Archive for category Corruption
Islam “more repressive….narrow and parochial”
Posted by Kit in Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, Corruption, Islam, nation building on Thursday, 2 April 2009
I was struck by one Q & A in Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s final interview as Prime Minister on 31st March 2009, as published by The Star yesterday, viz;
Q: You talked about progress Muslims made in earlier years and how we must emulate their efforts. But we must examine the Islam practised then. It was so free, lots of freedom to research, to think and implement. When you introduced Islam Hadhari, I thought this would bring it back to that era. But under you, Islam has gone to be more repressive. Just look at the lectures given by the ustaz on RTM1, they are so narrow and parochial.
A: It is a big problem – overseas the idea is welcome. Even Indonesia. But here it is all in a mess. Because we are fighting each other politically. Some PAS members do not like the idea. It is a battle that goes on. Changing of the mind. To do anything like that is not easy.
I have given myself that role. When I talk about democracy and freedom of discourse, it is not an easy job to do. But you have to allow people to enjoy it.
When people like it, the freedom, they think it is very nice. But I would have managed it better. I think up to now, nobody can silence the papers anymore. I don’t like the word takut (scared). Takut is not the way. Being reasonable is very important as well as being correct. Scaring does not work.
No denial whatsoever from Abdullah that under his Islam Hadhari, “Islam has gone to be more repressive…so narrow and parochial”. Read the rest of this entry »
MACC: Chucking Out The Wine And The Bottle
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Tunku Abdul Aziz on Sunday, 29 March 2009
by Tunku Aziz
MySinChew
2009-03-27
It is not for want of trying but, for the life of me, I find it difficult to take the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission’s self-trumpeted independence seriously. Since its much hyped up launch just weeks ago, its chief commissioner, Datuk Seri Ahmad Said Hamdan, has managed to put his mouth into overdrive while shifting his brains into reverse on at least two occasions. The F1 television advertisement has obviously got through to me at last.
The first was when he claimed that there was “good and strong evidence” against the Pakatan Rakyat menteri besar of Selangor, Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim even before the MACC investigation into the “car and cows” saga had got into first gear.
More recently, he was again at his favourite game of shooting his mouth and, not content with that, he succeeded in shooting himself in the foot as well when he declared, to the chagrin and utter disbelief of us all, that there were “elements of misuse of power” in the case involving the Perak assembly speaker, V.Sivakumar. This was over the suspension of the “other” menteri besar Datuk Dr. Zambry Abdul Kadir and his six assembly men.
What are we to make of the MACC, Malaysia’s last great stab at corruption, when its chief commissioner is obviously intent, by his behaviour, on destroying any residual trace of public confidence in an organisation whose very creation has only been accepted tentatively and with a large dose of scepticism? Read the rest of this entry »
Malaysians Say Corruption is UMNO’s Worst Flaw
Posted by Kit in Corruption, UMNO on Sunday, 22 March 2009
Angus Reid Global Monitor | March 21, 2009
Many people in Malaysia say the governing party’s main problem lies in corrupt practices, according to a poll by the Merdeka Center for Opinion Research. 35 per cent of respondents cite corruption as the most serious flaw of the United Malays National Organization (UMNO).
Being out of touch is second with 15 per cent, followed by having weak leaders with 12 per cent, having weak economic managers with 11 per cent, being arrogant also with 11 per cent, and being racist with 10 per cent.
UMNO—the biggest party in a coalition of 12 political factions known as the National Front (BN)—has formed the government after every election since the Asian country attained its independence from Britain in 1957.
Read the rest of this entry »
Who will investigate MACC Chief Commissioner Ahmad Said for abuse of powers and charge him for “corruption”?
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Pakatan Rakyat, Perak on Saturday, 21 March 2009
Malaysian Anti-Corruption Agency (MACC) Chief Commissioner, Datuk Seri Ahmad Said Hamdan is not shy in being seen as UMNO catspaw, not to fight corruption, but to further Umno’s ulterior motive and political agenda in its undemocratic, unethical, illegal and unconstitutional power grab in Perak.
For the second time since his appointment as MACC Chief Commissioner this year, Ahmad Said has shown his open bias against Pakatan Rakyat when he said in Kuantan yesterday that there were “elements of misuse of power” in the suspension of the usurper Perak Mentri Besar Datuk Dr. Zambry Abdul Kadir and his six illegitimate executive councilors by the Perak State Assembly Committee of Privileges, headed by the Speaker V. Sivakumar.
The first time was last month when Ahmad Said turned the MACC into a national joke, becoming known as “Malaysian Agency for Car and Cows”, when he publicly declared that the agency had “good and strong evidence” of corruption against the Selangor Pakatan Rakyat Mentri Besar Tan Sri Abdul Khalid over the car and cows controversy, destroying whatever credibility the MACC might have among Malaysians that it would be independent, professional and uninfluenced by the dictates of its political masters.
After the nation-wide outrage and furore over Ahmad Said’s statement reducing the agency into a “Malaysian Agency for Car and Cows”, a statement was issued early this month after a meeting of the MACC Advisory Board chaired by the former Chief Justice Tun Abdul Hamid Mohamed that the top MACC officials will not comment on ongoing cases before the investigation papers on the cases are completed or a decision is made by the deputy public prosecutor. Read the rest of this entry »
Ali Rustam just don’t get it – he should seek enlightenment from Mahathir
Posted by Kit in Corruption, UMNO on Saturday, 21 March 2009
Disqualified UMNO Deputy President candidate, Datuk Seri Mohd Ali Rustam just don’t get it when he declared there was no reason for him to step down as Malacca Chief Minister after be was barred from contesting in Umno party elections for money politics.
He even came up with the riposte that “If that is the case, then they should also ask Lim Guan Eng and Anwar Ibrahim to step down as they had been convicted and imprisoned before”.
Ali has made himself into a laughing stock by exhibiting his shocking ignorance of the law, ethics, politics and the great difference between him and the cases of Guan Eng and Anwar.
Both Guan Eng and Anwar were victims of an oppressive and vindictive political apparatus which used the system of justice to do its dirty work through malicious and selective prosecution, jailing and disenfranchising them from elective office for five years.
Is Ali seriously suggesting that he is in the same shoes as Guan Eng and Anwar – a victim of a pernicious and vindictive political system as represented by Umno? Read the rest of this entry »
Damned, damned, damned…
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Parliament, UMNO on Thursday, 19 March 2009
“Damned if we do and damned if we don’t…”
This is the lament of Tengku Tan Sri Ahmad Rithaudeen, chairman of the Umno disciplinary board, for disciplinary action meted out to Umno members.
But shouldn’t the Umno board also be damned for being able to take action only against 15 Umno members, when the number should be in hundreds as UMNO is “awash” with money politics and corruption in the Umno party elections, running into hundreds of millions of ringgit.
This is the question I posed in Parliament this morning during the 2008 Supplementary estimates committee stage debate on the Education Ministry. Read the rest of this entry »
Najib heralds the coming of a New Dark Age
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Judiciary, Najib Razak, UMNO on Wednesday, 18 March 2009
Parliament has just passed the RM60 billion Second Economic Stimulus Package in the form of a mini-budget, but there has been nothing “stimulating” on the economy.
Instead, the effect had been the opposite as illustrated by the unchecked fall in the Kuala Lumpur stockmarket index in the past six days since the announcement of the RM60 billion package, with the KLSE registering a fall from 858.22 points on March 10 to 841 points at the close of the market today.
Far from being able to stimulate the economy, the Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak is the main cause for the crisis of confidence gripping the country, even undermining the RM60 billion second economic stimulus package announced by him last week. Read the rest of this entry »
Not fit to contest as UMNO Deputy President but fit to continue as Malacca CM?
Posted by Kit in Corruption, UMNO on Tuesday, 17 March 2009
How can Datuk Seri Mohd Ali Rustam be barred from contesting to be the Umno Deputy President for involvement in money politics (euphemism for corruption) but yet be fit to continue as the Malacca Chief Minister?
The same question applies to Khairy Jamaluddin, who was given a warning for being involved in money politics – as to how he could continue even as MP for Rembau.
I posed these questions in Parliament during the 2008 Supplementary Estimates after the announcement by the Umno Disciplinary Board this evening.
In my speech, I quoted the interview by the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz in Sunday Star (8.3.09) on money politics in the Umno elections, where he admitted:
“It’s still quite rampant except that it has gone underground.”
Pak Lah’s Legacy
Posted by Kit in Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, Corruption, Police, Tunku Abdul Aziz on Saturday, 7 March 2009
By Tunku Aziz
Mysinchew.com
As the prime minister begins the process of winding down his stewardship of this country that he inherited from his now much despised predecessor, he would have been less than human if he did not reflect upon the highlights and the low points of his stewardship that in turn cheered and depressed him.
He must wonder why, after such a promising start, fate should have intervened to deal him such a cruel hand. The humiliation of being forced to get on the bicycle and ride off alone into the political sunset prematurely has been, he must admit, largely self-inflicted.
He must sometimes wonder why he was so incredibly naïve as to swallow the proverbial hook, line and sinker, the assurances and protestations of complete and undying loyalty so glibly and convincingly uttered by his closest associates.
I personally would not myself touch them with a long barge pole, but then I suppose I am of a suspicious nature.
When Abdullah Badawi took over the reigns of government, I was among those invited by the media to comment on what his legacy might be. We were swept and overwhelmed by the euphoria of the moment, the dawn of a blessed new era and the end of a morally degrading and debilitating regime. Read the rest of this entry »
MACC: Old wine in a new bottle
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Tunku Abdul Aziz on Sunday, 1 March 2009
by Tunku Abdul Aziz
Sin Chew
What a waste of public funds! The creation of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission will go down in history as a feeble and pathetic final clutch at the straws by a sitting duck prime minister best remembered for his inexhaustible supply of good intentions but with nothing to show for them. The MACC was hastily conceived against a murky background of a web of duplicity and deceit. It was a desperate attempt at deluding the people of this country and the world anti-corruption community at large that the Abdullah Badawi administration still had a lot of fire in its belly to make corruption a high risk and low return business. The whole process was nothing more that a charade, a sleight of hand that we had come to expect of this government. In the meantime, corruption continues to be in robust good health.
In 1995 my friends and I started to look at corruption in our country seriously and to view with growing unease its debilitating effects on our society. This led incidentally to the formation of Transparency International Malaysia as it has come to be known. We saw the Anti-Corruption Agency for what it really was in operational terms. It was the weakest link in both the “supply and demand sides” of the corruption equation. We saw the ACA as part of the problem of corruption and not, as it should rightly have been, part of the solution. We thought its claim to “independence” was a joke in poor taste. It was as independent as a beached whale.
We demanded from day one that the ACA be converted into an independent commission along the lines of the highly professional Independent Commission Against Corruption with a strong and influential oversight civilian committee to keep an eye on the staff who could otherwise be tempted to abuse their wide powers. Read the rest of this entry »
ICAC’s praise for MACC “a good start for Malaysia to battle graft” – a supreme insult!
Posted by Kit in Corruption on Wednesday, 25 February 2009
The Star headline, “Good start, says Hong Kong’s ICAC”, quoting the deputy commissioner and head of operations of Hong Kong’s Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) Daniel Li for the creation of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) officially launched by the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi yesterday is no real praise but a supreme insult causing self-respecting Malaysians to cringe at such a serious indictment of Malaysia’s anti-corruption record whether in the 22-year premiership of Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad or the five-year Abdullah premiership.
When the Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) was founded in 1967 under the first Director-General Tan Sri Harun Hashim, the ACA’s public standing as an independent anti-corruption agency both regionally and internationally was highest in its 41-year history.
Unfortunately, after Tan Sri Harun Hashim’s tenure, the ACA had not been able to build on the public confidence enjoyed by the ACA.
Otherwise, the ACA should have become a premier anti-corruption body in the world instead of allowing the Hong Kong International Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) which was formed seven years after the ACA in 1974 to establish the international reputation as one of the best known and successful organisations dedicated to addressing issues of corruption in both the public and private sectors, to the extent that the Malaysia has to learn from ICAC, when it should be Hong Kong having to learn from the ACA! Read the rest of this entry »
MACC reduced into “Malaysian Agency for Car and Cows” – Ahmad Said should resign
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Perak on Saturday, 21 February 2009
What a letdown!
Members of Parliament and Malaysians were promised when the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) 2008 Bill was debated in Parliament last December that the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi was finally going to honour his most important pledge when he became Prime Minister five years ago – to eradicate corruption and create a new political culture of public integrity with zero tolerance for corruption.
Parliament and the nation were told that MACC was going to become another ICAC (Hong Kong’s Independent Commission Against Corruption) respected world-wide for its uncompromising and no-nonsense commitment against corruption without fear or favour for position, status or influence.
In less than two months, the MACC has become a joke. Instead of building public confidence in its journey to become another ICAC, feared and respected by all, it has quickly become a joke, reduced into a “Malaysian Agency for Car and Cows” for the Barisan Nasional government to victimize Pakatan Rakyat leaders. Read the rest of this entry »
RM7 billion national economic stimulus package or RM7 billion BN economic stimulus package?
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Politics on Sunday, 1 February 2009
Is it a RM7 billion national economic stimulus package to held tide the country through the global economic crisis or is it a RM7 billion Barisan Nasional economic stimulus package to tide the Barisan Nasional through the political tsunami triggered by the March 8 general election last year?
This is the question Malaysians pose when they read of the response of the Umno leadership to the defection of former Umno Bota Perak state assemblyman Datuk Nasarudin Hashim to PKR, followed by the disbandment of eight Umno branches in Bota.
This is the Star report “Bota branches follow Nasarudinn to PKR”:
Read the rest of this entry »
900 cases of Umno money politics – Dare MACC tell PM and Rithaudeen they are wrong?
Posted by Kit in Corruption, UMNO on Friday, 30 January 2009
The Prime Minister and the UMNO Disciplinary Board Chairman are wrong and the Chief Commissioner of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) right on whether money politics and vote buying in Umno come within the jurisdiction of the MACC.
The UMNO disciplinary board chairman Tan Sri Tengku Ahmad Rithaudeen so despaired at the rot of corruption in Umno that he even suggested the abolition the Umno wings – Youth, Wanita, Putri and Putra – as a radical surgical solution but he refused to recognize MACC’s powers, responsibilities and jurisdiction over these cases, claiming that the Umno disciplinary board is not a “forwarding agency” for the MACC.
Rithaudeen said investigations by the MACC and the Umno disciplinary board would be done separately and any information-sharing would be done on a case-by-case basis.
Rithaudeen’s position has been upheld by the Umno President Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi after the Umno Supreme Council meeting last night.
New Straits Times today reported:
Asked whether investigations into money politics came under the disciplinary committee or the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission, he said the issue fell under the committee’s jurisdiction.
Abolish UMNO – as no political will to eradicate corruption in the country’s most corrupt institution?
Posted by Kit in Corruption, UMNO on Thursday, 29 January 2009
Just as no one expects that the proposal of the Umno disciplinary board chairman Tengku Tan Sri Ahmad Rithaudeen to abolish the Umno wings – Wanita, Youth, Puteri and Putera – to end the scourge of money politics in Umno would be taken seriously by any Umno leader, nobody believes that it is possible to eradicate corruption in the country’s most corrupt institution, Umno, because of the sheer absence of such political will.
Sure enough Rithaudeen’s proposal encountered immediate objection yesterday from the Umno top-guns, like Umno vice president Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, Umno Youth leader Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein, Umno Wanita leader Tan Sri Rafidah Aziz and Puteri Umno leader Datuk Noraini Ahmad with the de facto Umno President and Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak delivering the coup de grace when he said today that Umno will not abolish any of its wings as they are important in nurturing future leaders of the party.
If Rithaudeen is right – and he is right – that the many elections for the Umno Youth, Wanita, Puteri and Putera wings created opportunities for money-making, all that Najib meant about “nurturing future leaders of the party” is to give them opportunities to be adept in the art of corruption in Umno party elections.
No wonder Umno has the notoriety as the most corrupt institution in the country and Rithaudeen is totally helpless to check money politics, to the extent that he has to concoct a totally unacceptable analogy to justify the Umno disciplinary board’s failure to hand over all cases of Umno money politics to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC). Read the rest of this entry »
What are you waiting for, MACC?
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Pakatan Rakyat, UMNO on Wednesday, 28 January 2009
In his post-Kuala Terengganu by-election interview with New Sunday Times (January 25, 2009), “Upping the ante on anti-graft enforcement”, the Chief Commissioner of Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Datuk Seri Ahmad Said Hamdan declared categorically that money politics is corruption. This came in the concluding part of the Q and A:
Q: Do you see any difference between money politics and corruption?
A: When you pay people to vote for you, that is corruption. People call it money politics but not us. Under the law, anybody who sells or buys votes is guilty of corruption, so we go on that basis.
Q: Is the MACC focused on cleaning up Umno?
A: Not just Umno, please be clear about that. We will take action against any political party involved in corruption. It seems that way only because it is now Umno season. The party itself asked us for help. Read the rest of this entry »
2 caveats on MACC’s independence, credibility and professionalism
Posted by Kit in Corruption, UMNO on Tuesday, 27 January 2009
The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) must live down its very bad start which has seriously undermined its claim to independence, credibility and professionalism as compared to its predecessor, Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA).
The MACC had swung into action in the past week and although it seemed to be in an “all-out war” mode against Umno “ikan bilis”, it has to convince Malaysians that it is becoming another ICAC (Independent Commission Against Corruption of Hong Kong) which brooks no nonsense in its fight against corruption on two important grounds:
• Firstly, when will it move from Umno “ikan bilis” to Umno “ikan yu” to eradicate corruption in the most corrupt institution in the country; and
• Secondly, its “stop work” in its first 17 days of establishment for fear of jeopardizing UMNO’s victory in the Kuala Terengganu by-election on January 17, although Malaysians were promised that the MACC would hit the ground attacking corruption from January 1, 2009. Read the rest of this entry »
Can Najib emulate Obama to embody change?
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Election, Najib Razak, UMNO on Wednesday, 21 January 2009
Can Datuk Seri Najib Razak emulate Barack Obama to embody change and inspire Malaysians with the same hope of a “dream come true” as Obama has been able to evoke from the American people as witnessed in the inauguration of the 44th United States President yesterday?
This is the natural question to ask following Najib’s acknowledgement that Obama won election as the first African American president of the United States because he pushed for and embodied change.
Can Najib’s warning that Umno and Barisan Nasional must change or perish in the next general election be taken seriously, when he had just spearheaded the Barisan Nasional’s Kuala Terengganu “buy-election” campaign where money politics and electoral corruption had reigned supreme? Read the rest of this entry »
For starters, 5 reasons why MCA owes apology not only to Chinese voters in KT but to all Malaysians
In rejoinder to the demand by the MCA Vice President and Health Minister, Datuk Liow Tiong Lai that the DAP apologise to the Chinese voters in Kuala Terengganu for misleading them on the hudud issue, DAP had challenged MCA to a debate on “Who should apologise – MCA or DAP?” in Kuala Terengganu before the by-election on Saturday.
While DAP awaits the MCA response, let me give advance notice to the MCA leadership that there is a long catalogue of things MCA must apologise not only to the Malaysian Chinese in Kuala Terengganu but to all Malaysians, and it is most appropriate that this is done in Kuala Terengganu.
The catalogue of MCA failures and misdeeds range from the dismal performance of the current MCA leadership, the pathetic MCA record in Barisan Nasional, the shameful MCA failure to live up to the ideas and ideals of the MCA founding fathers like Tun Tan Cheng Lock to its shocking betrayal of the cardinal nation-building principles for Malaya and later Malaysia as embodied in the Merdeka “social contract” of 1957.
For a start, let me just cite five reasons why MCA owes not only the Malaysian Chinese but all Malaysians a fulsome apology. Read the rest of this entry »
MCA man jailed for offering bribe to Singapore cop
Posted by Kit in Corruption on Wednesday, 7 January 2009
MCA man jailed for offering bribe to Singapore cop
The Malaysian Insider7.01.09
SINGAPORE, Jan 7 — A Malaysian community leader initially fined S$15,000 (RM36,000) for offering a bribe to a traffic policeman was yesterday sentenced to jail for six weeks following an appeal by the prosecution.
Justice V. K. Rajah, handing down the jail term at the appeal hearing, stressed that the courts should take a firm, no-nonsense approach towards attempts at graft.
Any attempt to bribe a police officer will bring on a jail term, and if the bribe is accepted, both parties can expect “uncompromisingly stiff custodial sentences”, he said.
It is the way to go if the integrity of the police force as a pillar of society is to be upheld.
Rajah added that the jail term meted out to Lim Teck Choon, 56, took into account mitigating factors raised by his lawyer. He would otherwise have been jailed two to three months.
Lim, who has business interests on both sides of the Causeway, is a member of the MCA and the party’s deputy chairman in the town of Kampong Jawa in Johor. A philanthropist, he regularly donates money to temples and an orphanage; in 1988, he donated a building for a school. Read the rest of this entry »
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