— Gomen Man The Malaysian Insider Mar 04, 2012
MARCH 4 — This is the Umno way: Forget all debts and don’t bring up mistakes. And this enlightening statement is coming from Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, the then-agriculture minister who approved the now-infamous National Feedlot Centre project.
This is a most self-serving and irresponsible statement, not to mention dangerous.
Is this what we are supposed to teach our children? Just say sorry and all will be forgiven. There is no need to show remorse, make restitution or pay a price for breaking the law.
How about the common Malaysian? Just say sorry and there will be no need to be punished for cheating, theft, robbery, murder, criminal breach of trust, etc.
Muhyiddin’s statement is very much in keeping with the ridiculous stuff that we keep having to put up with. Don’t bring up my past transgressions even though I have not owned up to it because it is in the past.
OK, let’s for a minute accept his ridiculous proposition. Let’s not bring up the RM250 million fiasco called the NFC or implicate Shahrizat Jalil’s family in it.
Stop talking about the RM850 million court judgment that, because of the government’s intervention, Tajuddin Ramli does not have to pay to Danaharta.
Don’t make fun of the government transformation programme and ETP just because the figures used by Pemandu are intellectually dishonest.
Stop going on a witch hunt for the people behind the RM2.5 billion losses just suffered by MAS and the cost escalation to nearly RM5 billion for a low cost terminal in KLIA.
Don’t bring up the RM500 million commission paid to certain individuals for the Scorpene submarine deal.
And since we are in such a forgiving mood, we should also include the rakyat and not hold anyone accountable for any transgression. As long as they give a blanket apology, everything is OK.
This, in essence, is what Muhyiddin Yassin said.