It will be not be easy to pick the five top topics which dominated conversations and discussions among Malaysians during the Golden Tiger Chinese New Year celebrations as there are so many issues contending for a place among the top spots.
Undoubtedly, those contending for placing among the top five topics would include the following:
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The scandal of the two missing jet engines which disappeared all the way to Uruguay;
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The multi-billion ringgit submarine that cannot dive;
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The RM2 million cash seized from the apartment of a political secretary to a Cabinet Minister;
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The continuing mystery of the death of DAP political aide Teoh Beng Hock at the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission headquarters last July;
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Sodomy 2 trial of Parliamentary Opposition Leader and Prime Minister-in-waiting, giving Malaysia another national and international “black eye”;
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The Federal Court 5-0 decision upholding the undemocratic Umno grab of power from Pakatan rakyat and coup de’tat of Perak State government in February last year;
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The vicious and systematic Umno conspiracy through Utusan Malaysia, Berita Harian and other UMNO-controlled media to play the race and religious card by painting Penang Pakatan Rakyat state government and Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng as anti-Malay and anti-Islam – tearing to pieces Najib’s own 1Malaysia slogan and concept.
What is indisputable however is that the two military scandals of the two missing jet engines and the submarine that cannot dive are quite assured of placings in the ‘Top Five” conversational topics during the Golden Tiger Chinese New Year celebrations among Malaysians, regardless of race, religion or region.
This is why I have given notice to Parliament yesterday that my first oral question when Parliament next meets on the first day on March 16, 2010 is on the scandal of the two missing jet engines, asking the Defence Minister Datuk Ahmad Zahid what lessons had been learnt and the remedial measures taken and why top Defence Ministry officials – including Zahid himself and the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak who was Defence Minister at the time the two jet engines went missing – did not know for 18 months that the jet engines cost RM303,570 and not RM50 million each.
If Zahid and Najib go down to meet the people, he will find that there are teeming questions throughout the country about the scandal of the two missing engines. In fact, such queries have crossed national borders as it is also an international issue.
Zahid should give a comprehensive ministerial statement on the scandal of the two missing jet engines when Parliament meets on March 16 to demonstrate that neither he nor Najib has anything to hide.
Zahid should not only give a satisfactory explanation why the top Defence Ministry officials did not know for 18 months that the two missing F5E jet engines cost RM303,570 and not RM50 million each in 1972, but whether the Petaling Jaya Sessions Court had been misled on January 6 about the value of the two missing jet engines as to set the very high bail of RM150,000 for Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) sergeant N. Tharmendran and a company director K. Rajandran Prasad who were charged in connection with the theft of the two F5E jet engines.
According the media reports, the Deputy Public Prosecutor Raja Rozela Raja Toran had requested for a bail of RM200,000 for each accused on the ground that the offence involved was a serious one and “involved two high-valued jet engines”.
However, the very next day, Zahid announced that the actual value of an F5E jet engine is RM303,570 in 1972 and not RM50 million as he had mentioned when the news of the scandal first broke three weeks earlier.
The charging of only two persons have also raised query as the Attorney-General Tan Sri Gani Patail had earlier been reported as saying that “so many people” were involved in the scandal – but he had vowed that “there will be no compromise on this”.
Why then only two persons charged? Does the Attorney-General really want Malaysians to believe that only two lowly personnel were involved in the scandal of the two missing jet engines, which have brought adverse international publicity to Malaysia to the value not in terms of hundreds of thousands of ringgit, or even tens of millions of ringgit – but easily in hundreds of millions of ringgit in causing a further slide in Malaysia’s international competitiveness!
Malaysians have also been told that some components from F5 jetfighters had also been stolen – but as far as is known, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) had not been able to get any useful information from the Defence Ministry officials and I have my grave doubts that the PAC will be able to present any meaningful report on its inquiry into the scandal of the two missing jet engines when Parliament meets next month.
There is also another intriguing angle to the scandal of the missing jet engines, summarized by one tweet on my twitter, viz: “Jets dont fly & subs dont submerge. Purportedly during PM’s tenure in Mindef. R there attempts frm within 2 undermine him?”
This is why Zahid should be responsible, accountable and transparent enough to present a fulsome and comprehensive Ministerial statement covering all these and other queries swirling in the public mind on the scandal of the two missing jet engines when Parliament convenes for its first working meeting on March 16.
#1 by Bigjoe on Thursday, 18 February 2010 - 2:29 pm
Hermann Goering never explained himself, Hamidi is not about to admit he is a poor copy of Goering no matter what the reality is.
#2 by donplaypuks on Thursday, 18 February 2010 - 3:34 pm
YB
PM Rosemajib is using the Anwar trial to distract us from hounding him on many other issues his administration is accountable for, if not actually culpable of:
1. Teoh Boon Hock trial – the findings of the 2nd autopsy were due to be realeased a long time ago. Now we are in Feb 2010 and it has gone cold while the MACC has moved offices dashing any hopes of finding incriminating forensic evidence at the scene of the death!!
2. PKFZ – gone cold after Ong Tee Kiat was silenced by PM.
3. $10 million illegal money transfer by MB of NS – Bank Negara has conveniently withdrawn licence of money changer but no action against MB.
4. As per (3) for money transferred illegally via M’sian moneychangers to PM’s wife while on shopping blitz in Dubai!!
5. Payment in full to Razak Baginda/ Perimekar S/B of RM 540 million even though 2nd Scorpene Sub has not been delivered and 1st sub cannot submerge!!
6. MACC investigation into Toyo and $24 million mansion!
7, Police reports against Samu Velu and Mod Nor Yapcop for fraud, CBT etc – gone cold after so many years.
8. RM8 billion Maybank investment in Indon bank at book value of 4 times and now Khazanah’s RM 300 million spalsh into a Uni in China at an incredible, stupendous PE of 58 and book value of 8 times!! Both acquired from S’pore companies which were struggling with their investments. Which M’sian parties were paid Commissions to broker these highly dubious deals? I smell fraud and economic plunder!!
9. DPM Muhy’s illegal use of Govt aircraft to attend UMNO meeting in E.M’sia – gone cold.
Perhaps you can hound UMNO/BN in Parliament about these issues too!
dpp
We are all of 1 race, the Human Race
#3 by donplaypuks on Thursday, 18 February 2010 - 3:36 pm
Also, why Adib Adam, ex-Melaka MB and his friends were paid a commission of about $500 million for Air Force purchase of Sukhoi jets?
#4 by johnnypok on Thursday, 18 February 2010 - 4:54 pm
Normally trouble-makers will run out of gas. Hopefully Ah Lar will put a stop to all the nonsense.
#5 by johnnypok on Thursday, 18 February 2010 - 5:17 pm
Don’t expect the Deaf Minister to say or do anything constructive.
#6 by ReformMalaysia on Thursday, 18 February 2010 - 6:26 pm
“……The Federal Court 5-0 decision upholding the undemocratic Umno grab of power from Pakatan rakyat and coup de’tat of Perak State government in February last year;……..”
So we can see how politically strategic it is to appoint an ‘ex’-UMNO’s legal advisor as the Chief Judge of Malaysia…..UMNO is now reaping the benefit from the move
#7 by ktteokt on Thursday, 18 February 2010 - 10:41 pm
Ahmad better check stock on the other branches of the Defence system, i.e. the army and the navy! Maybe, parts of the newly acquired submarine are already missing, that is why it cannot dive!
#8 by DCLXVI on Friday, 19 February 2010 - 2:15 am
kttoekt: “Ahmad better check stock on the other branches of the Defence system, i.e. the army and the navy! Maybe, parts of the newly acquired submarine are already missing, that is why it cannot dive!”
Agreed. The Auditor-General should immediately begin an ‘spot-check’ audit to ensure that all assets of the Defence Ministry and the nation’s armed forces are accounted for.
#9 by DCLXVI on Friday, 19 February 2010 - 3:05 am
“The scandal of the two missing jet engines which disappeared all the way to Uruguay;”
Thank goodness that the Malaysian armed forces do not possess WMDs that could also go missing…
“The multi-billion ringgit submarine that cannot dive;”
Probably, surface vessels with anti-submarine weaponry would have been cheaper, leaving more money to spend for the benefit of the rakyat…
“The RM2 million cash seized from the apartment of a political secretary to a Cabinet Minister;”
An echo from the past whereby a former Menteri Besar from Umno-BN was caught with a similarly huge amount of money while entering a foreign country…
“The continuing mystery of the death of DAP political aide Teoh Beng Hock at the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission headquarters last July;”
Since it is obviously too ridiculous to believe such an ‘excuse’ that Teoh had been questioned or grilled by MACC literally to death, MACC & Umno-BN would rather have us believe a less ridiculous but still incredulous notion that the stress from the questioning had made him either suicidal enough to walk out the window, or too exhausted to look where he was going and walked out the window…
“Sodomy 2 trial of Parliamentary Opposition Leader and Prime Minister-in-waiting, giving Malaysia another national and international ‘black eye’;”
Maybe those Aussie MPs were trying to tell the Malaysian people that they had spotted a ‘kangaroo’ in the court where this trial is being held. And since they can’t do anything about it as they can’t interfere with our country’s internal affairs, it is left to the rakyat to do something about it ourselves…
“The Federal Court 5-0 decision upholding the undemocratic Umno grab of power from Pakatan rakyat and coup de’tat of Perak State government in February last year;”
That 5 Federal Court judges should also reveal why it was necessary for 2 MPs from outside the state of Perak, who also happened to be leaders of the Umno-BN led Federal Government, to seek an audience with the DYMMSPB Sultan of Perak prior to the ousting of Pakatan Rakyat Perak state government…
“The vicious and systematic Umno conspiracy through Utusan Malaysia, Berita Harian and other UMNO-controlled media to play the race and religious card by painting Penang Pakatan Rakyat state government and Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng as anti-Malay and anti-Islam – tearing to pieces Najib’s own 1Malaysia slogan and concept.”
As mentioned elsewhere, after Umno-BN’s success of wrenching the control of the Perak state government from Pakatan Rakyat without the rakyat’s mandate through the ballot box, Umno-BN is looking forward of doing the same in other Pakatan Rakyat governed states. No surprise if Umno-BN is trying to shake, rattle and roll Lim Guan Eng and Pakatan Rakyat out the Penang KOMTAR tower…
#10 by lopez on Friday, 19 February 2010 - 10:21 pm
If you cannot manage a team of 5 men,
how can you manage a bunch of idiots…
e.g just to mention kopi topics
moe kept changing whether English or malay
Moh kept torturing the “self financed” doctors
mot kept blackmailing car owners on puspakom, and pushing out “kancil ” to die drivers.
jkr kept torturing the people on toll roads,
the nation’s oil c ompany behave like private proprietorship entity.
doomed lah like this…already 50 years still the same culture.
#11 by good coolie on Saturday, 20 February 2010 - 4:05 pm
I am sorry for criticizing the Air Force for losing the aircraft engines. I was worked-up because they were then worth RM50 million. Now that they are only worth 5 cents, we should not be overly concerned about what is just a storm in a teh-tarik cup.