Malaysians love this country. We know we are in trouble, something has gone wrong deep, but we did not know how to lend a hand, to chip in. We felt helpless and looked to find a voice.
"The political foxes are in charge of our public chicken houses and there is no way the grasping parasites are going to give back the keys without a fight. We can expect naught but perfect perfidy from the people who vote themselves sweetheart benefits and outrageous special privileges and then do not do their job. To put it short and sour Mr. Blitzer, the fix is in." That was on TV, over and over again, so the next day there were 2 million, larger even that the most generous estimates for Obama's inauguration. And then it began. One person and then another saying in a hissy sort of way "shame shame shame."
So, we guess that plan is ruined. But if mass protest, first from the right and then from the left, leave the system undinged and the gravy train uninterrupted, then what?
Our outrage at politicians hits only half the target. They are only doing what they are paid to do. The question is who is paying them and you already know the answer. It is not just corporations or the rich (we say to the Occupy movement) and not just godless liberals (we say to the Tea Party).
We should not be surprised that the rich have more influence if we have a system that equates money with voice, but it is not only the rich that take advantage.
they amass war chests from a large number of small contributions. While they do not represent people who are rich, their very purpose is to pursue a narrow special interest as opposed to the broad public interest. The "public interest" is an interesting concept and we wonder who will represent it if all the campaign money comes from special interests.
In what appears to be shaping up to be a massive Umno cover-up, Deputy Inspector General of Police Khalid Bakar insists that investigations have so far not revealed any element of corruption in the RM250million NFC debacle.
Khalid was seen to be doing "Umno-putra service" by suddenly making the comment that critics said was meant to assure Umno members that Women's Chief Shahrizat Jalil and her family were innocent of any graft in the cattle livestock project.
Khalid's remarks and Umno's strident defense of Shahrizat comes smack in the face of another sharp decline in the internationally-followed Corruption Perception Index. Malaysia fell to 60th position from 56 last year, and the result marked the third straight year of worsening on the widely-followed graft index.
"It is suspicious that on all days, Khalid would choose to reveal the progress of the police investigation on NFC today when the Umno AGM goes into full swing. It shows that Umno is still abusing the institutions especially the police to do their dirty work for them," PKR vice president Tian Chua toldMalaysia Chronicle.
"As for the CPI, it is a real warning. Umno is dragging down the country. It is the source of the greatest corruption and its refusal to admit it and put a stop to it will bankrupt us all. It is not the Pakatan, as Muhyiddin claims, which is trying to accuse the BN of wrongdoing. The CPI results speak for themselves. The index is is managed by Transparency International, which is a well established organization.
"But to the Umno elite, there is corruption everywhere except in their party. Malaysians especially Malays must reject this sort of mentality and they must reject Umno for their own sakes. Till now, Umno defends Shahrizat and uses the police to make excuses for them and then lie to everyone that they are not guilty. It just shows how corrupt and immoral they have become."
74 people interviewed
According to Khalid, the police have so far interviewed over 74 people in connection with the probe, including Shahrizat's family although she herself has not been asked to give a statement.
“However, we are still continuing our investigation into the issue and will call the minister to record her statement if the need arises,” said Khalid.
The project was awarded to Sharizat's husband and children in 2006 and the Auditor-General has warned that the project was in a "mess" and could downspiral even further. Shahrizat has denied any involvement in the scandal, saying NFC had "nothing to do with me" although few Malaysians would ever believe her family - which has no track record in cattle breeding - could have won the project without her influence.
PKR leaders have led the charge on NFC, which was launched to enable everyday Malaysians to buy beef at affordable prices. However, a shocking trail of revelations show that instead of using the RM250 million soft loan to set up satellite cattle farms and structure an effective distribution and supply chain, Shahrizat's family allegedly bought two super luxury condos in Bangsar for RM6.9 million each, gave a RM3 million discount to a family-own firm, bought a Mercedes CLS350 and residential land in Putrajaya worth some RM3.3 million, channeled half a million ringgit to a family firm in Singapore, as well as paid huge sums to a tour agency for alleged family holidays.
Shahrizat's husbang Salleh Ibrahim has not denied the transactions occured, but insisted there was no corruption and that all the deals had the approval of NFC. However, critics point out that it did not make sense for a pilot livestock breeding project to plumb for plush condos, a super-high-end Merc and upmarket residential land - not mention why were discounts given and holidays charged to public money.
Resisting the reality with more lies
Top Umno leaders have refused to acknowlede any wrongdoing in NFC despite growing public anger as several of them were involved. For example, Muhyiddin Yassin, the Umno deputy president, had been the Agriculture minister who approved the tender to Shahrizat's family in 2006.
Najib, who was then deputy prime minister, also had a hand in approving the deal, while Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin has been accused of masterminding the plan to give Shahrziat and family a financial lifeline. Khairy had in 2006 been regarded as the country's de-facto PM, as his father-in-law, ex-premier Abdullah Badawi, was in power at that time and Badawi was known to have a soft spot for Shahrizat.
Instead, the Umno leaders have accused Pakatan of trumping up the allegation for political mileage although the condo purchases, plus Merc, residential land and so forth have yet to be denied by NFC or the police.
“With Pakatan, it’s always like this, there is nothing new, even if you do good they attack you, they will find a reason to, just like social media sites who are against us, like yourself,” said Muhyiddin in response to a question on the matter on Thursday.
Think of elected politicians as referees, hearing from all the special interests and differing views, short term and long term, intended and unintended consequences, who must decide how best to vote. That is what they told us in school and it still sounds right.
But what if this democratic system we used to brag about allows special interests to pay off the referees? The public pays the salaries and expenses of elected officials, but they receive far more money from special interests to underwrite campaign expenses. How can we expect them to listen to the average voter? We cannot.
Serious reform in a democracy requires looking in the mirror. Whatever energy you have been putting into worrying about our debt or our budget or our wars or our education system or our immigration system or our criminal justice system or our energy policy or pick whichever issue you like; whatever energy you had been putting there, stop now. As long as money rules the process, your studies and your debates, and even your votes, will make no difference at all. It is unarguable. In three decades we have made dismal progress on any of the key issues facing this country and we will not fix our political dysfunction until we find a way to continue our justified reverence for freedom of speech while curbing the ability of special interests to buy our politicians. Yes, it will probably take a constitutional amendment and that will be a very big fight because these foxes have no intention of giving us back the keys to our chicken house. Wild hogs like to root and parasites to suck.
They will come forward quickly with lists of reasons why we can't even think of restraining the role of raw money in elections. They will say it disadvantages the challenger and gives undue power to incumbents. They will say it attacks a bedrock principle that every citizen has every right, nay responsibility, to advocate for their political and policy beliefs. They will be right about both those things.
But they should also remind you that a bedrock function of government is to decide between competing rights when they clash. Citizens should each have an equal say in our civic affairs, one vote and one voice. The use of money to gain a larger say, to have a larger voice in advocating your self interest, does harm to a fundamental principle of democracy.
Under current law and practice, we have a system that gives special advantage to special interests, disadvantages the public interest, and creates an incentive for bribery, to call this spade by its true name.
We need to put squarely on the table this clash between the right to purchase political influence against the right to an equal say in the setting of the basic rules by which our society abides. At the very least, let us admit once and for all that the private funding of political campaigns results in extra political influence for those giving the money. If we choose to tolerate it, then let us do so explicitly and stop complaining.
The entire point of this screed is to argue that we can achieve a better balance, that it is urgent we do so, and that normal political avenues and even mass protest will not work. Of course we have overstated our case, as do all such screeds. Not all politicians are bought and not all special interests are venal. But the incentives are in the wrong direction and the money pulls ever harder. As it becomes clear that money is necessary to political office, candidates are more and more of a type that is comfortable with the selling of influence because that is where the money is.
We are in full favor of lobbying, of reports and arguments and papers and pie-charts and debates. We all rightly cherish the right to petition congress for redress. Politicians need all the information they can get and can tell wheat from chaff. But we fully oppose a system in which a politician gives your views more attention than mine only because you gave more money.
We guess that is debatable, it is the essential judgment upon which this question turns, but that is our position. Arguing with the referees is fine, but paying them off is not. We are surprised it is even necessary to say that.
A nervous Umno has failed to bring a new ideas to voters ahead of a general election expected soon, says Dr Mohd Asri Zainul Abidin.
The maverick scholar, who has a large following here, told The Malaysian Insider the senior partner in Barisan Nasional (BN) must understand the youth do not just need material wealth but also assurances of their rights and freedom.
Asri says Umno must understand why people hate the party instead of attacking the opposition endlessly. — File pic
“The current generation is different from those in the past. They will not be attracted by just cash and handouts,” the former Perlis mufti said after attending the start of Umno’s general assembly as the party’s guest yesterday.
Asri, who is now a research fellow at the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies, cited other Muslim countries such as Bahrain and Saudi Arabia who are “rich and have no money problems but what they need and want are rights and freedom.”
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak has promised a raft of reforms over the past few months but the opposition and civil society have said his “political transformation programme” has fallen short.
Although a parliamentary select committee has been meeting to discuss electoral reforms, the Peaceful Assembly Bill passed this week is said to be “even more repressive” than previous regulations while the repeal of the Internal Security Act has been delayed to March.
Umno is holding what is likely to be its last general assembly before polls expected early next year with a focus on the need to be relevant.
Party president Najib has called on Umno to be “extraordinary” to gain a strong mandate in the coming elections while his deputy Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin invited members to a “jihad (holy war)” in what he termed “the mother of all elections.”
But Asri, a Universiti Sains Malaysia lecturer, said Umno appears to have contracted “an anxiousness” as “most voters support the opposition not because they like the opposition but because they hate Umno.”
“Why do they hate Umno? This is a phenomenon that Umno must understand instead of attacking the opposition endlessly.
Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin today declined to comment PKR’s latest allegations surrounding the National Feedlot Centre (NFC) scandal, saying that it was just another example of politicking by the federal opposition.
PKR claimed yesterday that the NFC used RM5 million in public funds to buy a Mercedes-Benz and land in Putrajaya and disburse RM588,585 in cash to companies belonging to Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil’s family.
“With Pakatan, it’s always like this, there is nothing new, even if you do good they attack you, they will find a reason to, just like social media sites who are against us, like yourself,” the deputy prime minister and deputy Umno president (picture)said in response to a question during a news conference here.Other Umno leaders, including Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin, have remained tight-lipped over the matter.
The latest allegation of financial irregularities by PKR in the RM250 million cattle farming project awarded to the Wanita Umno chief’s family comes after she denied any wrongdoing this morning and gained the support of delegates at the wing’s general assembly yesterday.
PKR also said NFC issued 15 cheques to tour agency Impian Global Network Services, prompting PKR strategic director Rafizi Ramli to demand the Wanita Umno chief “tell us who went on these holidays.”
Rafizi said that the RM534,622 Mercedes-Benz CLS350 bought using NFC funds channelled through the National Meat and Livestock Corporation (NMLC) and the RM588,585 transferred to Meatworks (Singapore), both companies wholly-owned by Shahrizat’s family, “have nothing to do with NFC’s business plan.”
PKR has repeatedly attacked the project with various allegations including that “loans” of over RM84 million were given by the NFC to companies owned by Shahrizat’s family including RM13.8 million for two luxury condominiums in Bangsar.
Both opposition and Umno MPs have called for Shahrizat to resign over the scandal which has led to a police investigation for criminal breach of trust.
The Auditor-General’s Report released last month had criticised the NFC, pointing out that it was now “in a mess”.
The report said production in 2010 was only 3,289 head of cattle or 41.1 per cent of the target set.
But Agriculture Minister Datuk Seri Noh Omar responded on October 31 that the project was a success as it had met its target of 8,000 cattle by 2010 once 5,742 slaughtered cattle were taken into account.
Rafizi told The Malaysian Insider that “there are enough scandals to last two years” as contained within financial and operational records as well as NFC’s correspondence that the party has obtained.
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