister Datuk
Seri Najib Tun Razak’s angry
accusations of interference
in Malaysia’s internal
affairs against former
European Commission envoy Dr
Thierry Rommel, only serves
to highlight the BN
government’s state of denial.
Rommel had spoken the truth
that Malaysia is still under
a state of emergency with
limited political freedoms,
no clean and fair elections
and that the NEP fosters
corruption, uncompetitive and
inefficient practices.
How can Najib claim that
Malaysia is not in a state of
emergency when four Emergency
Proclamations passed in 1964,
1966, 1969 and 1977 have
still not been repealed until
today? Even the Human Rights
Commission of Malaysia (SUHAKAM)
in its maiden 2000 Report
noted that this “perpetual
state of emergency” continues
although the events that
occasioned them are long
gone. SUHAKAM even said,
“Fundamental liberties
such as freedom of assembly,
freedom of expression, and
freedom of religion need to
be upheld. Detention without
trial, the continuous state
of emergency, discrimination
against women, native
customary rights and the
ratification of various
international human rights
instruments are all issues
that SUHAKAM have identified
as deserving its priority
attention.”
DAP
challenges Najib to bring out
factual evidence prove his
empty rhetoric that Rommel
were "out of line, baseless
and conflicted with the real
situation in the country".
That is why police were not
enforcing the law when they
acted harshly and brutally on
10 November 2007 against
peaceful demonstrators
exercising their fundamental
right to freedom of assembly
when they were not destroying
public property or harming
any individuals. Instead the
police were allowing
themselves to be used and
employed at the political
behest of BN to serve their
political interests to deny
the voices of ordinary
Malaysians seek clean and
fair elections to be heard.
How then can Rommel be wrong
when the facts bear out his
comments that election
campaigns were too short and
that the media was biased
toward government
campaigning?
Rommel’s criticism against
the NEP for fostering
corruption and a barrier as
well as distortion to trade
can not be refuted when the
NEP allows the government to
award state contracts to
Malay businesses without
clear, competitive tender
procedures. The seriousness
of such corruption is backed
up by an estimate by US
financial house Morgan
Stanley that Malaysia lost
US$100 billion from
corruption over the last two
decades.
Share RM 40 billion
subsidies with Malaysians to
spur the domestic market
To hide such massive
corruption, the BN government
has tried to divert attention
by stressing on racial
sentiments, particularly the
extension of the Bumiputera-based
discrimination against non-bumis
and monopolistic preference
for bumis in public
procurement. But such
hoodwink economics impresses
not even magicians much less
economists.
Despite BN’s claims of a
booming economy, ordinary
Malaysians are not benefiting
but struggling to maintain
their standards of living in
the face of rising prices
caused by both corruption and
rising fuel prices. It is
ridiculous for the BN
government to continue to lie
by claiming an inflation rate
of only 2% from January to
September 2007 when the true
situation on the ground is
more than 20% where even the
poor man’s vegetable onions
have doubled in price, milk
powder have gone up by 30%
and flour by 51% this year.
BN has ignored the hardships
faced by the people by
refusing to fight corruption
and share in Petronas huge
profits. Instead of spending
RM 40 billion annually on
subsidies, DAP proposes that
amount to be shared with
Malaysians by giving annually
RM 3,000 to working
Malaysians earning less than
RM 3,000 monthly and annually
RM 6,000 to a family with a
combined income of less than
RM 6,000 monthly. Sharing RM
40 billion of Petronas
profits on Malaysians would
not only reduce subsidies,
allow Malaysian to face
rising prices but also spur
the economy by allowing RM 40
billion to spur our local
domestic retail market.
(15/11/2007)
* Lim Guan
Eng,
Secretary-General of DAP |