Media Statement by DAP MP for Iskandar Puteri Lim Kit Siang in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday, 6th May 2021
If there is a secret ballot in the bloated Cabinet whether Hamzah Zainuddin should be removed as Home Minister, the unanimous verdict would be a ‘Yes’!
If there is a secret ballot in the bloated Cabinet whether Hamzah Zainuddin should be removed as Home Minister, the unanimous verdict would be a ‘Yes’!
It is very significant that apart from the PAS Secretary-General and Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Law and Parliament) Takikyuddin Hassan, no other Cabinet Minister, including the Prime Minister, had spoken up for Hamzah since he was embroiled in the “CPO interference” scandal a week ago.
Last Friday, retiring Inspector-General of Police, Abdul Hamid Bador, in his farewell press conference threw a bombshell and revealed a very slimy Home Minister who, unlike previous Home Ministers, politically interfered with the efficiency, independence, professionalism and world-class status of the Royal Malaysian Police Force by demanding that his ”boys” be appointed as State Chief Police Officers (CPOs) and Police Directors.
Takiyuddin was caught in the cross-fire, pretending that he knows the law, when he was perverting the Constitution by failing to read an important express exception in the Constitution.
Apart from Takiyuddin, no Cabinet Minster whether from Bersatu, PAS or UMNO was prepared to openly support Hamzah.
It is clear that if they had their private wishes, they would like to see Hamzah removed as Home Minister. But they also feared Hamzah and do not want to be in his “bad books”.
In their “heart of hearts”, every Minister knew that Hamzah had crossed the “red line” in politically interfering with the efficiency, independence and professionalism of the Royal Malaysian Force, but none of them is courageous or principled enough to raise the matter in Cabinet to reaffirm the important constitutional principle of the non-partisan character and the efficiency, independence and professionalism of the royal police force.
Every Cabinet avoided the elephant in the room – the viral audio clip which proved that Hamzah wanted to place his “boys” as State CPOs and police directors – when lesser evidence would be sufficient to cause Ministers in normal functioning democracies to resign their posts, as happened to John Profumo in the United Kingdom in 1963 where he resigned as Secretary of State for War over the Christine Keeler scandal or Abdul Rahman Talib who resigned as Minister for Education in Malaysia in December 1964 when he lost the defamation suit against the People’s Progressive Party leader, D.R.Seenivasagam.
Yet Hamzah had the cheek to ask: “What is wrong?”
May be the Gerakan President would publicly support Hamzah, as he does not mind Malaysia having a bloated Cabinet as he is hoping that the Cabinet would be more bloated with his own appointment as Cabinet Minister.
I have only word for the Gerakan President’s statement today that the Perikatan Nasional is fairer than Barisan Nasional as PN treats each of its component parties as equal partners and that there are no “followers” under the coalition.
The word is “revolting”. The best person to answer the Gerakan President is the MCA President, and I shall not usurp the MCA President’s function.
The Cabinet must find the courage to reprimand Hamzan Zainuddin and to reaffirm the important principle as stated by the longest-serving IGP in Malaysia, Hanif Omar, that in his 20 years as IGP he had no problems with his three ministers – Ghazalie Shafie, Musa Hitam and Dr. Mahathir Mohamad – and the Police Force Commission (SPP) and the Home Minister as Chairmen of Police Force Commission must work within their legal parameters.
