The Final Battle in Parliament Begins
The first meeting of the fifth term of the Twelfth Parliament of Malaysia will commence today and this could well be the last sitting before the upcoming 13th General Election. The Malaysian people are expecting a lot of intense political drama which unofficially started yesterday when Women, Family and Community Development Minister Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil announced that she will be relinquishing her ministerial post as well as her senatorship.
The National Feedlot Centre (NFC) fiasco has been going on for the past few months and Shahrizat has been holding the fort up until yesterday despite still giving an ultra-ridiculous vindication that she has nothing to do with NFC and that she is only the wife of its chairman Datuk Dr Mohamed Salleh Ismail. That is like saying “Hey, I’m innocent. So please go and get my husband instead”. I think Shahrizat need not be worried because, sooner or later, it will get to the part where the authorities will go after the husband, as well as their whole family.
A few important things are being lined up for this sitting. First being the repeal of the Internal Security Act 1960 (ISA), the amendment of the University University College Act 1974 and I’m sure the issue of NFC will be brought up by the opposition in this sitting.
Prime Minister Najib Razak announced the repeal of ISA on the eve of Malaysia Day last year. The move was hailed by DAP secretary-general and ex-ISA detainee, Lim Guan Eng as “an epochal move” but cautioned that the federal government should not try to dress up the old laws in new security laws being proposed by Najib.
Najib also announced that two new security laws to replace the ISA would be introduced for preventive detention which would be limited only to cases of terrorism and “ensure that basic human rights are protected”. Yet many are skeptical saying that the new laws could be just another ISA in disguise.
Last February, Deputy Higher Education Minister Saifuddin Abdullah announced the Draft amendments to the Universities and University Colleges Act (UUCA) 1974 will be tabled in Parliament in March. He said the amendments will hopefully usher the return of the student movement’s golden era in the 60s and 70s when students were seen as idea makers of national development. This was when students were allowed to be involved in any political parties either Barisan Nasional (BN) or the Opposition.
Then there is the Selangor sand-mining scandal issue which was highlighted recently by blogger Raja Petra Kamaruddin, who revealed that two PKR leaders were listed as directors of the firm implicated in the sand mining operations. The two leaders are Seri Muda assemblyman Shuhaimi Shafie and Batu Caves assemblyman Amirudin Shari.
Last week, PKR strategic director Rafizi Ramli claimed nearly half a million dollars was spent by the Prime Minister for the engagement of her daughter in Kazakhstan on June 17 last year. He revealed in a press conference documents he claimed as evidence that the Najib had misappropriated public funds for the ceremony. He said the total cost incurred for the event is RM409,767. Bear in mind that this was just for the engagement and not the yet-to-be-held wedding.
If this sitting is truly the last before the coming 13th General Election, we can expect representatives from both sides to be at each other’s throats to highlight alleged wrongdoings by both parties. And this might be the most intense Dewan Rakyat sitting in the history of Malaysia. So citizens of Malaysia, brace yourselves for disorder in the house during the final battle in Parliament.
