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On NST and Shad Faruqi

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mslee

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Jan 24, 2000, 3:00:00 AM1/24/00
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Media Conference Statement (2) by DAP National Chairman Lim Kit Siang
at the DAP PJ Hqrs on Monday, 24th January 2000 at 12 noon

Dr. Shad Faruqi invited to a public debate on the constitutionality of
the first meeting of new tenth Parliament on December 20, 1999
==============================================

On 25th December 1999, New Straits Times carried a "comment" piece by
Prof. Dr. Shad S. Faruqi, Professor of Law, Universiti Technologi
Mara, Shah Alam, Selangor entitled "Dr. Mahathir’s advice on
summoning Parliament was constitutional".

The conclusion reached by Prof. Shad was that a caretaker Prime
Minister after the dissolution of Parliament and before a new
government had been formed can usurp the powers of a new Cabinet
yet-to-be-formed to advise the Yang di Pertuan Agong to summon the
first meeting of a newly-elected Parliament.

On the very same day, which was Christmas Day, I wrote a reply to
Shad’s "Comment" and emailed/faxed it to New Straits Times.

My reply never saw the light of day but today, Shaq wrote a second
article entitled "Of speculation, law and the Constitution" which was
also a response to my reply which was never published by NST.

Shad must belong to a minority of minorities to hold the view that a
caretaker Prime Minister can usurp the powers of a new Cabinet
yet-to-be-formed to advise the Yang di-Pertuan Agong to summon the
first meeting of the newly-elected Parliament, and it is most
unfortunate that he was unable to attend the Round Table Conference
yesterday on "Constitution, Parliament and Rule of Law" in Petaling
Jaya to defend his views, as he had to be away in Sarawak on
university business.

I now invite Shad to a public debate on the constitutionality of the
first meeting of the new tenth Parliament on December 20, 1999 because
of the wide-ranging ramifications of a Parliament whose laws and
businesses in its five years of office could be affected by illegality
and unconstitutionality.

I hope Shaq would be able to accept the invitation to a public debate
in the second half of next month and I will write to him to ensure
that the public debate could be fixed without clashing with his prior
appointments and engagements. The public debate can be held at the
University Technologi Mara, any other university or other public
venues.

This public debate need not be confined strictly to two sides
representing those who defend or attack the constitutionality of the
first meeting of the new tenth Parliament on 20th December 1999,and
there should be scope for those who hold the middle ground to take
part in the debate as well. It will also be great if the Minister in
the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Dr. Rais Yatim who is in charge
of law and justice, and the Attorney-General, Tan Sri Mochtar Abdullah
or his representative, can take part in this debate.

NST has created history in Malaysian journalism in publishing Dr.
Shad’s reply to me after blacking out my earlier response.

NST admitted as much in its leader page today, with the following
explanation to Shaq’s article:

"DR. SHAD FARUQI’S COMMENT (Dec 25, NST) on the powers of a caretaker
Government has spawned some response in the media, notably from Lim
Kit Siang (Internet, Dec 26) and Dr. Abdul Aziz Bari (NST, Jan 8).
After much thought and deliberation, this is his response to their
criticism."

I would be replying to Shaq’s piece today and I hope the New Straits
Times would have the decency to publish this reply. New Straits Times
also owes it to its readership and the canons of ethical and
responsible journalism to explain why it had "blacked-out" my reply of
25th December 1999 to Shaq, and yet is now publishing Shaq’s response
to the reply it had chosen to suppress from publication in its leader
page!


- Lim Kit Siang (24.1.2000)
- http://www.malaysia.net/dap
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