“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.
I started my speech by reminding the House that there had been various proposals that anti-corruption should be made part of the school syllabus to bring up a new generation of Malaysians who develop a strong antagonism towards corruption and who could distinguish between right and wrong on issues of integrity.
The question being asked today, not only among Malaysians at large, but even among thinking school-children, is best captured by the theme of the Malaysiakini email column today: ‘Why is Ali Rustam still Malacca CM?’ – “A ‘corrupt practice’ is an act of corruption, period. Yet, this Ali Rustam is allowed to remain an Umno member and chief minister of Malacca.”
The Education Minister, who is UMNO Youth leader, Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein has said that there is no need for Ali to resign as Malacca Chief Minister.
Do we have a young generation of Malaysians in the schools who could distinguish between right and wrong and can think for themselves that the Education Minister is wrong in this regard?
Will they be able to see the validity of the stand taken by the UMNO MP for Gua Musang Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah as reported in the Utusan Malaysia report “Gantung jawatan parti – Ku Li”:
KUALA LUMPUR 18 Mac – Calon-calon jawatan tertinggi parti yang didapati terlibat dalam politik wang perlu digantung daripada sebarang jawatan parti dan bukan sekadar dihalang bertanding.
Ketua UMNO Bahagian Gua Musang, Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah berpendapat, Lembaga Disiplin parti patut bertindak adil dan tidak membezakan hukuman ke atas para pengamal politik wang sekalipun mereka memegang jawatan berlainan dalam parti.
“Kalau benar bersalah patut dihukum, tidak boleh diberi amaran saja. Jangan pilih ‘ikan bilis’ saja, ‘jerung’ lepas,” katanya kepada pemberita di lobi Parlimen hari ini.
Beliau mengulas kes politik wang melibatkan Ketua Menteri Melaka, Datuk Seri Mohd. Ali Rustam serta ejen-ejennya.
UMNO MPs were up in arms when I made these points in Parliament, with the MP from Jasin misquoting the Standing Orders in trying to stop me from proceeding.