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DAP calls on MPs whether BN, BA or DAP to take a common stand in Parliament tomorrow to demand the immediate   withdrawal of the  new  Form IV history textbook “SEJARAH – Tingkatan 4”and the reinstatement of the old previous textbook “Sejarah Peradaban Dunia – Tingkatan 4” to produce students prepared to face global challenges instead of being experts in Islamic history


Speech (2)
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meeting of Perak DAP Branch leaders
by Lim Kit Siang

(IpohMonday): Tomorrow, Parliament will reconvene for a 40-day meeting from September 2 to November 6, which will debate the 2004 Budget after its presentation in the Dewan Rakyat on Friday, September 12, 2003. 

The coming Parliamentary meeting will be unique and unprecedented, for it will be the first time in the nation’s history that Parliament will meet with an incumbent Prime Minister but adjourn under a new Prime Minister, as Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamad would have passed the baton of  premiership to Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi in less than two months after  the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) Summit in Putrajaya from 16th to 18th October, 2003 – before the end of the parliamentary meeting. 

No specific date has been announced as to when Mahathir would formally step down as the longest-serving Prime Minister of Malaysia, but it will be in the last ten days  of October, as he has another  final  international conference to attend after the OIC Summit – the APEC Summit in Bangkok on October 20-21 -  before he relinquishes the premiership after more than 22 years.  

There are some opposition leaders and commentators who do not expect Abdullah to take over as the fifth Prime Minister by the end of October, as they believe  that Mahathir would find a reason to stay on, including dissolving Parliament and holding general elections soon after the presentation of the 2004 Budget on Sept. 12, so that the parliamentary debate on the budget next year is truncated and aborted in mid-course, which was what happened to the 2000 Budget presented at the end of October 1999, when  Parliament was suddenly dissolved  for the holding of 1999 general elections, aborting the parliamentary budget debate. 

There is nothing in law and the constitution to prevent Mahathir from repeating what he had done in 1999, except politics and the dynamics of the passing of the baton from him to Abdullah. 

Unless Mahathir has decided on the drastic decision to change the succession plan or to humiliate Abdullah and undermine the latter’s political authority, legitimacy and survival chances when