Deliver Mission 2004 before trotting out Mission  2057 – Abdullah should report to Parliament next Tuesday his failure to “walk the talk” of his reform pledge to make anti-corruption the top agenda  in past 40 months

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Media Statement     
by Lim Kit Siang  
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(Parliament, Tuesday) : The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi announced yesterday that the Barisan Nasional (BN) Supreme Council has decided on “Mission 2057” to ensure continued development in all aspects since independence and after Vision 2020 had been achieved.  "Mission 2057" (Misi 2057) would become the development guideline for another 50 years. 

It sounded a rather tall tale that the BN Supreme Council met yesterday to take the policy decision to formulate Mission 2057, when  it is not only  dubious that Vision 2020 could be achieved but very clear that Abdullah’s Mission 2004 is heading towards a big flop. 

Before Abdullah trots out Mission 2057 about Malaysia in another half-a-century, he should deliver Mission 2004 which he had promised in the 2004 general election to lead an efficient, clean,  incorruptible, accountable, transparent, just, democratic and progressive administration which is prepared to hear the truth from the people – and for which he had won the unprecedented victory of 91 per cent of parliamentary seats which had never been achieved by the previous four Prime Ministers.  

When he became the fifth Prime Minister in November 2003, Abdullah pledged to make anti-corruption the top agenda and proclaimed  “zero tolerance for corruption”. 

To mark the first three months of his premiership, Abdullah reiterated in an interview with senior editors of major newspapers his  priority commitment to change the mindset of Malaysians to match the country’s first-class infrastructure with a first-class mentality, including the eradication of public and private sector corruption. 

On his first 100 days as Prime Minister, Abdullah declared in his address to the Cambridge Foundation on 10^th February 2004:  “My first 100 days was my statement of intent. Now we get to work and walk the talk.” 

However, after the unprecedented 91% parliamentary majority victory in the March 2004 general election, Abdullah had  forgotten his declaration of “zero tolerance for corruption” or his pledge to make the fight against corruption as the top priority of his administration, as his “statement of intent” of his first 100 days remained mere “statement of intent” for the next 1,115 days till today without any “walk the talk” whatsoever. 

Some 40 months after Abdullah’s pledge to “walk the talk” to eradicate corruption, Malaysia is faced with the worst crisis of national integrity in the 40-year history of the Anti-Corruption Agency and 50-year history of the nation, with a spate of corruption scandals in the past two weeks, viz: 

• Serious corruption allegations against the Anti-Corruption Agency director-general Datuk Zulkipli Mat Noor;
• Serious corruption allegations against the Deputy Internal Security Minister, Datuk Mohd Johari Baharun; in the “freedom for sale” scandal; and
• Serious allegation by the Chief Justice, Tun Ahmad Fairuz Sheikh Abdul Halim of judges who accept bribes.

The Prime Minister should personally attend Parliament next Tuesday (March 20) to explain during Question  Time the reasons for the failures of his administration to live up to the high hopes of Malaysians to “walk the talk” to honour the pledges of reform agenda he had made when coming into office. 

Abdullah will have the chance to do so as I have an oral question on the first working day of Parliament next  Tuesday, listed as No. 3, asking him “to give a progress report on  his reform pledges in the past 40 months, highlighting the reasons for the failures/shortfalls and how he could assure Malaysians disappointed that he had failed to ‘walk the talk’ on his reform agenda”. 

What is really significant about Abdullah’s remarks after the BN Supreme Council meeting yesterday is his first public admission of not ruling out the possibility of general election this year – as previously, he has taken the stance that he had not given any thought to general election before March next year. 

The Prime Minister appears to have lost touch with reality when he said: “People feel good now, better than before, but when the election comes, they will feel even better.” 

It is no exaggeration to say that in the history of the past 11 general election, voters never had a better “feel good” environment and euphoria than during the March 2004 general election. It is most astounding that Abdullah is suggesting that there is such “feel good” factor which is even better than before the March 2004 general election which  would be even better when the next general election is held. 

Abdullah is only  fooling himself if he believes that the country is suffused with a “feel good” factor. What Malaysians have today is not “feel good” but “feel not good” after all the disappointments and disillusionments at the failures of the Abdullah administration to “walk the talk” to deliver the reform pledges and agenda in the past 40 months.

(13/3/2007)