Is the Minister for Women, Family and Community Development, Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil returning to her first Cabinet meeting tomorrow after her three-week leave triumphant or chastened?
All the signs are that Shahrizat has returned from her three-week leave completely unrepentant about the RM330 million National Feedlot Centre/National Feedlot Corporation (NFC/NFCorpn) “cattle condo” scandal which had plunged the 34-month Najib premiership to the lowest point in terms of public accountability and integrity and threatened to topple Malaysia’s Transparency International Corruption (TI) Perception Index (CPI) 2012 next year to a new low in both CPI score and ranking – even lower than the deplorable 60th ranking and 4.3 score in TI CPI 2011.
Shahrizat came back from her leave even more combative and truculent, as if challenging not only her known public detractors but the unseen forces in UMNO and Barisan Nasional to a battle royale to force her to relinquish her positions in both government and party over the NFC scandal – as Cabinet Minister and Umno Wanita chief!
The Cabinet meeting tomorrow will be the national focus tomorrow, whether the Prime Minister and the Ministers dare to state the obvious – that she should extend her leave as the rationale of her three-week leave to allow the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Agency (MACC) to clear her of any corruption, abuse of power or conflict of interests in the “cattle condo” scandal has not yet been achieved – or to be cowed by her triumphant return, although MCA President Datuk Seri Chua Soi Lek had blamed her for the “poor handling” of “cattle condo” scandal, causing the public to perceive the NFC project as “real rotten”?
Shahrizat made a very unrepentant, defiant but eloquent retort in mid-December “Which UMNO leader does not have problem”, which probably explained why she felt she was in safe company and enjoyed both immunity and impunity for her role in the “cattle condo” scandal.
Can every Cabinet Minister publicly declare that he or she does not have similar problems as Shahrizat and does not have any next-of-kin, whether husband, wife, son or daughter who have taken massive government loans for whatever projects which were misused for purposes completely unrelated to the loan disbursement – like the purchase of luxury condominiums in Bangsar and Singapore, land in Putrajaya or holidays trips and family expenses when the RM250 million loan was to promote the country’s beef self-sufficiency?
The Cabinet tomorrow owes the nation a satisfactory explanation why after nearly four months of public expose or nearly seven months since the first submission of the Auditor-General’s Report 2010 which first threw light on the RM330 million “cattle condo” scandal, the Najib premiership is at a complete loss as to how to give a satisfactory accounting on the RM330 million “cattle condo” scandal?
Malaysians are shocked by the Malaysiakini report this afternoon that the MACC had not yet interrogated Shahrizat over the “cattle condo” scandal.
Although the MACC Investigations Director Datuk Mustafar Ali revealed that the “cattle condo” case had been classified under Section 23 of the MACC Act for abuse of power which carries a maximum jail sentence of 20 years, he also admitted that Shahrizat had yet to be called in.
As Shahrizat had announced that she was taking three weeks leave to allow MACC to investigate and clear her name of corruption in the NFC scandal, one would have thought that the first thing she would have done when starting her three-week leave would be to visit the MACC to give a full statement to enable the MACC to clear her name. Why didn’t she do it?
And if Shahrizat did not volunteer to give a statement to MACC, why didn’t MACC call her up so that it could clear Shahrizat of any corrupt wrongdoing in the NFC scandal?
It would appear that Shahrizat’s three-week leave is nothing but a charade.
Malaysians still remember how initially, MACC refused to investigate the “cattle condo” scandal insisting that it was a police matter. It was only as a result of nation-wide outrage that the MACC changed its tack and announced its own investigations.
MACC had seriously undermined its own credibility, integrity and professionalism when it fouled up the Teoh Beng Hock and Sarbaini death cases. It will completely destroy its reputation if it is unable to re-establish its credibility, integrity and professionalism in its investigations of the “cattle condo” scandal.
A former senior police officer, Datuk Mat Zain, who was the former KL city CID chief, had questioned in an open letter to the Inspector-General of Police the police’s reluctance to act against Shahrizat’s family in the NFC scandal, saying it should only take “hours” to determine if they had misused project funds for their umrah trips.
Mat Zain had also called on the Prime Minister to instruct the police, graftbusters and the Attorney-General to complete investigations into the NFC scandal within a fortnight.
Is there any Cabinet Minister tomorrow who dare to ask Shahrizat to fully clear herself of any wrongdoing, whether abuse of power or conflict of interests, in the NFC scandal before she resumes her duty as Minister for Women, Family and Community Development?
///Is there any Cabinet Minister tomorrow who dares to ask Shahrizat to fully clear herself of any wrongdoing…..///
She is “untouchable” because she knows too much of the “dark side” of Umno. If someone from Umno were to challenge her, she would expose his bad deeds and wrongdoings. Didn’t she once said everybody in Umno has problems (of corruption)?
LKS, on the other hand, I believe her STANCE is fated; fated to become one of the platforms for the forth coming General Election. It is a blessing for PKR to have ready-made issues to present PKR’s performance in Selangor and Penang as against all those Wantonness practised by BN. It is God sent! So do taut and encourage her to linger until election day. It certain looks like the prediction on the name of Bapa Malaysia: RAHMAN will come true! So take heart, ALL thinking Malaysians!
By the way, I hope the Admin can help out, I have been unable to use my desktop to log in.
///KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 7 — Datuk Seri Najib Razak today urged Indian Malaysians to “trust” him to improve their lives ahead of the 13th general election.
“If you help me, I can help you. You trust me, I trust you,” the prime minister told a huge crowd of Hindu devotees attending the Thaipusam festival at the Batu Caves temple here.
The prime minister also announced that RM2 million will be allocated to build a cultural centre at the temple grounds.
“To show the government’s sincerity, I would like to announce that RM2 million will be allocated to build a cultural centre,” he said to a cheering crowd.///–Malaysian Insider
Najib’s father Razak promised in 1971 that NEP would be implemented for only twenty years. Najib is the PM, has he honoured his father’s promise? If he has not, then he is not in the habit of honouring promises. If a son would not honour his father’s promise then he would not honour his own, since he can pretend that there is time yet.
But what is the 2 million RM sweeter? The government paid 300 million RM just to buy the support of a wanita chief, and he wants to buy Indians with 2 million RM.
The start of testing Najib’s leadership by his own kind has begun.
MACC announced they are ready to question her.
To be found guilty…light jail sentence and be light all ex Ministers…no more political power.
If not that…Najib will create more divided minds amongst the UMNO b elites ….doing nothing.
She took 3 weeks leave ready for MACC to ‘interogate’ her yet MACC chickened out? Are they all into this cow-gate together or was the cow-dung too much to bear?
At last now MACC is alleged to be questioning this former “Lawyer and magistrate who know her rights” !
I pray she won’t commit suicide at MACC building; the amount involved is too big – RM250 million not RM2500!
Mrs Excuse Me was greeted with warm hand shake from none other that the MACC chairman. Kuih muih and teh coffee of her choice also ready in the air conditioned room. Just talk about her holidays and chat chat lah a big contrast how they treat TBH. The show is on going and they act as real as possible before announcing all above board