Friday, July 31, 2015

Hikmah Di Sebalik Pemecatan Muhyiddin


A Kadir Jasin

MUTAKHIR - Yang terbaru menjadi "viral" - tersebar luas - di media sosial ialah gambar apa yang kelihatan seperti kertas tuduhan (charge sheet) yang melibatkan Perdana Menteri dan seorang lagi dalam kes RM27 juta duit SRC International, anak syarikat Kementerian Kewangan. Wallahuaklam.

POSTING ASAL

MOHON sabar kalau cerita ini panjang. Sukar hendak dipendekkan. Jadi saya mulakan dengan membuat kesimpulan iaitu:

Penyingkiran (Tan Sri) Muhyiddin Mohd Yassin pada 28 Julai dan penamatan undur tarikh (back-dated) perkhidmatan Peguam Negara (Tan Sri) Abdul Gani Patail 27 Julai tidak menyelesaikan apa-apa masalah sebaliknya memburukkan lagi keadaan negara dan imej (Datuk Seri) Mohd Najib Abdul Razak.


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Implikasi dua peristiwa itu serta perubahan-perubahan lain yang menyusurinya di Jabatan Peguam Negara, PDRM, Suruhanjaya Pencegah Rasuah Malaysia (MACC) dan PAC adalah seperti berikut:-

1.Perdana Menteri terselamat daripada kemungkinan diheret ke mahkamah bersabit 1MDB dan SRC International. Satu “donia” sudah dengar cerita duit SRC International yang nawaitunya untuk kegiatan CSR (tanggungjawab sosial korporat) tetapi masuk akaun peribadi Perdana Menteri.

2.Menyiasat dan merangka pertuduhan melibatkan wang CSR SRC International lebih mudah kerana jumlah yang lebih kecil dan melibatkan hanya dua buah bank tempatan berbanding 1MDB yang membabitkan AS$700 juta.

3. Mohd Najib berjaya mengekalkan kuasa eksekutif tetapi di mata khalayak yang mengerti beliau telah hilang kuasa moral (moral authority) untuk memerintah.

4. Kuasa eksekutif beliau menjadi semakin kukuh kerana pengkritik beliau dalam Umno dan kerajaan telah disingkirkan atau digula-gula dengan pemberian jawatan menteri dan timbalan menteri.

Pasukan Petugas Lumpuh


5. Sekali gus pemberhentian undur tempoh Abdul Gani memporak-perandakan penyiasatan Pasukan Petugas 1MDB. Penyiasat akan terhenti atau dialih matlamatnya, pegawai ditukar dan fail-fail hilang atau dibakulsampahkan. (TI Malaysia berkata, Pasukan Petugas itu boleh dianggap terkubur tetapi MACC berkata ia akan meneruskan penyiasatan).

6. Tetapi maklumat berkaitan dengan penyiasatan 1MDB akan terus tersebar kerana banyak pihak dalam dan luar mempunyai maklumat dan dokumen mengenainya. Sudah terlambat menimbus bangkai gajah kerana sudah ditokak-tokak dan cebisannya dilarikan singa, cheetah, harimau bintang, dubuk (hyena), rubah, hereng, biawak dan helang.

1MDB ibarat bangkai gajah
7. Dengan melantik pembesar-pembesar Umno yang kemaruk kuasa dan bermuka-muka menjadi menteri dan timbalan menteri, Mohd Najib boleh mengarahkan mereka mengesan dan membinasakan pencuri-pencuri bangkai gajah itu. Inilah yang sedang berlaku dengan rancak sekarang iaitu mengalihkan perhatian daripada menyiasat jenayah kepada memburu pihak-pihak yang mendedahkan jenayah.

8. Gerakan taktikal Mohd Najib juga melumpuhkan PAC. Hatta pengerusi PAC, Nur Jazlan bin (Tan Sri) Mohamed Rahmat, yang bunyi begitu komited, ikhlas dan berani sebelum ini tetapi dengan riang rianya menerima jawatan timbalan menteri.

9. Speaker Dewan Rakyat sudah pun berkata anggota baru PAC tidak akan dilantik (sehingga Dewan bersidang Oktober ini). Namun Timbalan Pengerusi PAC, Tan Seng Giaw, wajib meneruskan tugas dengan ahli yang tinggal sekali pun tidak mendapat kerjasama pengurusan Parlimen atau hasil siasatan mereka tidak diiktiraf.

Agen Bebas Muhyiddin Yassin


10. Dengan penyingkirannya daripada kabinet, Muhyiddin boleh bertindak sebagai free agent mewakili Umno akar umbi kerana beliau adalah Timbalan Presiden Umno.

Muhyiddin boleh jadikan Umno kembali terangkun
11.Tetapi beliau harus berhati-hati meniti buih kerana Majlis Tertinggi yang berada dalam poket Presiden boleh menyingkirkan beliau atas alasan melanggar disiplin.

12. Muhyiddin boleh menjadikan Umno terangkum (inclusive) sekali lagi dengan berinteraksi dengan akar Umbi walaupun percubaan sudah mula dibuat bagi menyekat beliau mendampingi ahli.

12. Muhyiddin dan para penyokong beliau mungkin tidak berupaya mengubah keadaan di peringkat atas sama ada dalam Umno atau kerajaan tetapi mereka boleh mengubah persepsi dan sokongan rakyat jelata dan pengundi.

13. Mohd Najib mungkin telah berjaya berpaut kepada kuasa tetapi setiap hari berlalu ekonomi bertambah goyah, ringgit dibedal, pasaran modal lesu dan Malaysia menjadi bahan ketawa satu dunia.

Menara Dua Bukit Aman dijilat api
14. Sebagai renungan, apakah berkat apabila, sebaik sahaja menteri polis ((Datuk Seri) Ahmad Zahid bin Hamidi) dinaikkan pangkat menjadi Timbalan Perdana Menteri, menara dua Bukit Aman tiba-tiba dijilat api? Satu kebetulan yang sangat menakjubkan!

Wallahuaklam.

Tuesday, July 28, 2015

Sackings Will Not Make 1MDB Scandal Disappear


A Kadir Jasin

IN times like these, it’s understandable for the majority of the rakyat to feel despondent and pessimistic.

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It is the heavy duty of the optimistic few to keep the spirit up and the struggle for truth alive.

The hasty removal of (Tan Sri) Abdul Gani Patail as  Attorney-General yesterday, according to legal experts, tantamount to constructive dismissal.

In their opinion, he is still legally the AG. The law of natural justice was ignored. He was removed on the presumption that he is not in good health.

That he is not in the pink of health is an open secret. But why now and with such a haste that he was removed?

It is the case of the Malay proverb “kalau tidak ada-ada masakan tempua bersarang rendah”?

Is it because he is about to charge the 1MDB perpetrator or perpetrators in court that his tenure was prematurely terminated?

The scrambling for cover was such that it creates the impression that the charging was to happen today or tomorrow.

Assuming that the case in such an advanced stage, would the “sacking” of the AG and the dismissal of Deputy Prime Minister and a couple of ministers seal the boiling cauldron?

Would it not leak or, worse still, explode and spill the 1MDB muck for the whole world to see?

The potency of the executive power may be able to stop the 1MDB muck from being exposed in the court of law, but it has no power to stop it from being tried in the court of public opinion.

So I am still optimistic that the truth about 1MDB and who is or are responsible for its unexplainable business activities and the massive flows of fund, i.e. its debts, would eventually be known.

On his part, (Tan Sri) Muhyiddin Mohd Yassin, has to act fast and furious if he does not want to disappoint the rakyat. If he buckles, the cause is lost for the majority of the people, for Umno and the Barisan Nasional.

And it will be a double whammy for the country if the oppositions, because of their internal squabbles, are unable to take over the torch.

Following is Muhyiddin full press statement:

“Bismillahirrahmanirrahim.

Alhamdulillah, saya mengucapkan terima kasih kepada YAB Perdana Menteri kerana telah memberikan peluang kepada saya untuk berkhidmat dalam pentadbiran kerajaan persekutuan sebagai Timbalan Perdana Menteri bermula 10 April 2009.

Saya juga mengucapkan terima kasih kepada semua ketua-ketua jabatan, pegawai-pegawai kerajaan, pemimpin pertubuhan bukan kerajaan dan semua pihak yang telah menyokong saya sepanjang saya menjalankan tugas sebagai Timbalan Perdana Menteri.

Saya menerima keputusan YAB Perdana Menteri untuk menggugurkan saya daripada kabinet dengan hati yang terbuka. Saya menghormati kuasa prerogatif YAB Perdana Menteri untuk melantik dan menggugurkan mana-mana anggota kabinet.

Sebagai Timbalan Perdana Menteri, saya telah terlibat secara langsung dalam pembuatan dasar-dasar kerajaan dan melaksanakan tugas-tugas yang dipertanggungjawabkan kepada saya dengan penuh amanah.

Selama saya berkhidmat, saya sentiasa mendokong semua dasar kerajaan dan menyokong kepimpinan YAB Perdana Menteri.

Kecuali dalam isu 1MDB, saya mempunyai prinsip dan pendirian saya sendiri dalam mempertahankan hak rakyat, nama baik parti dan kepentingan negara. Jika kerana pendirian saya dalam isu ini menyebabkan saya digugurkan daripada kabinet maka saya redha.

Saya akan sentiasa setia kepada perjuangan UMNO. Sebagai Timbalan Presiden UMNO, saya akan terus melaksanakan amanah yang telah dipertanggungjawabkan kepada saya dan mencurahkan khidmat bakti saya demi memperkukuhkan parti serta mengembalikan keyakinan orang Melayu dan rakyat kepada UMNO.

Kepada Allah saya berserah.

TAN SRI DATO' HJ MUHYIDDIN HJ MOHD YASSIN
28 Julai 2015

[In gist, he said: “Except on the 1MDB issue, I hold a different principle and stand in defending the right of the people, the good name of the party and the interest of the country. If because of my stand on this issue that I was dropped from the Cabinet, I am willing (redha).]

Wallahuaklam.

Monday, July 27, 2015

Hard to Sabotage 1MDB Task Force Now


A Kadir Jasin


UPDATE, July 28, Putrajaya - Home Minister and Umno Vice President (Datuk) Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi has been appointed Deputy Prime Minister replacing (Tan Sri) Muhyiddi Mohd Yassin who is Umno Deputy President and Education Minister. 

Can Muhyiddin Mobilise Umno or the door is closed shut?

LATEST, July 28 - PETALING JAYA: (Tan Sri) Abdul Gani Patail’s  tenure as the Attorney-General was terminated with effect Monday due to health reasons.
 
Announcing this Tuesday, Chief Secretary to the Government  (Tan Sri) Ali Hamsa said Gani Patail was replaced by former Federal Court judge (Tan Sri) Mohamed Apandi Ali with immediate effect. (The Star Online).

Don’t despair. Just take good care of yourself because, from now on, if your majikan knows you are not well he can sack you.

In any case we need a healthier Attorney-General to pursue the 1MDB case. Surely as a former Federal Court judge he knows as much, if not more, about the law, than his predecessor. InsyaAllah.


The Cabinet may be reshuffle some time today.


ORIGINAL POST

CLOSING down newspapers, attacking websites and the IGP’s failed mission to interrogate Xavier Andre Justo in Thailand and the emerging attacks on 1MDB Task Force members are the distractions – a subplot from the movie “Wag the Dog”.


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In the movie, starring Robert De Niro and Dustin Hoffman, the President of the United States was caught making advances on an underage girl less than two weeks before election day. Conrad Brean (De Niro), a top-notch spin doctor, is brought in to take the public's attention away from the scandal. He decides to construct a diversionary war with Albania with the hope that the media will concentrate on this instead. Brean contacts Hollywood producer Stanley Motss (Hoffman) to create the war, complete with a theme song and fake film footages.

I would not put the Prime Minister’s communication chief, Abdul Rahman Dahlan in the same league as the film’s director Barry Levinson but the plot is near enough – to drive attention away from the tightening noose of 1Malaysia Development Berhad’s Task Force.

But what a slap in the face it was for the government when the Thais refused access to Justo to the IGP team but allowed a journalist of the Singapore Straits Times to interview him instead (Read here). As if the Thais were telling our government, if you want to know about Justo read the Straits Times.

Clearly the Thais are more willing to work with Singapore than with Malaysia on this matter. Secrets and blackmails are an evil necessity in international relations.

The IGP could have sent a wrong signal to the whole national by his instance to interrogate Justo and his dismal failure. It gave the impression that he was more interested in the Justo sideshow than in the matter at hand – the Task Force investigation – and was not influential enough with the Thais.

It may have been too late for any one member Task Force to sabotage or pervert the investigation in favour of any party. They have to play the team game or risk being exposed as renegade.

The police sudden shift of attention from the 1MDB investigation to the allegation of conspiracy to topple the PM and the role of Justo had raised concern that it was more interested with the political rather than criminal aspect of the case.

The suspicion arose out of the fact that among the four members of the Task Force, the police are the easiest to the influenced because its ultimate boss, Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, is seen as the last few remaining supporters of the Prime Minister.

In fact Ahmad Zahid is seen as the man most likely to be promoted should Mohd Najib Abdul Razak decide to reshuffle the cabinet in the coming days and the most likely casualties are the Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Mohd Yassin and Rural Development Minister Shafie Apdal.

Could Attempts Have Been Made?

Attempts might have been made to force the police to act contrary to the interest of the Task Force but could not be executed because the force itself was against such an interference or because the investigation had gone to far ahead to be effectively sabotaged.

The test to this theory is to see whether the police will work with the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission and the Bank Negara to track down and arrest the people wanted for the Task Force.

The Police are yet to make their own arrest. That could be because the investigations expose abuse of power and corruption rather than crimes that the police are familiar with. The MACC has more expertise in handling abuse of power and corruption cases.

Sources said one of key suspects whom the police “were supposed to hide from the MACC” was handed over to the Commission soon after he was located. It means that political influence is waning as the noose tightens on the 1MDB perpetrators.

It might have been too late for any single person, including the Prime Minister, to divert the direction of the investigations.

A former top law officer told me a couple of nights ago that he believed the Task Force had discovered and established more than sufficient evidence to charge those responsible for the crime.

He said, the law on corruption as it applies to public servant is pretty straight forward. What he or she earns that is not her salary and allowance raises the spectre of corruption and abuse of power. Mohd Najib is a public servant.

He noted that PM has not denied that he once had a personal bank account at AmBank that, which at one point, held RM2.63 billion.

The 1MDB is no longer in the political realm and the telltale signs are clear. Mohd Najib’s defenders are reduced to junior spokesmen like Abdul Rahman and Salleh Said Keruak, Lester Melanyi and Ramesh Rao.

The video man: Lester Melanyi
Ramesh Rao: Bankrupt has money to fund Melanyi

The likes of Puad Zarkashi, Musa Sheikh Fadzir and Ahmad Maslan have not been heard from for quite some time while the heavyweights like Hishammuddin Hussein and Mohd Nazri Aziz have been largely silence. Or are they preserving their last silver bullets?

Attacks On Task Force


This does not mean that Mohd Najib’s propaganda war has come to a halt. The suspension of the Edge group newspapers could be the beginning of kill-the-messengers strategy.

The attacks can be expected to become more vicious and might even target members of the Task Force. This could be the hara-kiri act of devotion by Mohd Najib’s cyber troupers – the very people he last year called “bangang” (stupid). In fact they have started.

If in Thailand the IGP was refused access to Justo, over in Singapore two bank accounts related to1MDB were frozen.

A former Singapore state minister told a former Malaysian minister in Kuala Lumpur a few days ago that that while Singapore “loves” Mohd Najib, it would not compromise on anything that smells money laundering.

The former law officer said everyday that passes and no charge is laid against the suspect or suspects, the Task Force is making a mockery of the law.

A point of history. When he was Deputy Prime Minister, Mohd Najib outlined six approaches that the civil servants must practise and he stressed that top level civil servants should “reduce their discretionary power in their action in order to avoid corrupt practices.” (Read here)

Yet what has been made known so far about 1MDB shows just the opposite. The PM runs the Finance Ministry, which owns 1MDB, and he is also its de facto chief by the virtue of his chairmanship of its advisory board – the highest policy making body.

And as Muhyiddin was quoted of saying on Sunday night at the Umno Cheras division’s annual general meeting that no one know about 1MDB other than Mohd Najib. (Read here)

A footnote of history: Almarhum Sultan Azlan Shah, when sentencing Allahyarham (Datuk) Harun Idris for corruption in 1976, said, inter-alia:
“It is painful for me to have to sentence a man I know. I wish it were the duty of some other judge to perform that task. To me this hearing seems to reaffirm the vitality of the rule of law. But to many of us, this hearing also suggests a frightening decay in the integrity of some of our leaders. It has given horrible illustrations of Lord Acton's aphorism 'power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely', and has focussed concern on the need of some avowed limitations upon political authority.
“...the law is no respector of persons. Nevertheless it will be impossible to ignore the fact that you are in a different category from any person that I have ever tried. It would be impossible to ignore the fact that, in the eyes of millions of our countrymen and women, you are a patriot and a leader. Even those who differ from you in politics look upon you as a man of high ideals. You had every chance to reach the greatest height of human achievement. But half-way along the road, you allowed avarice to corrupt you.

“It is incomprehensible how a man in your position could not in your own conscience, recognise corruption for what it is. In so doing, you have not only betrayed your party cause, for which you have spoken so eloquently, but also the oath of office which you have taken and subscribed before your Sovereign Ruler, and above all the law of which you are its servant".
Full article by Sultan Nazrin Shah (Read here). Harun was given royal pardon in 1981.

Wallahuaklam.

Friday, July 24, 2015

Jangan Tertekan Sampai Tak Lalu Makan

 
A Kadir Jasin 


MUTAKHIR  Pelik dan hairan. Macam mana orang yang dikehendaki oleh Suruhanjaya Pencegah Rasuah Malaysia dan Bank Negara tiba-tiba menghilangkan diri dan PDRM belum membuat sebarang tangkapan.

Daripada laporan media massa, khususnya media arus perdana, PDRM sangat beriltizam mahu mengorek berita daripada Andre Justo yang dalam tahanan Polis Thai. Apakah Justo begitu tahu mengenai 1MDB?

Apa matlamat  Pasukan Petugas Khas – nak siasat ke mana duit 1MDB lesap atau nak dengar cerita Justo? Boleh dengar cerita Justo. Tapi duit yang lesap wajib dikesan. Itu bukan duit rakyat jelata Malaysia. Ia bukan modal Pak Arab atau duit sadakah Putera Puteri Arab.

Kita berdoa kepada Allah agar memberikan petunjuk dan kekuatan kepada pegawai-pegawai MACC, Bank Negara, Pejabat Peguam Negera  dan kepada pegawai-pegawai PRDM yang berjuang atas dasar kebenaran.

Cukuplah kita berselindung di sebalik “conspiracy theories” dan menghukum pihak-pihak yang tak sebulu dengan kita. Kalau mereka salah, kita tidak semestinya benar.

Jangan sangka rakyat jelata tidak tahu. Jangan sangka semua orang boleh dibeli atau diancam. Dan yang berkuasa juga jangan sangka mereka tidak ada musuh dalam selimut.

Wallahuaklam.

ORIGINAL POSTING
 
NAK salahkan orang kita naik angin, emosional dan jadi tak tentu arah pun tak boleh juga. Memang keadaan dalam negara kita kacau-bilau. Politik huru-hara dan ekonomi tak tentu hala.

Tapi, alhamdulillah ada lagi orang kita yang boleh buat jenaka dan gelak ketawa. Orang Utara kata, buat lawak atau kelolo.

Kelolo, bukan koro. Koro penyakit yang serang orang lelaki sampai hilang kejantanan dan segala keberanian (Baca di sini).

Semalam saya minum teh dengan seorang ahli parlimen pembangkang. Mulai 26 Jun lalu, saya boleh minum teh dengan semua orang politik tanpa rasa ragu sebab saya tidak ada afiliasi dengan mana-mana parti politik lagi. Saya sudah jadi non-partisan.

Lagi pula, mulai 1 Julai saya tidak ada kerja atau jawatan lagi. Sudah tutup kedai. Nganggur. Orang Utara kata, sepak kertas. Orang putih kata, jobless. Selama 46 tahun makan gaji – mulai 16 Jun 1969 sampai 1 Julai 2015.

Ahli parlimen bekas Pakatan Rakyat itu bagi tahu saya, bulan puasa dia menjelajah Sulawesi - negeri orang Bugis - selama dua minggu. Dia nak belajar macam mana wilayah Indonesia itu selesaikan pertumpahan darah Islam-Kristian.

Mangsa pergaduhan agama di Sulawesi
Dia kata, orang Bugis bukan lanun seperti yang sering diandaikan, tapi satu bangsa yang sangat utamakan kebenaran.

Saya kata: "Ya lah, mana ada orang Bugis di negeri Bugis nak mengaku ada orang Bugis zaman dulu kala jadi lanun."

Itu zaman dulu. Sekarang, kalau melanun orang Somalia di Afrika Timur nombor satu. Tapi lanun boleh kata ada di semua benua. Di mana ada laut, ada lah lanun. Di darat dipanggil pencuri, perompak, penyamun, perampok dan sebagainya. Sekarang ada perampok kolar putih.

Ahli parlimen itu adalah antara yang kena sekat daripada pergi ke luar negara.

Saya kata, susah juga nak fikirkan apa alasan sebenar mereka dihalang daripada meninggalkan tanah air. Fikir punya fikir, saya mendapat ilham berikut:

1. Sekarang musim durian. Kerajaan mahu mereka tinggal dalam negara dan bantu lariskan jualan durian supaya pemilik dusun, peraih dan peruncit durian boleh cari makan, menjana ekonomi dan memacu transformasi.

2. Sekarang Tahun Melawat Malaysia. Jadi kerajaan mahu seramai mungkin rakyat jelata ambil bahagian dalam Cuti-Cuti Malaysia.

3. Sekarang nilai ringgit merudum. Kalau ramai rakyat Malaysia mengembara ke luar negara, lagi teruklah kejatuhannya.

4. Rizab luar pun merosot. Khabarnya kerana mempertahankan nilai ringgit. Kalau ramai orang kita mengembara ke luar negara dan bawa keluar duit yang banyak, lagi teruklah kejatuhan rizab dan kadar tukaran duit kita.

5. Tapi saya rasa para YB itu tidaklah kaya. Jadi banyak mana sangat yang mereka nak bawa keluar. Lagi pun elaun baru mereka, khabarnya, belum lagi dibayar. Perbendaharaan tak cukup duit kot!

6. Dalam suasana ada macam-macam teori persekongkolan (conspiracy theories) boleh jadi juga pihak berkuasa takut para YB itu pergi ke luar negara untuk sertai IS.

7. Mungkin kerajaan tidak mahu mereka ke luar negara sebab mereka akan disiasat berkenaan dakwaan konspirasi nak jatuhkan Perdana Menteri.

8. Yang lawaknya, dua orang yang Pasukan Petugas 1MDB nak tangkap dah cabut lari ke luar negara. Seorang namanya Nik Faisal Ariff Kamil (peguam) dan seorang lagi Suboh Mohd Yassin, bekas pegawai tinggi kerajaan.

Nik Faisal (atas) dan Suboh
9. Atau boleh jadi juga pihak berkuasa tak mahu mereka ke luar negara pasal takut mereka dapat lagi banyak maklumat dan dokumen berkenaan 1MDB.

Wallahuaklam.

Nasihat saya, janganlah gundah gulana sampai makan tak lalu, tidur tak lena, mandi tak basah, resah gelisah tak tentu arah. Meminjam lingo kontemporari anak-anak muda, jangan emo sangat!

Jangan risau sampai sasau. Jangan tidak ketahuan sampai kena sawan. Lagi teruk kalau kena sawan babi. Tak ada ubat. Kita emo dan susah hati pun belum tentu ada orang peduli.

Ambil iktibar daripada sejarah. Bila pembesar Perancis bagi tahu Marie Antoinette yang rakyat jelata Perancis tak ada roti nak makan, bini raja Perancis itu kata: "Biar mereka makan kek!"

Marie Antoinette amat berpengaruh
Tak lama lepas itu rakyat Perancis bangkit memberontak. Marie Antoinette dan laki dia, Raja Louis XVI kena pancung.

Dua puluh sembilan tahun lalu, Presiden Marcos lari tinggalkan negara kerana diburu rakyat jelata. Nasib baik Amerika tolong seludup. Sekarang ada muzium kasut Imelda Marcos di Manila.

Muzium Kasut Imelda Marcos di Manila
Akhir kalam, dalam kita berjenaka melegakan sesak di dada, eloklah kita fikir-fikirkan siapa yang kita mahu terajui negara di masa akan datang. Itu saja yang kita boleh buat. Kita hanya boleh berfikir dan bagi pendapat. Kuasa melantik bukan di tangan kita. Kita ada kuasa hanya waktu pilihan raya.

Kita fikirkanlah yang terbaik di kalangan yang kurang baik. Kita memilih manusia bukan malaikat. Fikirkanlah yang tahu agama dan moral, yang tidak terlalu kontroversi, tidak terlalu kaya raya dan yang anak bininya tahu tempat masing-masing.

Wallahuaklam.


Wednesday, July 22, 2015

1MDB: Task Force Showing Seriousness


A Kadir Jasin

UPDATE, July 24 – The 1MDB Special Task Force made its third arrest on Thursday night. The suspect is a 28-year old company owner. He is expected to be remanded. – The Star SMS.

ORIGINAL POST

I BELIEVE the chips are falling in the 1Malaysia Development Berhad scandal.

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I believe too, albeit with slight reservation, that the 1MDB Task Force is serious about uncovering the truth and acting, without fear and favour, against the guilty parties.

My slight reservation is based on my observation of media statements that suggest a certain member of the Task Force is still playing "kayu tiga".


But with two arrests in two days, the Task Force cannot be engaging in play acting or an act of deceit involving the Attorney General, the police, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Agency and Bank Negara. They have to be serious.

On July 20, an executive director of a publicly traded construction company was arrested at KLIA as he was about to board a plane bound for Taiwan.

The 39-year old is believed to be a Chinese Malaysia. He has been variously identified as Jerome Lee Tak Loong and his company is Putrajaya Perdana Berhad.

If the information is correct, his arrest has another twist to it. According to the company’s official website, its chairman is (Datuk Panglima) Abdul Azeez Abdul Rahim, the Barisan Nasional MP for Baling and the chairman of Tabung Haji. Tabung Haji is one of the many government agencies embroiled in the 1MDB debt saga.

The 39-year old must be a very important person in the 1MDB saga because his lawyer is the high-profiled (Tan Sri) Muhammad Shafee Abdullah. Not every Dollah, Tong and Harishan (the Malaysian version of Tom, Dick and Harry) can afford or would need his services.

So logically Lee’s arrest must have been very significant to the case so as to warrant Muhammad Shafee’s services.

Media reports quoted Muhammad Shafee as saying that his client was remanded for fours day for investigation under Section 17 (a) of the MACC Act. He said he did not know the grounds for his client's arrest but was told it was on "investigation on national grounds". 

Then yesterday afternoon a high level executive identified as (Datuk) Shamsul Anwar Sulaiman was also arrested and was this morning remanded for five days in relation to the same investigation.

He is the managing director of Ihsan Perdana Sdn Bhd, the company that undertakes corporate social responsibility (CSR) programmes for 1MDB's charity foundation, the Yayasan 1MDB.

Ihsan Perdana was one of the entities mentioned in the Wall Street Journal expose of July 2 as being part of the money trail involving billions of ringgit that led to Mohd Najib's personal accounts.

The MACC prosecutor Ahmad Sazilee Abdul Khairy today said  that Shamsul, 54, was met at The Curve and taken to the agency's headquarters where he was arrested under Section 17 (a) of the MACC Act.

Is the PM’s Propaganda Backfiring?

Sources said the arrests were partly hastened by the heightened campaign to discredit the investigation by Mohd Najib’s propaganda machine.

Mohd Najib’s propaganda outfit, led by his Strategic Communications Chief, MP Abdul Rahman Dahlan, had gone on high gear to discredit the Prime Minister's critics and to create doubt about official and unofficial investigations into the 1MDB scandal and its link to Mohd Najib.

The latest to be rolled in the offensive was a little known Sarawak reporter by the name of Lester Melanyi who “confessed” that he knew about the “falsification and adulteration” of 1MDB documents by Sarawak Report (SR), a claim which had since been rubbished by the latter. In addition, SR is taking legal action against Abdul Rahman, the New Straits Times and others for malicious falsehoods.

The emergence of Abdul Rahman and the rolling out of Melanyi and other unknowns coincided with the news that the high-profiled public relations man, (Tan Sri) Lim Kok Wing had hastily resigned as Mohd Najib’s media adviser.

Lim’s resignation is telling. It appears that even he could not burnish Mohd Najib’s sagging reputation. I have known Lim since the 1970’s. He was involved in the advertising aspect of Barisan Nasional’s election campaign over several general elections. In my days, editors did not always agree with him or his role. Some barely tolerated him.

In joining Mohd Najib he must have thought he could repeat and replicate what he did for (Tun) Dr Mahathir. But even in the worse of circumstances, Dr Mahathir’s problems were pale by comparison to what Mohd Najib is going through now. Even the flamboyant Lim could not burnish Mohd Najib’s image and reputation.

Lim is wealthy and has reputation to protect. He could easily say no to Mohd Najib’s money or, maybe, he was doing it for free.

Before Lim jumped onto Mohd Najib’s media bandwagon, many seasoned media and PR personalities had tried to build and burnish his image. They failed and gave up. (Tan Sri) Jalaluddin Bahaudin aka Jalal was one of them. He was Dr Mahathir’s former Press Secretary and Special Assistance.

Medium Is The Message

Now the PM and his protectors (the likes of Abdul Rahman and Ramesh Rao Naidu) had to rummage through the woodwork to find people who would be willing to play the roles once performed by Jalal and other seasoned media people like (Datuk) Khalid Mohamad (former editor-in-chief of Utusan) and (Datuk) Hardev Kaur (the former group editor of NST).

Mohd Najib’s predicament reminded me of the final days of Almarhum Tunku Abdul Rahman in the early 1970’s when chief editors, news editors and senior journalists progressively stopped covering his functions and leaving the task to junior reporters.

I was one of those greenhorns assigned to cover him. It was an honour for me to cover him although I was once threatened with a sack by his Political Secretary, the late Tan Sri Shariff Ahmad, for not following his instruction on how to report Tunku’s speeches.

What is happening to Mohd Najib’s media campaign today defies the very core of journalism and communication as taught by the great journalism guru, late Marshall McLuhan.

This Canadian writer, communicator and philosopher was the originator of the terms “Medium is the Message” and “The Global Village” back in the 1960’s.

He argued that the message is embedded in the medium. If the medium is credible, the message it carries will be believed. On the other hand, if the medium is not credible, even a truthful message will not be believed.

So who is a more credible medium, Dr Mahathir or Abdul Rahman, Melanyi or Clare Rewcastle-Brown, Ho Kay Tat or Ramesh Rao Naidu?


FOOTNOTE: I am  sorry I forgot about the Singapore Police freezing two bank accounts relating to an investigation into 1MDB in the republic. In a statement today it said: “On 15 July 2015, we issued orders under the Criminal Procedure Code to prohibit any dealings in respect of money in two bank accounts that are relevant to the investigation.” I think the door is also closing in Singapore.


Wallahuaklam.

About Me

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I was born in 1947 in Kedah. I came from a rice farming family. I have been a journalist since 1969. I am the Editor-in-Chief of magazine publishing company, Berita Publishing Sdn Bhd. I was Group Editor NST Sdn Bhd and Group Editor-in-Chief of NSTP Bhd between 1988 and 2000. I write fortnightly column “Other Thots” in the Malaysian Business magazine, Kunta Kinte Original in Berita Harian and A Kadir Jasin Bercerita in Dewan Masyarakat. Books: Biar Putih Tulang (1998), Other Thots – Opinions & Observations 1992-2001 (2001), The Wings of an Eagle (2003), Mencari Dugalia Huso (2006), Damned That Thots (2006), Blogger (2006), PRU 2008-Rakyat Sahut Cabaran (2008), Komedi & Tragedi-Latest in Contemporary Malaysian Politics (2009) and Membangun Bangsa dengan Pena (2009).