Datuk Seri Dr. Wee Ka Siong is the Datuk Seri Dr. Zahid Hamidi of MCA. At least when Zahid claims to represent the Malays, he can do so without batting an eyelid. Can Wee honestly and honourably claim to represent the Chinese, even in the Ayer Hitam parliamentary constituency? Wee is the sole MCA MP in Parliament. But who sent him to Parliament – the Chinese of Malaysia or UMNO’s Malay vote bank?
Would Wee have the political honour and integrity to immediately resign as MP for Ayer Hitam so that he could truly, honesty and honourably speak on behalf of the Chinese in Malaysia? Wee had been proud to be compared to Zahid, but not after Dec 18. At least Zahid had the political instinct to step aside as UMNO President and have his portrait taken down at the UMNO Supreme Council meeting room. Have Wee the political guts to do the same? Nobody have said it better than former MCA President, Datuk Seri Dr. Chua Soi Lek who had condemned the MCA Ministers for not speaking out on the 1MDB scandal when in government. He said the MCA leadership had five years and many opportunities to transform MCA, but he had seen no changes. As Chua said, winning the MCA party election is the easiest part, but the real challenge is on how to transform MCA into an effective Opposition party.so as to regain the support and confidence of the party members.
As I observed early this month, the MCA General Assembly after Wee was elected MCA President must be the most humiliating experience of the MCA in its 69-year history – worse than the 2103 General Election when it became a 7/11 political party, or the 2018 general election, when it degenerated into a mosquito party winning only one parliamentary seat. I said: “In the last two days, whatever is left of MCA pride and dignity were dragged over the coals by UMNO leaders, with Zahid reminding MCA to know its place; UMNO Deputy President Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan urging MCA to leave Barisan Nasional (BN) immediately, remarking that he would be ‘very thankful’ if MCA quits BN as ‘We cannot afford to have a burdensome friend when we are already having a tough time, politically’ while even the UMNO-owned Malay daily Utusan Malaysia also joined in the fray, lashing out at MCA for overstepping its authority, branding the party a ‘weakling’ and insignificant member of the former ruling coalition.
“But the most mortifying mistake of last Sunday’s MCA General Assembly was not the resolution that BN dissolves, but its craven and cowardly failure to repudiate former Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak for the monstrous 1MDB corruption and money-laundering scandal which turned Malaysia into a global kleptocracy.” I concluded my remarks saying: “MCA can recover from the attacks of UMNO leaders, however legitimate and justified, but it can never recover from its craven and cowardly failure to repudiate Najib for the monstrous 1MDB scandal which brought to Malaysia to the international infamy, ignominy and iniquity of a global kleptocracy.” Yesterday, Wee said the 1MDB issue cannot be the DAP’s multi-purpose excuse to be exploited every time Pakatan Harapan runs into controversy.
Wee cannot be so naïve as not to know that this is not the case as the DAP will not run away from issues. DAP is not in competition with MCA’s record of spinelessness – to use politics for self-gain, whether titles, position or fortune. This is why in my response to Tan Sri Clement Hii’s FaceBook posting, I had said in Luoyang, Henan on 27th December that the DAP would never become a MCA2, as the DAP would have no hesitation in leaving the coalition government if the objective of a New Malaysia is abandoned. Have MCA in six decades made any such-like statement? This statement was not a threat or announcement of our quitting Pakatan Harapan, but a statement of our political principles and commitment. But petty and small-minded politicians like Wee twisted it into a statement of intent and accused me of making a U-turn when the DAP did not quit Pakatan Harapan.
I do not think the Malaysians can be so easily hook-winked. In fact, the majority of MCA members do not believe in Wee’s obsession with so-called “U-turns”! There can, however, be no doubt that Wee is one of the “enablers of Najib kleptocracy”. Having aided and abetted former Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak in the monstrous 1MDB corruption and money-laundering scandal and the other 1MDB-like scandals in Felda, Felcra, Tabung Haji and MARA, is he prepared to apologise to all Malaysians in the last three days of this year so that he does not have to carry the cross of being an “enabler of Najib kleptocracy” into the new year of 2019? Wee has three days to make a clean breast of his past as an enabler of Najib kleptocracy, and to declare and demonstrate regret and contrition for not standing up to the crime of global kleptocracy and failing to defend the international honour, repute and standing of the nation.
In the spirit of “zero tolerance for corruption”, all who had aided and abetted Najib in his kleptocratic rule must apologise to all Malaysians in the next three days if they are not to carry the cross of “enablers of Najib kleptocracy” into the new year. In the spirit of “zero tolerance for corruption”, which must be the trademark of the “New Malaysia” after the historic May 9, 2018 decision for a peaceful and democratic transition of power in Putrajaya, all who had aided and abetted former Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak in his kleptocratic rule as illustrated by the monstrous 1MDB corruption and money-laundering scandal and the other 1MDB-like scandals in Felda, Felcra, Tabung Haji and MARA, must apologise to all Malaysians in the next three days if they are not to carry the cross of “enablers of Najib kleptocracy” into the new year.
Those in the frontline who aided and abetted the monstrous crimes of kleptocracy in the Najib premiership, the enablers of Najib kleptocracy, are foremost the Ministers in the Najib Cabinet, the Members of Parliament in particular the Speaker of the 13th Parliament who helped Najib to suppress the 1MDB scandal and Najib kleptocracy from being debated in Parliament, and the Barisan Nasional political leaders who had received 1MDB funds from Najib. They have three days to make a clean breast of their past as enablers of Najib kleptocracy, and to declare and demonstrate their regret and contrition for not standing up to the crime of global kleptocracy and failing the nation – or they will carry the cross of being enablers of Najib kleptocracy into the new year.
It is a terrible indictment on what is left of the three Barisan Nasional coalition of UMNO, MCA and MIC as well their former political parties that in the past seven months – whether in Parliament or outside – none of them had conceded that the 1MDB scandal was a national catastrophe or repudiated Najib for the monstrous kleptocracy when he was Prime Minister, and to express their apologies and contrition for their role as “enablers” of Najib kleptocracy. Everyone of the BN MPs, including MCA’s sole MP Datuk Seri Wee Ka Siong, have been tarred with Najib’s kleptocracy, and they have not repented. The same applies to the PAS MPs as well. In fact, in during the 50-day meetings this year of the 14th Parliament, not a single one of the Barisan Nasional MPs whether UMNO, MCA or MIC – and this includes the PAS MPs – had given a speech on the 1MDB corruption scandal, although it is the single biggest global scandal confronting Malaysia.
Can these Opposition MPs explain why? Furthermore, all political parties and politicians, including MPs of the 13th Parliament, should return to public coffers any funding and donations they had received from the 1MDB scandal.
