Kedah Gerakan Youth leader chief Tan Keng Liang rebuked PKR national Youth chief Shamsul Iskandar Akin because Shamsul had criticised Prime minister Najib Abdul Razak for telling everyone to stop passing judgments on the “Rais Yatim” case.
Tan seems to be making a habit of being close to controversy. It was two weeks ago that he made a sexist remark about pregnant women on maternity leave. He has yet to apologise for this sexist remark which he directed at Hannah Yeoh, assemblywoman for Selangor.
So, is Tan out to score brownie points with Umno? Ever since Gerakan’s dismal performance in the 12th general election, the party has failed to inspire and regain the public’s confidence.
In his latest outburst, Tan said that in a fair and democratic country, a person shall be presumed innocent until proven guilty and pointed out that one cannot be prejudged and sentenced.
He is of course correct. The only difference is that we are not in a ‘fair and democratic country’. Malaysia is far from fair and it is only democratic in name.
How many times have Umno/BN politicians, including others higher up in the social scale, escaped justice whether it is for rape, sexual assault, murder, corruption or currency irregularities? (The list at the end of this article might help jog his memory.)
Did these people ever face prosecution? Or were they saved by their allegiance to Umno?
Shamsul is right to reprimand Najib for being irresponsible and for practicing double standards when he said, “It shows two sets of law being applied here, one for Umno and another against the opponents of Umno.”
However, Tan claimed that Shamsul’s criticism of Najib had put the country’s political standards at its lowest ebb. He also accused certain political factions of ‘making false allegations against BN leaders merely to serve their selfish agenda’ and he alleged that ‘these quarters were prepared to sow seeds of suspicion among Malaysians that all BN leaders were criminals as charged without proper probes and trials’.
Tan is mistaken because Najib and Umno have placed our politics at its lowest ebb without any help from anyone else.
If Umno was not trying to protect itself, it would have demanded an investigation into its member who is allegedly accused or rape, to preserve whatever is left of its name. But it hasn’t, has it? It is Umno who has the ‘selfish agenda’.
Tan said that he was disappointed that these quarters were willing to deploy any unethical methods to achieve their political goals. He said that the whole episode had already unfairly tarnished the image of Rais and his family, as well as the country’s international reputation.
“Are these principles of justice and democracy advocated by Pakatan?” asked Tan.
It is bizarre that Tan has not noticed his 'surroundings'. A girl has been raped. She has no means of defending herself. It was expected that before long, those who were responsible would ‘get to her’ to silence her, one way or another. It has happened.
Tan is naïve to think that this is the first and last sexual assault involving our politicians. If he cannot even put himself in the shoes of the electorate, how can his party possibly hope to regain their trust?
Tan may have questioned Pakatan’s principles of justice and democracy, but is confused about his own party's.
A telling example of Tan's misplaced priorities is that he was quick to come to the defence of Umno but has said nothing about supporting the family of Teoh Beng Hock - the man who died in suspicious circumstance after being interrogated by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission.
Tan is silent about supporting the family's call for a Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) which will investigate fully Teoh’s suspicious death rather than a RCI which is limited to the investigation methods of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission.
What then, are Gerakan's principles of justice and democracy?
Posts
0 comments:
Post a Comment