RETIRED DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang has raised a red flag on the seriousness of Perikatan Nasional’s (PN) graft busting ideals.
Taking a swipe at the coalition’s chairman Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, the 81-year-old veteran lawmaker claimed that the Bersatu president is not against corruption but is “only opposed to the monstrous 1MDB (1Malaysia Development Bhd) scandal for which he was sacked as Deputy Prime Minister and Deputy UMNO President by Najib Razak and later sacked from UMNO”.
“This is why during his ‘backdoor premiership’ from March 2020 to August 2021, the Transparency International (TI) Corruption Perception Index (CPI) 2021 dropped five spots to 62nd position out of 180 countries – and scored 48 out of 100 points in the index – compared to its 2020 score of 51,” lamented Kit Siang in his latest blog.
“In 2020 the country ranked 57 while in 2019 it was placed at 51 with a score of 53 points. Malaysia’s TI CPI was the best in 25 years in the first year of Pakatan Harapan (PH) government in 2018 while TI CPI 2021 reflecting Muhyiddin’s ‘backdoor’ premiership was the worst in 27 years.”
This, according to Kit Siang, is powerful proof that corruption is rampant in the Malaysia not just because of the 1MDB scandal but also a long catalogue of other financial and corruption scandals apart from the 1MDB scandal.
“I believe Malaysia will suffer a further plunge in the TI CPI 2022 to be released in January 2023 that reflects (caretaker PM’s Datuk Seri) Ismail Sabri Yaakob’s second ‘backdoor premiership’,” he projected.
Earlier in blog, Kit Siang has contended that both Barisan Nasional (BN) and PN leaders are offering Malaysians an impossible formula during in the forthcoming 15th General Election (GE15) – “that with more corruption, Malaysia will have stability and prosperity”.
He therefore challenged both BN and PN leaders, in particular UMNO president Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, Muhyiddin and PAS president Tan Sri Hadi Awang, to tell him which country in the world has stability and prosperity because they have rampant corruption.
“All three BN/PN leaders, Zahid, Muhyiddin and Hadi, have problematic stand on corruption,” asserted Kit Siang.
“Zahid is on video as declaring at the MIC Assembly on October 10 that the GE15 is the ‘mother of all elections’ to free UMNO/BN leaders from being charged in court for corruption.”
He added: “Zahid, Muhyiddin and Hadi have no qualms if Malaysia falls lower and lower in future TI CPIs even if China overtake Malaysia before 2030 and Indonesia and India overtake Malaysia in the decade after 2030.” – Nov 12, 2022
