The veteran politician said in a statement today that Sultan Nazrin’s concern over corruption and criminal breach of trust committed openly by highly-educated and high-ranking individuals should serve as an end-of-the-year reminder to both the federal and state governments.
“The Perak Sultan’s warning is most timely as a serious denial syndrome has afflicted the political leadership in the country,” the Gelang Patah MP said.
Sultan Nazrin said history had shown that criminal breach of trust and corrupt practices, and ravenous use of power were factors that had caused the downfall of many governments and the collapse of civilisations.
Saying this was not the first time that the Rulers had expressed concern about the importance of upholding public integrity, Lim reminded that at the pre-council meeting of the 239th Conference of Rulers on Oct 7, 2015 , the Rulers had expressed concern about the 1MDB scandal.
They had then asked the government to complete the 1MDB investigations as soon as possible and to take “the appropriate stern action” against all found to be implicated.
“Fourteen months have passed since the Conference of Rulers’ statement, but not a single person implicated in the global 1MDB kleptocratic scandal had been brought to book, despite the very attenuated recommendations for action by the Barisan Nasional-dominated Public Accounts Committee in April this year.”
Quoting part of the statement of the Rulers, the DAP parliamentary leader said they had called on the government to report “comprehensively and in a transparent manner” on the issue.
The Rulers had said: “The findings of the investigation must be reported comprehensively and in a transparent manner so that the people will be convinced of the sincerity of the government which should not conceal facts and the truth. Failure to provide a convincing clarification and answers might result in a crisis of confidence.
“As a consequence, the people believe, whether based on reality or perception, that this is among the causes for the plunge in the value of the Malaysian ringgit, impacting the country’s financial market and economic climate negatively and at the same time adversely affecting the world’s view of Malaysia.
“The Malay Rulers are concerned that if the issue is not handled wisely and allowed to prolong, it could jeopardise the country’s economy, the people’s livelihood, as well as threaten public order and national security.”
Lim said the intervening 14 months had fully vindicated the Conference of Rulers in their concerns about the 1MDB scandal. The words of warning of the Conference of Rulers had proven to be very prescient, he added.
He said the 1MDB scandal had become “ever monstrous in scope and magnitude”since then.
Instead of going for the corrupt, the authorities had been targeting anti-corruption leaders such as Pakatan Harapan MPs Tony Pua and Rafizi Ramli, Bersih officials Ambiga Sreenivasan and Maria Chin, and even student leader Anis Syafiqah Md Yusuf, Lim said.
“I call on the Najib Cabinet to heed Sultan Nazrin’s warning, halt all persecution of anti-corruption leaders like Tony Pua, Rafizi Ramli, Ambiga Sreenivan, Maria Chin and Anis Syafiqah Md Yusuf and take immediate action to end the unprecedented crisis of confidence caused by the 1MDB scandal,” Lim said.