In the past year we have seen the expose of the largest corruption scandal ever in the history of our nation’s kleptocracy. Per international legal proceedings, almost RM 15 billion have been siphoned from the coffers of our nation and its citizens. Malaysia’s own Attorney General cleared the Prime Minister and his government of any wrongdoing, and the whole world was stunned.
Yet, last week’s EC proposal for redelineation of federal parliamentary seat boundaries set us up for an incalculably greater theft: the larceny of our entire nation and its government by a corrupt minority seeking to guarantee itself a parliamentary supermajority before even a single vote is cast.
BN seeks to win a football match by tilting the field, widening their opponents goal, and breaking the legs of the other team before the game even starts. But this is no game. The issue at hand is the very lives of the people of Malaysia, and the future of our children and our grandchildren in the decades to come.
This action is an affront to democracy, and we must spare no energies to ensure such scandalous efforts to steal our nation from under us are rejected summarily until a Royal Commission of Inquiry is set up by the Yang Di-Pertuan Agong to address this existential threat to our entire democracy.
Quantifying the Impact of Unchecked Corruption
Multiple analyses are showing that allowing the enactment of the EC’s redelineation proposal risks condemning Malaysia to a permanent BN government, with decimated opposition and no accountability whatsoever.
Imagine then the unfathomable drainage of the nation’s coffers through 1MDB and related scandals, and multiply this nightmare tenfold, or more. That is the future awaiting us if we allow this flawed redelineation exercise to continue.
We know 1MDB is just one scandal among countless others from BN leadership top to bottom, some of which have come to light, and many others of which are undoubtedly still secret. Given almost RM15 Billion of theft, fraud and misappropriation by this Prime Minister’s government, that amounts to roughly RM 7,000 stolen per each of Malaysia’s 2.2 million tax payers.
No household in this country can nor should afford to subsidize the BN elite with RM 7,000. Public funds are the funds of the rakyat. These funds should better be in the hands of our citizens, to invest themselves in superior education for their children, skills training for their own better employment, or any of the innumerable items we need to improve the quality of life for our own families — not to fatten BN’s top 1% engorging themselves by cheating our nation.
The quantifiable danger of this redelineation proposal is the virtual guarantee that a BN government can once again lose the popular vote and again still win back the parliament. But, additionally, they would now come back with a two-thirds majority, capable of changing the constitution itself with no check or balance on their power. In a future with this redelineation, 1MDB could be just the tip of the iceberg. If we do not stop this now, we risk losing everything.
The End of Freedom
Today the BN government and the apparatus of their police state arrest cartoonists, journalists and opposition leaders for exercising free speech. Our nation is already shamed by its wrongful detention and imprisonment of numerous political prisoners over the past decade, none more notable than Dato Seri Anwar Ibrahim, the pioneer and champion of Muslim Democrats worldwide. If the EC’s delineation proposal were enacted, truly no one will be safe from this overreach of power and abuse of justice.
Despite the BN’s abysmal 47% public support in GE13, they had the audacity to introduce draconian amendments to the archaic Sedition Act 1948 they had once pledged to repeal. Even in the current parliament, BN found a way to displace the power and structure led by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong into the hands of the Prime Minister by passing the dangerous National Security Council Act.
We cannot stand to even imagine a future that could be even worse.
The recommendations of the EC are heading our nation in the direction of a fascist state, instead of moving closer to our ideals of a representative democracy. Some parties may argue that it is ‘not that bad’, my stern caution to them would be this: if righteous people do not stand together now, who will be left standing when the BN supermajority starts amending the constitution against your liberty, freedoms and human rights of any who have a differing view point to their leaders in the future?
Call to Action
We are at a political crossroads seemingly darker and more ominous than any that has come before us in our history. Just as other nations of ASEAN, OIC, and others around the world work to improve their governments and governance, Malaysia stands uniquely poised to fall into a political abyss from which we may long not recover. There can be no excuse for the people and leaders of our nation to allow this to pass. Our call is clear, and must be repeated:
Lodge protests across every affected district, rejecting the disenfranchisement and undemocratic process of the EC’s proposal
Support and attend the Bersih 5.0 rally in unstoppable numbers whose call for justice cannot be ignored
Join us in petition and appeal to, the Yang DiPertuan Agong to reject this proposal by the Election Commission and create a Royal Commission of Inquiry leading to an objective, independent and democratic system of electoral district apportionment in Malaysia.
NURUL IZZAH ANWAR
Member of Parliament Lembah Pantai
Vice President and Election Director of KEADILAN
