(Butterworth, Thursday): When Parliament reconvenes on Monday, 13th July 1998, there are 13 items of parliamentary business, one government bill and 12 motions submitted by Opposition MPs, seven by DAP MPs namely MP for Kepong, Dr. Tan Seng Giaw, MP for Kota Melaka, Lim Guan Eng, MP for Teluk Intan Kula Segaran and myself, while five motions by the PAS MP, Haji Wan Mohd Jamil bin Wan Mahmood.
My motion calling for the setting up of a Royal Commission of Inquiry on Nepotism with special focus on the children and associates of all political leaders, whether government or opposition is the second item of parliamentary business after the second reading and passage of the Chemists Amendment Bill.
However, going by past practice, Barisan Nasional MPs would drag out the debate on the Chemists Amendment Bill so as to "kill" my motion on a Royal Commission of Inquiry into Nepotism on the first day of Parliament, as by the second day, there would be other government bills to occupy parliamentary time.
I call on the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, not to resort to such unfair and undemocratic tactics, and in recognition of the national and international concern about KKN, i.e. corruption, cronyism and nepotism, to agree to give my motion for the setting up of a Royal Commission of Inquiry on Nepotism top priority and be the first item of parliamentary business after question time - before the debate on the Chemists Amendment Bill.
This will be a test whether the Barisan Nasional government will not misuse its overwhelming 90 per cent majority in Parliament as to block debate of important national issues.
In the four-day UMNO and UMNO Youth General Assemblies, corruption, cronyism and nepotism took the centre-stage for the first time in history.
Although the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamad finally denied that there was KKN in Malaysia - corruption, cronyism and nepotism - although earlier he tried to give an absurd definition of cronyism and nepotism to make them disappear from the Malaysian political scene, the issue cannot and will not end with just bare denials. If bare denials can resolve serious allegations of corruption, cronyism and nepotism, Suharto would still be President of Indonesia today.
At the UMNO General Assembly, Mahathir released a list of names of those awarded privatised projects. The list of 171 companies includes the names of major shareholders and those connected to party and government leaders. Mahathir also made available another set containing 114 companies which had been offered privatised projects in principle.
I have also given notice to ask following question in Parliament on
Monday: "To ask the Prime Minister whether he would table in Parliament
a full and complete list of companies awarded privatised projects, government
contracts, share allocations, approved permits (APs) and licences in the
first week of the current meeting of Parliament and adopt a new policy
that
all such awards would be made public on a half-yearly basis."
This is the fourth question which would be answered on the first day of Parliament on Monday.
The other six DAP motions submitted to next week�s Parliament are as follows: a motion by Dr. Tan Seng Giaw on the millennium bug, four motions by Lim Guan Eng on environmental crisis of haze, the undemocratic military junta in Burma, East Timor and the scapegoating of the Indonesian Chinese minority in the recent Indonesian crisis and one motion by Kula Segaran on the ratification of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
(9/7/98)