Record Mega-Scandal

Have you been following the RM4.6 billion Port Klang Free Trade Zone mega-bailout scandal? If not, it's time you look into it. Malaysiakini has extensive set of reports on this issue, and The Sun has written a fair bit about it in recent weeks as well. Jeff Ooi has also given a decent summary of the extensive details here.

I won't bother repeating the details here, except to emphasize the fact that our previous largest financial scandal which necessitated a Royal Commission of Enquiry and a White Paper was for the RM2.4 billion BMF scandal involving Bumiputra Finance. Will we see a similar transparency and integrity in the Pak Lah-led administration?

Ronnie Liu, who first discovered the scandal, filed the 4th police report on the above issue, after unsatisfactory responses provided by the authorities which failed to address many key issues relating to the scandal. In particular, the Minister in-charge, Datuk Seri Chan Kong Choy has taken a leaf off Pak Lah's elegant silence. Here's the short list of the many critical unanswered questions, awaiting the reply of Pak Lah's clean and efficient government:

• Why build so many units of warehouses and leased office blocks when there were no takers?
  
  
• Why was there no effort to find investors before we lodged police reports this year?
  
  
• Why build a 4-star hotel with 215 rooms here? Why build a dedicated highway here?
  
  
• Why buy 1,000 acres when you only need 500 acres?
  
  
• Why appoint the same lawyer for the seller (Kuala Dimensi) and buyer (PKA)?
  
  
• Why appoint Chor Chee Heong as the chairman of PKA when he is already the deputy chairman of Wijaya Baru/ Wijaya International (owner of Kuala Dimensi)?
  
  
• Why extend O C Phang’s service as the GM for PKA for 5 times?
  
  
• Why appoint O C Phang as the CEO of PKFZ when she is already the GM of PKA?
  
  
• Why Chan Kong Choy, the Transport Minister, still keeping quite when the PM has already asked him to explain to the public about two weeks ago?
  
  
• Who were responsible for changing the minutes of meetings as alleged by Jafza?
  
  
• Was it true that there were attempts to evade tax as alleged by Ernst & Young?
  
  
• Was it true that there was a plan to demolish all the 512 units of warehouses because they were of wrong design and not practical?
  
  
• Was it true that the accumulated loss of PKA has exceeded RM 3 billion?
  
  
• Was it true that PKFZ needs to pay more than RM500 million for the loan beginning from this year for 15 years?
  
  
• Wouldn’t these will add up to more than RM7.5 billion in 15 years down the road.
  
  
• What were the roles played by the two former PKA chairperson, Ting Chew Peh and Yap Pian Hon?
  
  
• Was there a breach of trust both by the former and current Transport Minister?

So many questions, so many promises to fulfil and yet, so little time... but some people can still find time to doze off during meetings.

Independent Anti-Corruption Agency?

Just as the response to local government elections as well as the IPCMC have been particularly disappointing, this morning, SERDANG (Teo Nie Ching/DAP) has her question on the Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) addressed to the Prime Minister which received only a lukewarm response. Her question was:

...sama ada Kerajaan akan mengikut seruan rakyat untuk membebaskan Badan Pencegahan Rasuah daripada kawalan Jabatan Perdana Menteri dan diletakkan di bawah Parlimen. Jika tidak, mengapa.

The reply was given by the Minister in the Prime Minister's Department, Datuk Nazri Aziz was fairly standard, who said he'll be gentle with first time parliamentarian SERDANG, was unfortunately disappointing.

Despite initial euphoria when the Prime Minister first raised the possibility of a Malaysian Commission on Anti-Corruption (MCAC) as part of the restructuring plan for ACA (i.e., "commission" instead of "agency"), we have been subsequently disappointed by the fact that this remains a half-hearted step towards reform as the "commission" remains under the purview of the Prime Minister's Department.

When further asked by SERDANG as to why the powers of prosecution will not be granted to MCAC, the Minister responded that the Government needs to subscribe to the "principle of separation of duties" i.e., different bodies doing the investigation as opposed to prosecution and adjudication.

When pressed by IPOH TIMUR as to why such principles don't seem to apply when the MCAC is placed under the Prime Minister's office instead of the Parliament i.e., the separation of powers, with the specific example of the Prime Minister abusing his powers by "ordering" the Attorney-General (AG) to prosecute BUKIT GELUGOR for raising questions of legality with regards to the extent of powers of the royalty, the reply by the Minister with "gentle" but clearly evasive.

The Minister responded that anybody can request for the AG to charge anybody, including IPOH TIMUR, but it's still up to the AG to decide as to whether the charge should be carried out. (The fact that the Prime Minister is the AG's boss was of course irrelevant)

And the Minister added that even if MCAC is placed under the Parliament, its powers can be abused by Parliamentarians!

Isn't placing the MCAC under Parliamentary purview less likely to be abused then under the arbitrary powers of the Prime Minister? That's what the separation of powers between the executive, the legislative and the judiciary is all about isn't it?

Graftbusters

A few of the leaders at DAP Selangor, including yours truly here, has decided to form a 'Graftbusters' team to assist in the process of identifying and weeding out corruption. The team is currently led by the DAP MP for Segambut, Lim Lip Eng and comprises of Gobind Singh, MP for Puchong, Lau Weng San, ADUN for Kg Tunku as well as other DAP Selangor Legal Bureau lawyers.

As reported in Malaysiakini, we are looking for civic minded individuals to email us the various cases of graft, particularly of public officials from the previous and current governments, together with the relevant evidence to enable this new team to take the necessary actions.

Many cases of graft escapes attention, in a large part due to the lack of whistleblower protection. In this case, where required, the anonymity of the complainants are protect while the Member of Parliament or State Assemblymen will take the lead in advancing the investigations.

We are not looking to replace the newly proposed "independent" anti-corruption agency (ACA), but instead to help it establish its credibility by presenting the relevant cases to them for their immediate action. The complaints which are supported with sufficient evidence will be presented to ACA, the Police as well as the Prime Minister's office.

You can submit the relevant complaints to any of DAP service centres nationwide, or with the advancements of technology, you can of course email us @ graftbuster@gmail.com. We would certainly want to play a constructive role in taming the rampant corruption amongst public officials in Malaysia. ;-)

Incredulity

(Poster courtesy of Kickdefella)

Pak Lah, you have betrayed the trust of the people. I had plenty of faith in you when you first took over the prime ministership of this country. As I've blogged before, I had hope. Even when I lost faith in your leadership, I had thought that you were a pious and sincere person who lacked the necessary skills as a leader.

I'm sad to say that I was dead wrong. Clearly, many will tell me now that I'm such a terrible judge of character. Not only is our current prime minister a sleeping, absent, incompetent prime minister, his personal integrity and his sincerity in creating a better Malaysia is clearly in doubt.

When the Parliament, the symbol of people's democracy, where its members are themselves elected by the people, becomes a 'forbidden palace' to the people who want their grouses heard, it is the ultimate mockery of "democracy".

You would have read it here in Malaysiakini, where all roads to Parliament are blocked, preventing the people from handing their petition to the people who claim to represent them. Worse, Pak Lah ordered the leaders of BERSIH, the very people asking for clean and fair elections, arrested for attempting to hand the petition to the Parliament.

Pak Lah, you have declared in your BN mouthpiece, The Star, that you have ordered the arrests because "public safety above all". Pak Lah, do you bloody think that we are 3 year old kids? Are you trying to tell us that the rakyat, armed only with a few sheets of paper, approaching the Parliament on the edge of the city, is threatening the safety of Malaysians?


Pak Lah, please stop telling lies to our fellow Malaysians. You lied to the world when you declared that your cabinet comprised of 50% non-Malays.

Pak Lah, you promised us a less corrupt nation when you took over. Instead, we are more corrupt than ever, dropping a spot in international rankings for each year of your reign to 43rd this year.

Pak Lah, you also promised no more mega-bailouts, yet this year, you approved the biggest bailout ever in the history of Malaysia, attempting to rescue the unrescuable Port Klang Free Zone project with RM6.7 billion. And yet, the culprits for the fiasco has not been brought to book.

Pak Lah, you promised and boasted of greater press freedom, but interference in the mainstream media has never been more apparent! Malaysia crashed to its lowest ever press freedom ranking at 124th!

Pak Lah, most of all, you told us you wanted to hear the truth, no matter how much it hurts, but instead, you had your Minister of Misinformation, Datuk Zainuddin Maidin, tell the press editors that he'll only listen to Barisan Nasional component parties and not the media or the public. What's worse, there was never a denial that the instruction came from you!

Pak Lah, you said you were a Prime Minister for all Malaysians, but you declared Malaysia an Islamic state and concurred with your deputy, Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak that Malaysia was "never, never a secular state", a clear-cut defiance of the Federal Constitution, and discriminating against Malaysians' fundamental right to freedom of religion.

Pak Lah, you have clearly lost control of your administration. You have only demonstrated your utter incompetence, your lies and hypocrisy. Now, not only have I lost faith in your leadership, I have also lost faith in your integrity and piety.

Pak Lah, you are rubbish and you are a absolute disgrace to the nation.

MCA Man Fined For Attempted Bribe...

... in Singapore!!

This story certainly had me cracking up!

A Malaysian community leader initially fined S$15,000 (RM36,000) for offering a bribe to a traffic policeman was yesterday sentenced to jail for six weeks following an appeal by the prosecution.

[...]

Rajah added that the jail term meted out to Lim Teck Choon, 56, took into account mitigating factors raised by his lawyer. He would otherwise have been jailed two to three months.

Lim, who has business interests on both sides of the Causeway, is a member of the MCA and the party's deputy chairman in the town of Kampong Jawa in Johor. A philanthropist, he regularly donates money to temples and an orphanage; in 1988, he donated a building for a school.

A traffic police officer caught Lim making an illegal U-turn on Woodlands Road and driving against the flow of traffic for 50m. While waiting for a vehicle to take Lim back to the police station, Sergeant Pah Wenxiang tried to defuse the tense situation by starting a conversation.

Lim told the police officer that he owned a few plantations in Malaysia and knew high-ranking officials.

During the conversation, he abruptly asked Pah in Mandarin: “Why want to do this? Be enemy? You should let me go. We can be friends. Next time you come to Malaysia, I will take care of you. Still got good things.”

He also made a gesture that the officer took as an offer of money.

Read the full story in The Malaysian Insider. ;-)