DAP parliamentary leader Lim Kit Siang has ridiculed Premier Najib Abdul Razak for violating the Transparency International-Malaysia’s (TI-M) election integrity pledge at least five times during the Chinese New Year period.

In a statement yesterday, Lim said that while he himself is committed to fight against corruption and power abuse, because of Najib’s actions he was loath to sign the pledge himself, lest he be subject to “jokes and mockery”.

“Najib has in fact beautifully given the reason why I, for instance, have reservations about signing TI-M’s Election Integrity Pledge after Najib had signed it!

“Although the TI-M Election Integrity Pledge technically applies only to the future after the signing of the pledge, it is not possible for Malaysians to completely ignore the signatories’ record on corruption, crime and abuses of power,” he said.

“In fact, in the 15-day Chinese New Year of the Snake, Najib has violated the Election Integrity Pledge at least five times,” he said.

The five violations of the four principles laid out in the pledge, he said, were:

  • The lavish expenditure in spending RM3.5 million to invite South Korean superstar Psy to Penang for BN’s Chinese New Year open house on Feb 11 to perform 'Gangnam Style'. This, he said was proof of the bane of money politics in the run-up to GE13, and a violation of the pledge.
  • Najib could not protect the people’s interests by sparing time to get first-hand information in Lahad Datu, Sabah where the government is having a standoff with a Sulu armed group recently. This, said Lim, violated the pledge to uphold the interests of the rakyat.
  • Najib’s racist directive to screen the May 13 film, Tanda Putera to 3,000 Felda settlers on Feb 18. This, he said, violates the pledge of “good governance and transparency”.
  • The dishonest Bernama report four days ago plagiarising from a pro-BN website falsely claiming that the British think-tank Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) had dismissed Pakatan Rakyat as a serious challenge to Barisan Nasional in the 13th general election. This, he said, violated the pledge to uphold the truth.
  • On Saturday, Najib openly betrayed 1Malaysia principles and pandered to religious incitements, declaring that “a vote for PAS would lead to discord among the Muslims and a vote for DAP is a vote for the oppression of Muslims”. Such dishonesty, hypocrisy and unprincipled opportunism is a violation of the pledge to uphold the principles of ‘truth, integrity, ethical conduct and accountability’.

“Is Najib unaware that he has sworn not to be ‘involved in corrupt practices in any way’ as money politics during election time is the root cause of rampant corruption, cronyism and abuses of power in the country?” Lim queried.