If Mahathir had been so confident of retaining two-thirds parliamentary majority, the tenth general election would have been held already, and he would not have been forced to resort to such an outrageous and scandalous action as to dissolve Parliament in mid-session when there is no political or constitutional crisis, resulting in four weeks of parliamentary meeting going to waste.
Five Bills which had been passed by the Dewan Rakyat, Sale of Drugs (Amendment) Bill 1999, the Child Bill 1999, Supplementary Supply 1999 (No. 2) Bill 1999, the Income Tax (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 1999 and the Public Service Tribunal (Dissolution) Bill 1999 as well as the 2000 Budget - for which debate had taken place for eight days - have all lapsed, and they have all to be introduced again in the new Parliament.
This demonstrates that Mahathir's decision to go to polls is not only
a last-minute one, catching all - both the other Barisan Nasional leaders
as well as the Barisan Alternative - by surprise, but also reflects certain
desperation in having lost control of choosing the best time to call for
election.
This is probably why Mahathir had started on his campaign of lies and
falsehoods against the Barisan Alternative when announcing the dissolution
of Parliament yesterday.
He alleged that PAS was willing to do anything to get support particularly from the DAP and that " Whatever the DAP wants, PAS will entertain".
However, to the Chinese and non-Malays, Barisan Nasional leaders are spreading the opposite message, that the DAP had sold out our political principles just to placate PAS.
It is very sad that Mahathir, who had only last week launched a UMNO campaign to counter purported lies and falsehoods by the Opposition, should now be leading a campaign of lies and falsehoods against the Barisan Alternative.
I call on Mahathir to set an example of clean, honest and ethical election campaigning to make the next election the cleanest rather than the dirtiest election in the nation’s history.
(11/11/99)