Zahid Hamidi will become the standing joke in the world for a bumbling and bungling Home Minister so long as he does not come clean and admit that his infamous letter to the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) vouching for the character of an alleged gambling kingpin, Paul Phua, standing trial in Las Vegas, Nevada for illegal gambling, was an egregious error of judgment.
Zahid, the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak and the entire Cabinet should not delude themselves into thinking that the Zahid-Phua-Shafee-Khalid quadrilateral tangle would just disappear into thin air if the Home Minister invokes the Official Secrets Act followed by a blanket of silence on the issue from official quarters.
Zahid is supposed to be one of the smartest political leaders in the UMNO pantheon but he could not have been more foolish and self-destructive in his outrageous “defence” of his infamous letter to the FBI, going against not only the Police, the Foreign Ministry and the national interests but simple common sense!
If Zahid is not prepared to come clean and honest and publicly admit and apologise for his infamous letter to the FBI vouching for the character of an alleged gambling kingpin, the Cabinet at its meeting on Wednedsay must revisit the issue and take a stand which is in accord with national interests.
The Malaysian public are entitled to know whether the Cabinet had approved and endorsed Zahid’s infamous letter to the FBI after Zahid’s explanation, and the invocation of the Official Secrets Act to hide the nature of the “national security projects” involving Phua which even the Police knew nothing about!
The Cabinet should let Malaysians know whether there had been such “national security projects” involving Phua in the past, how many of them and why the Police knew nothing about it.
The Cabinet should in fact decide on Wednesday whether in the interests of upholding the principles of good governance, accountability and transparency, and in keeping with the much-vaunted Government Transformation Programme, information on the so-called “national security projects” involving Phua which even the police knew nothing about, should be declassified and its details made known to the public.
Malaysians are eager to know what could be these “national security projects” involving Phua which even the Police knew nothing about – whether all these “national security projects” happened during Zahid’s 19-month tenure as Home Minister from May 2013 or whether Zahid had inherited the “national security projects” involving Phua from the previous Home Minister, Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein.