Najib ticked off over power grab

Democracy means a rule by the majority

Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng today ticked off incoming prime minister Najib Abdul Razak for his power grab in Perak.

“Najib's governance would be coloured and tarnished by his power grab and coup d’etat in Perak, where he manufactured the change of government against the principles of democracy”.

“Even though Barisan Nasional got less than 45 per cent of the mojority, they are the ruling government. Is this democracy? Democracy means a rule by the majority over the minority, it can be the minority ruling the majority,” said Lim at the Parliament lobby.

Lim said that Najib had to restore his democratic credentials and assure that he is not the “practitioner of the black art of dictatorship”.

“This is the first challenge that he believes in democracy and he is not a dictator,” said Lim.

The Bagan MP said that Najib second challenge would be to show that he is willing to share the country's economic wealth and benefits with the people as resources have not filtered down to people.

“Thirdly, is Najib willing to respect the rule of law,” asked Lim, referring to inaction towards the Lingam judicial fixing scandal and death of A Kugan while in police custody.

“Besides that, is he willing to wipe out corruption and crony capitalism? Only when he does these will he eradicate poverty,” said Lim, adding that “if he does, it would spell the end of BN and Umno, but if he does not succeed in wiping out corruption that maybe it is the end of Malaysia”.

Finally, Lim asked whether Najib as the prime minister would bring an end to racial politics.

“We live in a world transformed but yet in Malaysia we have a prime minister leading a party that still clings on to outdated notions on ethnic superiority and racial inferiority.

“We must be Malaysian; we must be multiracial in our racial outlook... the time for racial politics has ended,” said Lim.

Prabakar case referred to AG

Home Minister Syed Hamid Albar today revealed that investigation papers on the 27-year-old carpark attendant, B Prabakar, who was allegedly tortured by seven police officers have been referred to the attorney-general.

In a written response to M Manogaran (DAP-Telok Intan), the home minister said the A-G had also instructed that seven police officers involved, to be charged under Section 506 and Section 304 of the Penal Code.

In December 2008, Prabakar had alleged that he was tortured during interrogation by police who beat him with a rubber hose and splashed boiling hot water on his body.

On a separate note, Syed Hamid revealed that custodial deaths have reached 153 cases between 1999 and 2008, with average number of 10 to 15 deaths a year.

However, he said, health factor contributes a lot to custodial deaths.

“Apart from that, suicides and brawls between the detainees also play a major part in custodial deaths,” said the minister.

He further added that every death in custody will be investigated and forwarded to the deputy prosecutor so that the investigation papers could be referred to a magistrate for inquest purposes.

Foreign workers above two million

Foreign workers in the country have reached 2,062,596 people while illegal foreign workers have reached more than one million, Home Minister Syed Hamid Albar revealed to Karpal Singh (DAP-Bukit Gelugor) in a written reply.

In order to curb the situation, the minister said the government had deported illegal workers to their respective country without charging them in court.

Until Feb 22, 2009, Syed Hamid said, 1868 illegal foreign workers have been deported back to their original countries and “mass deportation” will take place in the middle of this month.

“We have also introduced a bio-metric system to record the thumb prints of all illegal foreign workers before they are deported back to their countries,” he said.