As they say, crooks always have a way of explaining things. Umno crooks are experts at this. They have learnt the art of cheating and lying...'.

Amid speculation that Salleh Ismail, the husband of embattled Umno leader Shahrizat Jalil, was drawing a salary of around RM100,000 per month, PKR Youth chief Shamsul Iskandar has challenged the National Feedlot Corporation to come clean on the numbers.

"NFC is a national project. It owes Malaysians transparency because it is funded by taxpayers' money. If it is really paying such huge salaries to Salleh and other top executives, it must have good reasons to do so and we want to know what these are," Shamsul told Malaysia Chronicle.

Given that Prime Minister Najib Razak, who is also the Umno president, is trying to damage control the fallout from the financial scandal, it is unlikely that NFC will respond.

Since the start of this month, several bloggers including from Umno have accused the NFC of paying its Executive Chaiman Salleh around RM100,000 per month, her children Wan Shainur Izmir, 31, who is the Executive Director, Wan Shahinur Izran, 27, the Chief Executive Officer and Wan Izzana Fatimah, 25, the Director, salaries and allowances of between RM35,000 to RM45,000 per month each.

Malafide

Meanwhile, according to PKR strategy director Rafizi Ramli, the police have yet to interview him, PKR Women's chief Zuraida Kamaruddin or PKR secretary-general Saifuddin Nasution over their claims of abuse of power and misappropriation of funds at the NFC.

This despite Deputy Inspector General of Police Khalid Bakar claiming that his men had interviewed 74 people and found no trace of "elements of criminal breach of trust".

PKR had broken the news about Shahrizat and the alleged mismanagement at the NFC. After failing to get answers in Parliament from the Najib administration, PKR leaders went public with their accusations that NFC had wrongfully spent RM181mil out of an RM250mil government soft loan meant to incubate a cattle livestock industry in Gemas.

PKR accused Salleh of spending the funds on super-plush condos at Bangsar, a high-specs Mercedes CLS 350 CGI, prime residential land, holiday trips, cash transfers and million-ringgit discounts to family-controlled firms.

"It is a puzzle how the deputy IGP can come to his conclusion when he never once interviewed any of us, although we have lodged a report with the MACC. We regard this as another sign of bad faith to the rakyat (citizenry) from the police and the BN," Rafizi told Malaysia Chronicle.

UMNO Minister Senator Shahrizat Jalil must have known that her family-managed National Feedlot Corporation was on the wrong track but somehow, she managed to keep it under wraps until it was inevitably exposed by rival party PKR. That soon after, PKR’s claims of misconduct were confirmed by the Auditor-General’s report that NFC was indeed a “mess” was a double whammy for her.

Questions are now buzzing around the UMNO circuit over the issue. Didn’t her UMNO bosses and seniors know about NFC or did they keep their hands off because this was her project and she should be given the space to handle it?

Perhaps initially this was so, but when it became apparent that PKR was on a roll, having managed to source concrete details of the abuse of power, why didn’t Najib put his foot down?

Oversight or Deliberate Act

Was this an oversight by the UMNO supreme council? Or was it purposely downplayed so that it could be further stirred up until there was no other way out for Shahrizat but the door! Given UMNO’s penchant of bending the institutions to its bidding, why didn’t the elite ‘influence’ the Auditor-General (A-G)?

Yet, so what if they had managed to ‘zip up’ the A-G. PKR still had in its hand the paper trail needed to nail Shahrizat’s family. This argument doesn’t quite work either. Whichever the real reasons for the mishandling by the UMNO elite – whether the confusion was deliberately caused or if they were genuinely taken by surprise by the PKR’s access to such detailed information – UMNO members seem to prefer to believe Shahrizat had been targeted.

Not that they don’t think she deserved the worst punishment for the gross greed allegedly displayed by her family, but in the typical fashion of UMNO intrigue, the various stories spun by the different factions have thrilled many a coffee group at the PWTC during the UMNO assembly last week.

Public Confidence in UMNO, Najib at its lowest

According to the UMNO sources, Najib was very disappointed with the never-ending scandals befalling UMNO leaders one after another, not to mention his own misdeeds, the most recent of which include allegations of having misused public funds to fly to Kazakhstan and Perth on largely personal matters.

Indeed, with the general election just around the corner, the situation has never been so bad for UMNO-BN. Public confidence in him and UMNO are possibly at its lowest ebb. Najib also has to face the dilemma of what to do with Shahrizat since he appointed her to her present post of Women Affairs Minister because he believed she could perform. Party insiders say to help dampen the impact on UMNO and at the same time to distance himself from it – although it turned out to be unsuccessful – Najib tried to comment as little as possible on the scandal. Instead, he ordered those he saw as responsible for the problem to solve it.

And this is how UMNO Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin found himself being made the lead ‘spokesman’ for Shahrizat. But since he was also the one who selected her for the project in 2006, it is perhaps fitting that he picks up the pieces now.

This is the ruthlessness and selfishness of politics and for seasoned survivors like Najib and his deputy, Muhyiddin Yassin, one can be sure they won’t hesitate to sacrifice anyone who becomes a threat to them.

Whatever the behind-the-scenes brouhaha, the fact remains – someone is taking advantage of this fiasco apart from PKR. Some are riding on the PKR juggernaut against Shahrizat and benefiting from it. Who can it be now?

Who would benefit from this debacle?

Actually, there are quite a number of players who would love for Shahrizat to step down. One of these could be her predecessor Rafidah Aziz, the Kuala Kangsar MP and former Trade Minister. Rafidah Aziz or Mrs AP (authorised permit for vehicles) was humiliated by Shahrizat in the 2010 party polls, despite her holding a parliamentary seat.

For a woman of her calibre and pride, even if Rafidah does not attack Shahrizat to directly gain for herself, she might do so for her proteges. Now 68, Rafidah had spent 32 years in government service, of which 20 were in a ministerial role. She felt that she had done a very good job both for the country and UMNO and there was no need for anybody else to challenge her. Indeed she did enhance Malaysia’s trade abroad to a certain extent and also boosted Malaysia’s external image, albeit to a certain and limited degree.

But like all UMNO politicians, she was motivated not only by power but also by money – big, huge amounts of money. By virtue of her Trade portfolio, she later became entangled with the system of granting Approved Permits (APs)for imported vehicles. Who were the importers she favored and why she favored them were the factors that later brought her down, wiping away the good that she did and leaving only a memory of greed and graft.

One scandal that Malaysians are bound to remember is the award of share allocations amounting to several million ringgit to her son-in-law in 1993. She did try to distance herself from the decision because she knew there would be conflict of interest, but it did not stop the tongues from wagging that she had exerted undue influence behind the scenes to benefit her son-in-law. To make matters worse for UMNO, Rafidah retaliated by exposing other officials and naming their relatives who had similarly benefited.

The Badawi Al-Ghazali Factor

To quell public unhappiness over the APs, the then Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi forced Rafidah to face Parliament and explain her role. The APs, which were handed out by her ministry for free were not used by those who received them, but instead sold to third parties for windfall profits of as much as RM50,000 per permit.

Badawi finally dropped Rafidah from the Cabinet in 2008 despite her retaining her Kuala Kangsar seat, which she has held since 1986. At that time, Shahrizat was already her deputy in the Wanita wing, and waiting to be appointed as a Special Advisor with the status of a minister.

Could Rafidah be seeking retribution against Shahrizat in the NFC case?Probably not since Shahrizat won the Wanita presidency fairly ‘fair and square’.But one thing is certain, Rafidah was not happy with Badawi dropping her from the Cabinet. She saw it as a “sacking” and was very offended. To her, losing the Wanita presidency was one thing, but she was still entitled to the respect due to a senior leader who every election year brought home a parliamentary seat for the party without fail. How could Badawi “sack” her from the Cabinet?

It must be noted that ‘everyone’ in UMNO knows it was Badawi who gave the green light for the NFC project to be handed over to Shahrizat’s husband in 2006. Badawi was the PM then. If Rafidah is targeting anyone with NFC, it would be Badawi rather thanShahrizat!

What about Raja Nong Chik?

UMNO Senator and FT Minister Raja Nong Chikhad worked in FELCRA and was a businessman and also the president of the Malaysian Bumiputra Manufacturers and Services Industry Association. He sat on the board of directors of several companies including Pharmaniaga. His appointment to the Cabinet by Najib came as a surprise to many in 2009.

The 58-year-old was born in Perak, but considers himself as a ‘local boy’ in Kuala Lumpur. He is a member of the Lembah Pantai UMNO division and claims the constituency is his ‘natural territory’. He has also boasted that he has done a lot to improve Bangsar. But Lembah Pantai – before it fell to PKR Vice President Nurul Izzah Anwar in the 2008 election – belonged to Shahrizat.

In fact, it was Shahrizat’s stronghold since 1995 and when she lost it in 2008, there were gasps of shock. Yet, Nong Chik is alleged to have been obstinate about contesting Lembah Pantai in GE-13, arguing that it was now a ‘free’ seat since Shahrizat had already lost it. Although, he has been asked by UMNO elders to look at Titiwangsa, won by the late PAS MP Lo Lo Ghazali in 2008, he is insistent that Lembah Pantai is where it ‘all began for him’.

So regardless of the fact that it would be extremely tough to beat Nurul, Nong Chik had already set himself on a collision course with Shahrizat as the UMNO candidate for this constituency. Maybe Nong Chik and Shahrizat know something that Nurul doesn’t, but they sure seem confident of being able to beat her despite her immense popularity with the electorate there.

Could Raja Nong Chik have found an opportunity in the NFC debacle to bring down Shahrizat? It sure would seem tempting since it cannot be traced directly back to him because the debacle had already been confirmed by the Auditor-General as being in a “mess”. Any comment from Nong Chik would therefore be merely a response and if he called for action, such as a probe, he would be seen to be taking the moral high ground.

There is indeed growing speculation that Raja Nong Chik was the one behind the continuous revelations against Shahrizat and according to UMNO insiders, Najib has called on all the parties involved to come down hard on Nong Chik to prevent the situation from getting out of control. However, this could be a sly decoy from the Najib camp itself, since Nong Chik is close to Najib. It may well be that Najib wants Shahrizat out too.

It is interesting to note that Shahrizat’s family have accused a disgruntled former staff of feeding PKR the NFC tips. It is even more interesting to note that just a couple of days ago, Raja Nong Chik called on the UMNO top leadership to decide on Shahrizat’s fate.

Was Nong Chik hurrying to get Shahrizat out of the picture, leaving him the sole UMNO claimant to the Lembah Pantai seat?

Other possibilities

Rosnah Abdul Rashid Shirlin, the Puteri UMNO chief, is a new face with much to learn. Her name too has been tossed around. But Rosnah is in no position to make a challenge for the top Wanita post and why should she do so anyway?

Speculation is already growing Rosnah may not even get to keep her Puteri UMNO post. Her performance so far has been less than satisfactory, and this was implied by none other than Muhyiddin Yassin just days before the main UMNO meeting began

If Shahrizat is forced to step down, then Pakatan may have to face Raja Nong Chik and he is the ‘local boy’ there, whose FT portfolio gives him jurisdiction over the whole of Wilayah Persekutuan, not only Lembah Pantai. UMNO would also have the benefit of the postal voters there as there are many government officials staying in the area.

UMNO watchers say it would be a neck-to-neck challenge for Pakatan against UMNO if Nong Chik contests there, but the reasons they cited were also why Nurul wasn’t given the chance of a snowball in hell to win in 2008. But she did.

For PKR, which launched the NFC offensive with a string of startling revelations, they are already bracing for some form or other of backlash from the Police, who instead of grilling the Shahrizats, might pull up the PKR leaders in charge of the NFC file, so as to show ‘solidarity’ with the UMNO elite.

Only One Road to travel

However Najib plays it and no matter whether there are UMNO leaders jumping onto the PKR’s NFC bandwagon, there is basically only one decision the PM can make, which is to ask Shahrizat to give up her Cabinet and UMNO posts.

Any dilemma is of his own making. Like Alexander the Great, all eyes will be watching to see if he has the courage to cut the Gordian knot or if he will continue to waffle and defend corruption.

The longer Najib delays, the longer the ‘Shahrizat cows and condos’ scandal will remain in the people’s memory. After all, as PKR strategy director Rafizi Ramli has promised, they have enough information on the Shahrizats and the NFC to last 2 years!

Companies Linked to the Malaysian Taib Familyclick here bmf.ch/files/news/BMF_exclusive_research_Taib_family_companies.pdf

As with all dictators, after being in power for so long, their sense of right and wrong and of morality will naturally become warped.

Here we have Abdul Taib Mahmud on Youtube trying to justify something so outright haram as somewhat halal with regards to his family's business empire, for which all sound-minded Malaysians are aware, was fuelled by his plundering of Sarawak over the past 30 years.

The other truly Malaysian dictator, Dr Mahathir Mohamad, had also once implied that his son is a billionaire out of his own business acumen, and that he as prime minister had not helped Mokhzani in any way. Believable or not?

Other renowned dictators in the Asean region - Marcos, Suharto and the Burmese junta - all have plundered their nation bone dry but on camera are ever willing to justify their actions as safeguarding national interests.

And Muammar Gaddafi says all Libyans love him.

Does Taib really think people are that stupid? I mean, come on, he is stooping so low as to create a clone website, 'Sarawak Reports'. This suggests that he is more than interested to try to hide the truth.

: As they say, crooks always have a way of explaining things. Umno crooks are experts at this. They have learnt the art of cheating and lying, and they have even attained doctorate degrees for it.

Taib, despite your enormous wealth and the immense political power that you wield, you have truly shown yourself as a gutless corrupt leader without principles, for when you were challenged by Sarawak PKR chief Baru Bian to a public debate on native customary rights (NCR) land, your cowardice was clearly displayed and you had scurried away in haste with your tail between your legs.

The sheer absurdity and audacity of your present claims that your family had prospered and expanded their global empire worldwide solely through fair dealings and business acumen is a damnable and outright lie and a slap on the face of all decent and fair-minded Malaysians, especially the Sarawakians.

Malaysia should make Jamilah a trade and industry minister or perhaps a finance minister. And her husband too can be given a ministerial position. Surely our economy will shoot up beyond belief.Sudah lah Taib ... kita bukan bodoh.

The fact Taib chose to name his website 'Sarawak Reports' speaks volumes about his cunning and deceitful nature. This was done to confuse and mislead readers - that they may be deceived into logging on to his website rather than the whistleblower's site 'Sarawak Report'.

Had he been a truthful and courageous person, he would not have resorted to such manipulation and deceit. Another question that should come into the readers' minds, "Why now?" Is it because of the state election?

You know, the greatest tragedy is us, the people. We allow the same person to hold absolute power year after year. After a while, the consequence becomes fatal. Did we not see the whole Rajang river log-jammed, killing thousands of fish and causing untold environmental damage to the state?

The tragedy is we the people - the vast majority of us - can still be satisfied with a tin of Milo, some cheap biscuits and perhaps RM50 in the envelope.

What can we do? Either the majority of Sarawakians buy his story or he buys the majority of Sarawakians.

WAKING UP TO CLASS POLITICS IN MALAYSIA ? WILL THE REAL HONEST MALAY PLEASE STAND UP

Be afraid, Umno; be very afraid

Datuk Ibrahim Ali has likened the Internal Security Act (ISA) to the legendary keris, Taming Sari, describing the law as a “weapon” to protect Malay special rights from being challenged.

“The Taming Sari keris, a weapon for the Malays, is gone.”

“Where is our Taming Sari if we wish to safeguard Malay interests in future?” the Perkasa chief said at the Najib Razak Seminar held at the International Islamic University Malaysia (UIA) here.

The Taming Sari is the legendary keris owned by Malay warrior Hang Tuah, which was said to confer upon its owner the power of invincibility.

Ibrahim stressed that the spirit of the ISA, which allows for detention without trial, must live on in new replacement laws so police have the tools to handle issues that threaten Malaysia’s multi-religious society.

He cited the recent rise in challenges to Malay hegemony, including the “Allah” issue, the Bersih rally, and an incident where a pig’s head was thrown into a surau, as examples of “sensitive issues” that could lead to racial strife.

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This is what you get when Malays live in an imaginary world. I wonder whether the English would talk about King Arthur’s legendary magical sword, Excalibur, which is supposed to make the owner invincible.

“The Excalibur sword, a weapon for the English, is gone. Where is our Excalibur if we wish to safeguard English interests in future?” laments England’s version of Ibrahim Ali.

“We need detention without trial to safeguard English interests and protect Christianity from the Muslims who are flooding England and are threatening the rights and privileges of the English.”

“Muslims currently represent less than 10% of the population and yet they are screaming and foaming at the mouth asking for halal food to be sold in the supermarkets and asking for more Shariah courts.”

“Unless we have detention without trial the Muslims will overrun England and once they reach 10% of the population they will act like they own the country. The Muslims are too demanding and the English are being pushed aside as the Muslims dominate British society.”

Yes, if an Englishman starts screaming like Ibrahim Ali, people would regard him as a nutcase. Furthermore, he would be arrested and sent to jail for the crime of racism.

Does Ibrahim Ali ever look at himself in the mirror as he practices his speeches? And if he does, what does he see? Can he see his mouth moving faster than his brain?

Of late, Malay-Muslim leaders are uttering a lot of embarrassing statements. How can detention without trial serve Malay interests or protect Malay interests? I just can’t see the relevance. When I was in Kamunting the majority of the detainees were Malay-Muslims. They were not enemies of Islam. In fact, they were people who were alleged to be extremist Muslims, people who were detained because of their work for Islam.

In short, Muslims are the victims of detention without trial, not the so-called enemies of Islam.

Ibrahim Ali and those of his ilk need to come into the modern world. They have to extricate themselves from this imaginary world of Hang Tuah and Taming Sari and all that bullshit. The English do not live in the world of King Arthur and Excalibur. It is time the Malays did the same.

Zulkifil Nordin, Ibrahim Ali’s gang member, has also made a most interesting confession (see below). I thought there was such a thing as lawyer-client privileges. Apparently, Zul has never heard of such a thing. I wonder where he obtained his law degree from? Can he be disbarred for this?

Anyway, Zul confessed that he used Islam for political gain. So, what else is new? Isn’t this what many Muslims seem to be doing? Zul has just come out into the open to admit what most of us already know, and that is Islam is just a political tool and most Muslims talk about Islam when it suits them and will caste aside Islam when it suits them better.

Is it any wonder that many view Muslims as a joke? readmore EZAM IS AUCTIONING HIS ASSHOLE. AT UIA A