DAP supremo and Ipoh Timor MP Lim Kit Siang expressed shock and disappointment today at the  incidence of electoral bribery committed by PM Najib Abdul Razak yesterday in offering a RM3 million allocation for a school in Rasa, Hulu Selangor.

NONE Najib, who was accompanied by Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein and MCA president Dr Chua Soi Lek, announced the money would be used to replace the 80-year old building of SRJK (C) in Rasa, Hulu Selangor.    

Newspaper reports of the event quoted Najib as saying: “If we win this by-election, you can come to Kuala Lumpur the next day to look for me. I will write a personal letter to approve the money and it will be transferred to the school board’s account.”

“If we lose, you don’t have to come,” Najib added.

'Third test for MACC'

Following the mysterious death of DAP aide Teoh Beng Hock and the controversial acquittal of two ex-PKR Perak assemblypersons Jamaluddin Mohd Radzi and Mohd Osman Mohd Jailu, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) is now faced with this latest test of its integrity in the form of Najib’s electoral bribe, said Lim.

NONE “Najib ( right ) should not have used the alleged RM3 million approval for Rasa Chinese Primary School as bait for votes in the Hulu Selangor by-election but to come straight-out to announce the RM3 million allocation without strings attached,” said Lim in a statement.

“Education should not become an election or by-election plaything,” he added.

Lim said he was further outraged by “the silence and complicity of MCA leaders” who were present when Najib made the announcement, including Chua Soi Lek, MCA’s two ministers Liew Tiong Lai and Kong Cho Ha and the party’s two deputy ministers Wee Ka Siong and Chor Chee Heung.

“The MCA leaders have again brought shame to the more than one million MCA members in the country,” said Lim.

Secondly, said the veteran opposition politician, Najib had violated the Election Offences Act 1957.

Citing Section 10 (1) of the Election Offences Act, Lim said it is an election offence for any person to promise “any money or valuable consideration” to any voter to induce him “to vote or refrain from voting” at any election.

Najib “clearly” committed this offense with the RM3 million promise for Rasa Chinese Primary School with the qualification that it would be withheld if BN loses Hulu Selangor to Pakatan Rakayt, said Lim.

“This is MACC’s latest and greatest test – dare it investigate the Prime Minister whether he had violated the Election Offences Act 1954 for RM3 million electoral bribery in Hulu Selangor by-election?” he asked.

Lim demanded that Najib sign the RM3 million cheque for the Rasa Chinese primary school even if BN were to lose in the Hulu Selangor.

“He has the moral and political responsibility to immediately honour the RM3 million approval if he is not going to be shamed in Parliament and wherever he goes in Malaysia as a ‘cheap-skate’ Prime Minister,” he said further.