Tackling Conflict of interest Political Leaders became National Crimimals Why Shouuld IResign?
Indeed our lot is as much to wonder why as it is to do and die! As humans with a critical reasoning faculty, we have an insatiable intellectual curiosity that needs to be indulged. It would have been disastrous if Newton had accepted that apples fall off trees and never wondered why! Or if man had accepted that birds can fly and not wondered why he can’t! It would truly be a pity to believe the false compliments of a tricky person and be unprepared for the hurt that follows.
It’s the oldest rule in the book but now is the olest profession: if you hold public office, avoid conflict of interest. Like most rules, this too is observed mostly in the breach. a potential conflict of interest can arise in all the cases cited above. If any of these wealthy MPs (including several ministers) have either shareholdings or remunerative directorships in a private company – or are paid consultants/counsels to private individuals/companies – there is a possibility that such a nexus can undermine the integrity of both our parliamentary system and of individual ministries. MPs receive regular salaries from their professional assignments outside parliament
Though to take all things at face value would certainly simplify life, what then is the difference between humans and animals? We are given a sense of reasoning and the mental capacity to make reasoned choices. Gaurav Bhutada on my Facebook Wall, warns that taking things at face value would restrict the process of evolution. “But yes, for the things totally out of human control, it would be very wise indeed to keep the reasoning system at peace…”
It feels an awful lot like what happened here is the nation's criminal justice honchos collectively realised that a thorough investigation of the problem would require resources they simply do not have, or are reluctant to deploy, and decided to accept a superficially face-saving peace offer rather than fight it out.So they settled the case in a way that reads in headlines like it's a bite out of the banks, but in fact is barely even that. There will be little in the way of real compensation for struggling homeowners, and there are serious issues in the area of the deal's enforceability. In fact, about the only part of the deal we can be absolutely sure will be honored in full is the liability waiver for the robo-signing offences.
tougher new legislation is needed to compel ministers, MPs and private individuals holding public office to subject their commercial interests to the annual scrutiny of an independent audit authority headed by a former Supreme Court judge. If the authority finds specific evidence of conflict of interest, the individual concerned should either surrender his public office or place his commercial interests in a blind trust. In a country where most assets are held in the names of front companies, will such a law stop the rampant misuse of public office? Not entirely. But a tough and fair law, however difficult to enforce, is better than no law at all.
Citing himself as a example, former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad swung out at Women's minister Shahrizat Jalil, reminding her to think for good of the Umno party and not for herself. not to “love” her post to the point of refusing to part with it even if this were to be good for Umno.
The person takes a longer time to decide, because it’s not just the options but their repercussions and effects of those repercussions that are being examined!A peculiarity of such a mind is the scenarios it builds and demolishes as it works overtime to unravel the “real” behind the “perceived.” As a result, a person who tries to decode words, gestures, phrases beyond the visible, dies a thousand more deaths than he really needs to, is hurt many more times than was intended. Sometimes, just sometimes, it helps to stop with the spoken word and not worry beyond! It is important to understand the difference between critical thinking and a suspicious mind that borders on a persecution complex!
It’s the oldest rule in the book but now is the olest profession: if you hold public office, avoid conflict of interest. Like most rules, this too is observed mostly in the breach. a potential conflict of interest can arise in all the cases cited above. If any of these wealthy MPs (including several ministers) have either shareholdings or remunerative directorships in a private company – or are paid consultants/counsels to private individuals/companies – there is a possibility that such a nexus can undermine the integrity of both our parliamentary system and of individual ministries. MPs receive regular salaries from their professional assignments outside parliament
Though to take all things at face value would certainly simplify life, what then is the difference between humans and animals? We are given a sense of reasoning and the mental capacity to make reasoned choices. Gaurav Bhutada on my Facebook Wall, warns that taking things at face value would restrict the process of evolution. “But yes, for the things totally out of human control, it would be very wise indeed to keep the reasoning system at peace…”
It feels an awful lot like what happened here is the nation's criminal justice honchos collectively realised that a thorough investigation of the problem would require resources they simply do not have, or are reluctant to deploy, and decided to accept a superficially face-saving peace offer rather than fight it out.So they settled the case in a way that reads in headlines like it's a bite out of the banks, but in fact is barely even that. There will be little in the way of real compensation for struggling homeowners, and there are serious issues in the area of the deal's enforceability. In fact, about the only part of the deal we can be absolutely sure will be honored in full is the liability waiver for the robo-signing offences.
tougher new legislation is needed to compel ministers, MPs and private individuals holding public office to subject their commercial interests to the annual scrutiny of an independent audit authority headed by a former Supreme Court judge. If the authority finds specific evidence of conflict of interest, the individual concerned should either surrender his public office or place his commercial interests in a blind trust. In a country where most assets are held in the names of front companies, will such a law stop the rampant misuse of public office? Not entirely. But a tough and fair law, however difficult to enforce, is better than no law at all.
This is not the first time that Mahathir, the former Umno president, has publicly chided Shahrizat, earlier telling her to step down as the party's Wanita or women's wing before she got "chased out".
“We must always think about the problems caused to the party. That is why when I was there in Umno for so long and people were getting bored, I decided to resign. So do not love your post so much that you refuse completely to part with it. Eventually, we will have to part with it,” the 86-year-old told a press conference on Wednesday.
Learn from Mahathir
Indeed Mahathir himself was also 'chased out' although he chose not to remember the full facts.
He had given up the Umno presidency in a dramatic fashion, bursting into tears midway through a speech at the 2002 Umno annual assembly, and tendering notice of his intention to quit. Forgotten in the melodrama was the fact that he had been told by other Umno stalwarts that he would have to go or the party would do poorly in the next general election. Mahathir had in 1998 jailed his deputy, the popular Anwar Ibrahim who is now the Opposition Leader, and this move had split the Malay community down the line.
One of the first acts that his successor Abdullah Badawi did when he came to office was to allow Anwar access to fair trial. The opposition leader was acquitted and Badawi coasted to a landmark, landslide victory in 2004.
In the Shahrizat case, her family has been accused of abusing their power and of corruption in the RM250mil NFC financial debacle. Instead of using a soft government loan to develop the national cattle breeding project, a huge chunk was spent on plush condominiums, Mercedes Benz, credit card charges, overseas holidays and extending million ringgit discounts and cash transfers to their own family-controlled firms.
Even the manner in which the Shahrizats were awarded the NFC contract through a closed tender by Badawi and Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, who was the then Agriculture minister in charge, has been questioned.
Expected to step down before month-end
Shahrizat was expected to send in her resignator today during the Cabinet's weekly meeting. But so far, she has not done so. Within Umno circles, her peers say she has been told by Najib that she can decide on her own timing but resign she must. Wanita Umno is also expected to push for a Extraordinary General Meeting to force her out of office is she does not leave voluntarily.
Nazri Aziz, the minister in the PM's office who is widely regarded as Najib's spokesman, has in the past few days turned up the heat on Shahrizat, saying that he believed there was breach of trust in the way the government soft loan was used.
“In a way, there has been a constructive breach of trust. The money, which was meant for the cattle industry, was used for something else. The money was specifically given out based on a project given to NFCorp, that it could raise cattle and sell (it) at a cheaper price,” Nazri had told reporters during a press conference.
“The loan was given just for that. If you use the money for something else, you don’t need to be a lawyer to see that there is a breach of trust; it’s so simple."
But obviously Shahrizat, herself a prominent lawyer herself before she became active in politics, does not share Nazri's opinion. H
However, given the broad-based public and party pressure on her to quit, she will have to do so and pretty soon too. Some Umno watchers speculate she is now tying up loose ends and will announce her resignation before the end of this month.
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