It is almost comical seeing the immense coverage given by vernacular newspapers to non-Malay Barisan Nasional component party leaders who took turns threatening to quit the coalition as a result of the tabling of the hudud motion in Parliament.
Top leaders of MCA, MIC, Gerakan as well as Sabah and Sarawak parties were up in arms, thumping their chests, screaming betrayal by UMNO for allowing PAS President and Member of Parliament for Marang, Dato’ Seri Hadi Awang to table the motion on “hudud”, ahead of other Government business in Parliament.
The question which needs to be asked is simply, where were these BN component party leaders when the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Dato’ Seri Azalina Othman, who obviously received the endorsement of Dato’ Seri Najib Razak himself, tabled the motion to prioritize Dato’ Seri Hadi Awang’s private members’ bill over government business?
Why was it that only opposition Members of Parliament were brave enough to stand up to question the irregularity of the entire exercise, which was perhaps the first in the history of Malaysian Parliament?
Why did Liow Tiong Lai, Wee Ka Siong, Joseph Kurup, Mah Siew Keong, Joseph Pairin Kitingan or members of their parties stand up to protest the unprecedented event which took place on the last day of the sitting on Thursday last week?
Or is all the brouhaha merely just an afterthought, a show to placate a shocked electorate who has lost total confidence in these BN component parties to protect their rights enshrined in the constitution?
Or are these leaders now threatening to quit for show in order to limit the damage resulting from the admitted collusion between UMNO and PAS?
None of the threats to quit are of course credible. The last time MCA and Gerakan threatened to quit the Cabinet if the results from the 13th General Election showed no improvement, the party leaders obediently put the tails between their legs and meekly crawled back into the Cabinet.
And if these BN leaders really mean their quit threats, then why haven’t they similarly threatened to quit over the RM55 bilion 1MDB and RM4.2 billion Najib-donation scandals?
Are MCA, Gerakan, MIC, Upko, SUPP and PBB more than happy to continue supporting a Prime Minister who has been directly accused of siphoning billions of dollars from the Finance Ministry subsidiary, 1MDB? Even the Auditor-General has confirmed that his office was unable to verify the authenticity and existence of US$7 billion (RM28 billion) of 1MDB transactions, assets and cash conducted overseas.
If they are indeed principled parties and individuals they claim themselves to be, why have they not made any similar threats when Dato’ Seri Najib Razak brought shame to Malaysia in a global scandal which is being investigated in more than 7 countries across the world? Is it because they are also beneficiaries of the stolen funds from 1MDB?
Malaysia is now a renown kleptocracy in the world. If these chest-thumping BN leaders do not quit over the theft of billions of dollars from the Malaysian tax-payers, then their threats to resign are clearly just for show to minimise the damage caused the dalliance between UMNO and PAS.
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