Lina Joy case and the last-minute cancellation of the “Building Bridges” Islam-Christianity Interfaith Conference in May will feature on the first day of Parliamentary question time on Monday

______________
Media Statement        
by Lim Kit Siang  
_________________

(Parliament, Saturday): The far-reaching consequences of the Lina Joy case, which was reported in over 1,000 foreign media in the first 48 hours of the judgment, and the last-minute cancellation of the “Building Bridges” Islam-Christianity interfaith Conference in May will feature on the first day of the Parliamentary question time on Monday. 

I will be raising both issues during question time on Monday when asking the Prime Minister what had been done to repair the damage to Malaysia’s international reputation as a model multi-religious nation with the last-minute cancellation of the “Building Bridges”  Islam-Christianity Inter-faith Conference in early May. 

Members of Parliament regardless of political party should come forward in the forthcoming parliamentary meeting to ensure that on the occasion of the 50^th Merdeka anniversary of the nation, religion should become a positive force for nation-building in promoting inter-racial and inter-religious understanding, goodwill and harmony instead of becoming the reverse. 

It must be a matter of concern to all Malaysians religious polarization of Malaysians is increasingly a major threat to nation building in the past decade, unless the first three  decades of nationhood when the problem of religious polarization was quite unheard of. 

What has gone wrong. Why has religious polarization become worse instead of better, especially when the Islam Hadhari advocated by the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi is to promote justice, integrity and harmony. 

Among the questions which I will be raising in forthcoming Parliament are: 

• To ask the Prime Minister why public confidence in government ability to ensure low-crime Malaysia has reached a new low despite earlier favourable public responses to Royal Police Commission Report and to report on implementation of commission's 125 recommendations, in particular on IPCMC.

• To ask the Prime Minister whether the Cabinet’s misjudgment and mishandling of sexism in Parliament on May 9, 2007 had caused great damage to the good name of Malaysia internationally and what lesson the Cabinet has learnt from it.

• To ask the Minister of Works on the itemized expenditure of the recently announced RM220 million allocation to inspect new government building  in Putrajay as to justify the needs to spend such huge sum from the government’s coffer when the public has no confidence in the quality of works from the Public Works Department (PWD).

• To ask the Minister of Finance to table a progress report on the seeking of an oversea partner for Proton and the required criteria as well as to explain on how the partnership would strengthen the position of Proton not only as a national car-maker, but also as an internationally well-known car-maker.

• To ask the Minister of Health on the investigation on why the ambulances at Kepala Batas Hospital had run out of petrol which caused the death of 31-year-old Yusnita Abas on 13^th October 2006 and a report on deaths caused by unsatisfactory ambulance services in the past year and the remedial actions taken.

• To ask the Prime Minister the total costs of Parliament renovation to date and the causes of the spate of government building and public construction defects and mishaps and the remedial actions taken.

• To ask the Prime Minister on whether the government is willing to set up a Royal Commission to investigate the May 13 incident and declassify all official documents in order to reveal the truth as a way to promote racial understanding and enhance racial integration in conjunction with the 50^th Merdeka Anniversary.

• To ask the Prime Minister to explain what the government and organisations like Integrity Institute of Malaysia (IIM) have done to prevent Malaysia’s position in TI CPI from continue to slip which will be mockery for our 50^th Merdeka anniversary celebration.

• To ask the Minister of works why the Government has failed to reveal highway privatization agreement with various concessionaires as promised in February 2007 as such failure has seriously affected the public’s confidence in the Government.

(16/6/2007)