Najib evasive, giant anti-gambling rally to proceed

ARCHIVES 2010

By admin-s On Jun 8, 2010

“We also note that Vincent Tan has talked as though it is already in his pocket. He even threatened to take legal action against the Pakatan states if they banned sports betting, while MCA ministers also accused Pakatan of violating the federal constitution. Who is lying, will we ever get a straight answer?”

By Malaysia Chronicle

Unless and until there is a clear-cut decision from Prime Minister Najib Razak that his government will drop plans to legalize sports betting, a mammoth rally will be carried out in Kuala Lumpur on July 3 to send a memorandum of protest to the King.

Pakatan Rakyat leaders Anwar Ibrahim, Hadi Awang and Lim Kit Siang will lead the march to the Palace and pundits are expecting the crowd to swell into tens of thousands, exceeding even last Friday’s 20,000-strong anti-Israel rally.

“So far, Najib has been evasive to questions asked even in Parliament regarding the license awarded to Vincent Tan’s Ascot Sports,” Batu MP Tian Chua told Malaysia Chronicle.

“The PM did not once say his government would reject legalizing sports betting. So this is the threat we still face – of additional and unnecessary vices infiltrating our lifestyle.”

Who is lying?

Last week, several NGOs formed the People’s Movement Against Gambling or GMJ to organize protests across the nation. The finale was to be a giant procession through the streets of Kuala Lumpur to the Palace.

While gambling is banned by Islam, non-Muslims are also participating as many believe that there are already enough gaming choices in the country such as lotteries and other numbers forecast games. There is also a casino in Genting, Pahang.

“Obviously, something fishy is going on. The question remains, why did the Najib administration review such a plan. Is Malaysia going bankrupt, is our fiscal deficit so out of control? What has he been doing as Finance Minister or are there ulterior reasons such as kickbacks and corruption?,” asked Tian.