Sarawak vote-buying scandal: Malaysian PM should be prosecuted
The Bruno Manser Fund believes that, given the strong evidence of his involvement in vote-buying, the Malaysian Prime Minister should indeed be prosecuted and asks the international community – governments, NGOs and the media – to give their full attention to the further development of this serious issue during the coming weeks.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Dear friends,
following our 8 June 2010 release on the Malaysian Prime Minister Najb Abdul Razak’s involvement in vote-buying for a Sarawak timber tycoon, our attention has been drawn to a posting on Sarawak Report, a blog focussing on governance issues in the Malaysian state of Sarawak on Borneo. Under the title “Time to Prosecute”, Sarawak Report comments on the Malaysian Prime Minister’s infamous Sibu speech with the following words: “In any other country Najib’s admissions would have made headline news and been followed by live TV pictures of him being bundled into a policed van and banged up in jail. These are very serious criminal offences that he has openly admitted to”.
Sarawak Report refers to the fact that, in his Sibu speech, Najib did not only offer 5 million Malaysian Ringgit (US $ 1.5 million) of government funds in return for the population to vote for the son of a local timber tycoon but also openly admitted to have bought votes in an earlier by-election in Hulu Selangor, West Malaysia. The Hulu Selangor by-election was narrowly won by the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition. Its results are being contested by the opposition in a pending election petition.
According to a statement by Karpal Singh, the lawyer of the Malaysian opposition leader, Anwar Ibrahim, Najib’s speech is a “very serious offence” under the Election Offences Act. The Malaysian Insider reported on 23 May that the Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission (MACC) had announced to investigate complaints that had been lodged against the Prime Minister. However, on 7 June Malaysiakini reported that the Dewan Rakyat, the lower house of the Malaysian Parliament, refused to discuss questions by an opposition MP why neither the Malaysian Anti Corruption Commision nor the Election Commission were investigating the case.
The Bruno Manser Fund believes that, given the strong evidence of his involvement in vote-buying, the Malaysian Prime Minister should indeed be prosecuted and asks the international community – governments, NGOs and the media – to give their full attention to the further development of this serious issue during the coming weeks.
If you read this message, please
a) forward it to government representatives in your country and ask your government to formally protest with the local Malaysian embassy against vote-buying in Malaysia.
b) forward it to the media in your country and ask them to take up this hitherto underreported – if not completely unreported – scandal.
Thank you very much.
Your BMF team
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Links:
Malaysian PM Najib Razak’s infamous Sibu speech on Malaysiakini TV: www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwNLT428PqU
Lawyer Karpal Singh’s statement on Malaysiakini TV: www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZez3tPhkrA
Sarawak Report comment on the issue: http://sarawakreport.org/2010/06/time-to-prosecute/
Reports by the Malaysian Insider:
Latest Malaysiakini report on the issue: www.malaysiakini.com/news/133873
BMF 8 June 2010 release: Timber corruption – Malaysian PM caught red-handed: http://www.bmf.ch/en/news/?show=208
