By J. D. Lovrenciear
Malaysia continues to have bouts of shocking news since the
run-up to the GE-13. Of late, the nation is in shock after learning from the
alternative media – in particular, of two key leaders embroiled in highly
questionable circumstances that not only affect their individual credibility
but more so the very entities they are leading.
The Home Minister and the current Inspector General of Police are in
hot soup. And the cauldron will get hotter by the hours until and unless they
are able to clear all allegations, suspicions and any wrong perceptions. Their continuing
silence is unhealthy for the nation’s honor and certainly damages the integrity
of the organization’s they head.
This is not a time for the proverbial monkey-stance of see
no evil, speak no evil, hear no evil. The very fact that they are heading the
very bodies that are vested with law enforcement, protection of nation, rakyat
and King, and serving as vanguards of safety and security of Malaysia, they have
a categorically imperative duty to come clean immediately of the charges making
its waves through the media.
In any other dignified nation, the implicated person or
persons would tender their immediate resignation first and pursue judicial redress subsequently, before
returning to their seats of power. That would be the right action to take in
the best interest of all fellow comrades and the institutions they head. But
since this is not the tradition of BN, the burden of proof and decision has nowhere but to
fall flat on the BN leader’s lap.
Datuk Seri Najib Razak, the Prime Minister – even though he
is from the minority government, has a moral and express duty to expedite
clarification of the matters afflicting his appointed leaders to ALL Malaysians.
The PM owes
quick action in the interest of all law abiding Malaysians as well as the external
audiences ranging from foreign investors, political associates, and heads of
nations especially our ASEAN fraternity and even international bodies dedicated
to the fight for democracy and humanitarian justice.
Since the affected and implicated individuals are not moving
their butt, there are only two options left to salvage the dignity and honor of
Malaysia, the battered image of the BN-led government, the embroiled PM himself
and of course the entire uniformed forces of Malaysia.
One, the PM sets off the two individuals on paid leave until
and when the dark clouds clear with transparent and accountable actions with
justice seen to be dispensed accordingly. The second option would be that the PM sacks them first without
further delay and lets the law take its due course. For both options, what is the underlying Principle of Best Practice?
The Principle of Best Practice demands that for as long as
there are established legal cases in progress or concluded and implicating bad or
malafide and questionable behavior on the part of the appointed leaders,
holding public positions of leadership is absolutely untenable.
If the PM further delays his decisive and swift action, it
only provides his opponents extra rope to hang the minority government of BN.
In fact now that the Opposition has raised the alarm bells on these two issues
even before the PM saw the urgency to redress, serves as a serious and crippling disadvantage
for the PM.
Hence his continued silence will only compound his political party
further. Wonder where and who are the PM’s seemingly learned,
experienced and knowledgeable political and Public Relations advisors?
If the PM feels that he has sufficient information and
grounds to save the reputation and credibility of the Home Minister and the
IGP, then it is equally critical that he expeditiously goes on prime time news
to explain the details and bring salvation to the uniformed forces and the Office
of the Home Ministry.
A
failure on the part of the PM to act decisively and
immediately is a serious attack on the dignity and reputation of
Malaysia. Let us not deny or belittle this fact. We
cannot go on and on, allowing indecisiveness and highly questionable
actions to
incessantly rape and destroy His Majesty’s sovereign nation - unless if
we are all resigned to the mantra of "semua-nya okay" and live by that
infamous quote, "Tutup satu mata".
Accepting the results of GE-13 is not a problem. But if the
in-coming minority-government continues to be plagued, smudged and smeared in murky,
contentious and ridiculous issues that speak volumes about the inability to
govern with integrity and honor, what do we do? Let them carry on? Then where
is our patriotism? Whereat rests our sense of loyalty and duty to King and
nation?
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