— Lucius Goon
The Malaysian Insider
Dec 01, 2011
DEC 1 — I am truly dumbfounded; how did we reach this stage where wrongdoing, abuse of power is ignored and even celebrated.
What was the trigger point or epochal moment when corruption, abuse of public funds and plain padding up bank accounts stopped being an issue for Umno.
This was supposed to be Umno’s show of unity and transformation, an audition of sorts before the coming election. But instead we have seen a party from the top — Muhyiddin Yassin to the rank and file — celebrating the National Feedlot Corporation scandal.
Umno Youth says it is on reform mode but that it just shallow speak given the movement’s pledge to defend Messrs Shahrizat Jalil’s family’s scandalous use of public funds. Just to recap, her husband and children were given a softloan of RM250 million to develop the feedlot programme in Gemas.
But the Auditor-General reported that the project was a mess and digging by the Opposition showed that money was used to buy condominiums, umrah packages, a Mercedes Benz, etc. Basically, they treated my money and yours like their own.
They even paid some of Shahrizat’s expenses. This is as blatant abuse of public funds as any of us have witnessed.
But the fat cats of Umno insist that the project is a success and can’t understand what the fuss is about. In fact, Wanita Umno members were lauding Shahrizat for “coming out fighting”. Khairy Jamaluddin and his band of men also thinks its much ado about nothing.
Muhyiddin Yassin just says that there is nothing to the NFC scandal, all just hot air by the Opposition.
I understand why the DPM is defensive. He was the Agriculture Minister who promoted the NFC project. But their “celebration” of Shahrizat’s defiant stance and ignoring the blatant abuse of public funds is symptomatic of two ailments afflicting Umno.
Firstly, Umno views it as a sign of weakness to admit to mistakes and even to say sorry. So come what may, wrongdoing must be defended and the indefensible must be defended.
Secondly, so deep is the rot in Umno that its leaders actually believe that there is nothing wrong with what Shahrizat’s family did. After all, at one time or another, every one of them has used or treated public funds as their own.
They talk about reforms but can people without a moral compass talk about reforms?