Is the “cari makan” Public Accounts Committee (PAC) Chairman, Datuk Hasan Arifin sick or well – whether it is “political sickness” or otherwise?

On the eve of the release of the long-awaited PAC Report on 1MDB on Thursday, the PAC Secretariat sent a text message to PAC members that Hasan would only answer media queries on the “anticipated” PAC report on 1MDB in the next Dewan Rakyat meeting, which is more than a month away from May 16 to May 26.

The PAC Secretariat informed PAC members that Hasan was ill and that he would not be holding a press conference on Thursday after the tabling of the PAC Report on 1MDB in Parliament, although he had “prepared a press statement to be distributed to the media tomorrow”.

The text message continued:

“YB Datuk Chairman is also asking for assistance to inform journalists that if they have any questions or want further explanations regarding the report, he will explain it in the coming Parliament session.”

Apparently, the PAC Chairman had been struck down by a yet-undisclosed sickness which, after his prepared media statement for the media on Thursday, will incapacitate him from answering media questions about the PAC Report on the 1MDB, until the next Parliamentary meeting starting on May 16.

This is indeed a strange sickness which Hasan had anticipated will last for some 40 days or seven weeks until the next Parliamentary meeting, and I must confess that I was uncharitable at the time in wondering whether this was more a “political disease” rather than a genuine sickness. Read the rest of this entry »

I have not been able to attend the month-long meeting of Parliament from March 7 to April 7 because I was suspended from Parliament for six months from October 22 last year insisting that the “truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth” about Malaysia’s two global scandals – Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s RM50 billion 1MDB and RM4.2 billion “donation” twin mega scandals – should be told in Parliament.

I strongly objected not only to Najib’s twin mega scandals, but the undermining of the independence, credibility and professionalism of national institutions and the doctrine of the separation of powers which are important basis for Malaysian democracy in order to enable Najib to avoid full responsibility and accountability for the twin mega scandals.

The sudden sacking of Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin as the Deputy Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal as the Minister for Rural and Regional Development, the Attorney-General Tan Sri Gani Patail, the dissolution of the Special Task Force on the 1MDB scandal comprising the Attorney-General, the Inspector-General of Police, Bank Negara Governor and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission Chief Commissioner, the four-month sabotage of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) investigations into 1MDB until the appointment of “cari makan” PAC Chairman Datuk Seri Hasan Arifin were the backdrop to my six-month suspension from Parliament on Oct. 22.

Bagan is the 99th parliamentary constituency I am visiting during my six-month suspension from Parliament, for my visits to close to 100 parliamentary constituencies in Kelantan, Kedah, Perlis, Perak, Selangor, Negri Sembilan, Malacca and Johore in the past five months have reinforced my conviction that what the Najib government is doing is akin to trying to “wrap fire with paper” in trying to sweep the two global scandals in the nation’s history under the carpet. Read the rest of this entry »