Is Parti Bumiputra Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) Youth chief Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman to be believed when he said that he turned down the bribe of a place in Oxford University and RM5 million in return for leaving Bersatu.
The UMNO information chief, Tan Sri Annuar Musa said Syed Saddiq is not worth RM5 million and that he has a long way to go in politics. I believe Syed Saddiq is telling the truth.
I do not believe the “movers and shakers” in UMNO today regard Annuar is now worth RM5 million, and this is why Annuar is desperately trying to make himself useful with his nation-wide “4 All” UMNO dialogue programmes.
RM5 million is not a small sum to ordinary Malaysians, but it is just pittance to those who have found that UMNO is the “goose that lays the golden eggs”.
Last year, 30 Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission officials took 15 hours to go through the tens of millions of ringgit in cash in various currencies during a MACC Sabah State Water Department corruption probe, which eventually totaled RM114.5 million of valuables confiscated.
But twenty years ago, it was already not unusual for an UMNO chieftain for whom UMNO is the “goose that lays the golden egg” to lug around the world suitcases of cash worth as much as RM3 million – until one of them got caught in Australia in 1997.
I have myself been accused of possessing extraordinary wealth by UMNO operatives, the latest being that I have received RM1 billion bribe from Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad so that Parti Bersatu could join Pakatan Harapan, Mahathir made Pakatan Harapan Chairman, my silence on the Bank Negara foreign exchange (forex) scandal of the 90s and Datuk Seri Mukhriz Mahathir given a safe Parliament seat to contest in the forthcoming general election – and that RM750 million had already been paid to me overseas.
I have also been accused of committing RM40 million to fund a news portal over the next five years.
Apart from lies, fake news and false information which is the staple diet the UMNO propaganda maestros use to feed their digits, what is significant is that they talk and operate in terms of tens and hundreds of millions of ringgit, and even a billion ringgit – the result of being long-time beneficiaries from the “goose that lays the golden eggs”!
So what is a RM5 million bribe offer to Syed Saddiq.
It is fully in the character and bears the mark of an UMNO/BN operation.
Syed Saddiq should be a model for young Malays and young Malaysians to be true to our Malaysian Dream for the country to be show-case to the world of an united, successful, progressive, prosperous, plural nation of diverse races, religions, languages and cultures.
In fact, Syed Saddiq has the potential to be the country’s youngest Cabinet Minister after the 14th General Election.
At a time when the Prime Minister, his Cabinet of Ministers and top public servants, like the Chief Secretary to the Government, the Chief Justice, the Speaker of Parliament, the Inspector-General of Police, the Secretary-General of the Finance Ministry, have lost the ability to differentiate right from wrong, Syed Saddiq is a refreshing example that there is still hope in the young generation of Malaysians who have not been contaminated and polluted by kleptocratic ways to lose their moral moorings.
There are no more Syed Saddiqs in UMNO/BN – as they are only to be found in the Pakatan Harapan coalition of DAP, PKR, Amanah and Bersatu.
This is why the time is long overdue for a change of a Federal Government in Putrajaya and the various State Governments ruled by UMNO/BN, for new moral force must rise up in the land to evict the immoral occupants in Putrajaya and other State capitals.