Karpal hits out at Umno for anti-Anwar campaign

GEORGE TOWN: Veteran DAP parliamentarian Karpal Singh slammed Umno-dominated federal government for carrying out a malicious political assassination campaign against opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim.

Karpal said Barisan Nasional government's move to refer Anwar to the powerful special rights and privileges parliamentary committee and the ongoing Sodomy 2 trial were scripts written to kill the Permatang Pauh MP politically.

“Surely the Umno government is using legal tools to execute an all out political kill on Anwar because it fears him,” Bukit Gelugor MP Karpal told FMT today.

Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Nazri Abdul Aziz announced that the Putrajaya administration planned to refer Anwar to the committee over the PKR supremo’s claims that Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak's '1Malaysia' was a carbon copy of the 'One Israel' concept.

Should that be the case, Anwar could face a possible suspension from parliament.

Karpal accused the Umno government of abusing and misusing the special rights and privileges committee for political mileage.

He said in many democracies, a parliamentarian would only be referred to the committee in an ‘extreme case of serious magnitude’, not for raising a question on a government concept.

He recalled he was once referred to the committee in 2004 when he complained that several ministers did not raise their right arm when taking oath to office.

He also said the recent legal actions against Pakatan top leaders, such as being investigated for holding ceramahs, also revealed the BN government’s malicious campaign to cripple its opponents.

“I have been slapped with 103 police reports,” quipped Karpal.

However, he warned Umno that they would eventually pay the price and bite dust in the next general election for their political forays and follies.

He said the federal government's strategy to undertake court and legal actions against Pakatan leaders would be counter- productive.

“It will backfire on the ruling BN coalition in court of public opinion. I am sure the people would boot out BN and vote in Pakatan in the next round,” he said.

Anti-hopping law

Meanwhile, speaking to reporters yesterday, Karpal called on the BN government to table a bill to amend the federal constitution to bar party hopping among elected representatives.

He said the DAP, with 28 MPs, would back such anti-hopping amendment.

He also said he would persuade both PKR and PAS leaders to back the initiative if undertaken by the federal government.

Pakatan was recently rocked by defections of three PKR MPs – Zahrain Md Hashim (Bayan Baru), Tan Tee Beng (Nibong Tebal) and Mohsin Fadzli Samsuri (Bagan Serai) – and the sacking of another, Kulim – Bandar Bahru parliamentarian Zulkifli Noordin. The four have since become independent MPs.

Former PKR secretary-general Salehuddin Hashim, Zahrain and several Umno leaders have warned that more Pakatan MPs would defect and become independent parliamentarians.

FMT
21/03/10

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