Wednesday, February 6, 2013
Inilah Rasanya Yang Majoriti Rakyat Malaysia Mahukan!
Tuesday, 05 February 2013 13:36
Berlusconi
is indeed no stranger to the Italian courts. He has been tried over
several cases including having sex with underage girls. Berlusconi was
charged with paying for sex with underage nightclub dancer Karima El
Mahroug between February and May 2010 when she was still below the age
of 18. He was also charged with abusing his political power to cover up
the relationship. Needless to say, it was this scandal that disgusted
Italians so much that they decided to finally give him the boot.
Then
in the U.S., Bill Clinton was caught having several sexual trysts with
an intern Monica Lewinsky between November 1995 and March 1997. All in,
the former U.S. president and husband of recently retired secretary of
state, Hillary, was accused of having 9 sexual encounters with Monica.
Over
in Indonesia, on 29 May 2000, after decades of authoritarian rule,
ex-president Suharto found himself under house arrest on corruption
charges. In July 2000, the authorities had announced that Suharto would
be charged for embezzling US$571 million of government donations and
using the money to finance family investments.
In
Malaysia, there have always been rumblings about former premier
Mahathir Mohamad, whom some in the business circles called Mr Ten
Percent. The latest estimate on Wikipedia suggests that the 87-year-old,
who still wields enormous political power, is in possession of a
staggering fortune earned through his family and an extensive network of
cronies he built through the years.
Najib
and his wife Rosmah Mansor have even been accused of being involved in
the controversial Altantuya Shaariibuu murder. The Mongolian national is
believed to have knowledge of the Scorpenes deal, and further blighting
the reputation of the first couple, two of their former bodyguards were
found guilty of murdering her. A favorite topic of private
conversations throughout the country including in Putrajaya, the
administrative capital, is did they order her killing?
It
is telling that in all of the above scandals, the protagonists all
denied involvement and blamed their rivals for initiating the rumours to
topple them.
While
Najib is still being cocooned by the power of his office, some say he
has already put Mahathir on trial with the ongoing Royal Commission of
Inquiry into Illegal Immigrants in Sabah so as to clip the older man's
influence in their Umno party.
Once
the Umno-BN is booted out in the coming 13th general election,
gathering evidence against Najib and Mahathir won't be difficult at all.
For
the rest of the nation, their exit will herald a new coming of age.
Malaysia will finally get a real stab at becoming a world class nation
once it is able to put behind it the awful ravages of corruption that
has dragged it down for decades.
For M'sia to be world class, Anwar & PR must bring Najib dan Dr M to JUSTICE!
Written by Nawawi Mohamad, Wong Choon Mei, Malaysia Chronicle
It
is not uncommon for Heads of States involved in scandals to be brought
to court, and this has happened throughout the world in the Americas,
Europe, Africa and Asia.
One
recent example is Silvio Berlusconi, the flamboyant media tycoon who
served not once but three times as prime minister of Italy from 1994 to
1995, 2001 to 2006 and 2008 to 2011. This despite a long list of
criminal allegations against him, including collusion with the Mafia,
false accounting, tax fraud, corruption and even bribing police officers
and judges.
The
president and the intern were charged with having fellatio and other
sex acts in the Oval Office itself and hauled up before a grand jury.
Despite being the most powerful man in his country and the world, Bill
found himself having to testify via closed-circuit TV and was lucky to
escape being impeached by the U.S. Congress.
In
Thailand, Thaksin Shinawatra the ex-prime minister and brother of the
current premier, Yingluck, was tried for corruption over the sale of
telecoms giant Shin even when he had already fled the country. Shin
Corp's disposal to Singapore investment firm Temasek in January 2006 was
one of the main catalysts for the numerous street protests that
eventually forced Thaksin to resign. The Thai courts seized more than 40
billion bhat of Thaksin’s money amid allegations that he had abused his
power and sold off Shin without paying any taxes to the government.
Suharto's
family fortune has been estimated at US$15 billion in cash, shares,
corporate assets, real estate, jewelry and fine art. Of this whopping
sum, US$9 billion is believed to have been deposited in an Austrian
bank. Suharto had consistently topped the Transparency International’s
list of corrupt leaders with an alleged misappropriation of between US
$15–35 billion during his 32-year presidency.
Even
so, the late Suharto who died in 2008 could not match Malaysia's
Mahathir Mohamad who has been ranked on Wikipedia as the second
wealthiest former head of state with an amazing US$44bil fortune,
exceeded only by Egypt's Mubarak who is alleged to have amassed between
US$40-US$70bil.
Corruption, abuse of power is protected instead of being punished
But
no one yet in Prime Minister Najib Razak's government has dared has
dared to take any action against Mahathir or to even order a probe.
Instead, Mahathir is glorified and revered by his Umno party as a Malay
hero and champion of Malay rights although in private, he is said to
have 'internal' enemies aplenty. But so powerful is he that no one dares
to make a move on him.
The
same goes for the embattled Najib, who has been accused of taking an
illicit kickback amounting to some RM570 mil for pushing through the
government's purchase of two over-priced and under-used Scorpene
submarines.
Again,
despite the domestic and international notoriety as both the Scorpene
and Altantuya cases are often headlined by the foreign press, no one has
dared to institute any action or probe against Najib or his wife.
Where there is smoke, there is fire
However,
once their governments began to investigate them, evidence was not hard
to find and they were soon charged. Except in Malaysia, where almost
everyone in the country knows and believes that Mahathir and Najib are
guilty of their respective scandals. But no one except for their
Opposition rivals dare to say so or at any rate not in public - not yet
anyway.
All
eyes are now on Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim and his Pakatan Rakyat
coalition - will they finally bring Mahathir and Najib to book?
It
would be difficult for Anwar to evade the task. Mahathir and Najib know
this, they understand the political reality. Hence the desperate fight
by the Umno-BN to cling to power with some even predicting Mahathir and
Najib might stir up street riots so that they can place the country
under emergency rule and avoid jail time for themselves and their
cronies.
Umno arrogance: Already guilty but so what?
The
Sabah RCI has already yielded results. Stung by the mountain of
criticism and bad press, Mahathir has admitted issuing hundreds of
thousands of citizenship to illegal workers so that they would vote for
BN during the 1994 elections. But he insists his action was not illegal
nor the high treason claimed by Anwar and other PR leaders.
Of
course, Najib has not dared to take the matter further by ordering
Mahathir's arrest or the Attorney-General to begin an official probe.
The
best joke is that even if the RCI - which is composed of a civilian
panel - finds Mahathir guilty, it has no power to arrest or to punish
him. It can only recommend solutions to Najib's government, which is
also not bound to act on these recommendations.
No,
Najib is not serious about getting justice done for Sabah or Sabahans.
He just wants to frighten Mahathir and show that he is doing something
about the unpopular leader's past misdeeds. But Najib would never dare
endanger his own political situation by arresting and charging Mahathir,
whom many consider to be still the real power in Umno.
Who will punish the PM: A need to change mindset & demand accountability
However,
the burning question on Malaysians lips is, who will then punish Najib?
This is certainly a question for Malaysians to ask of themselves as the
implications go deeper and further than just putting Najib and wife
Rosmah Mansor behind bars.
It
is evident that apart from the Altantuya and Scorpene scandals, there
are a host of other deals that the PM has been accused of having a hand
in. Even in the granting of citizenship to illegals to boost votes for
BN, Najib is believed to have reached out to more than a million of such
people - several times the number Mahathir is being accused of having
done - especially in the key state of Selangor.
But who will punish Najib - the sitting PM of the country - when he too doesn't dare to punish a past PM?
The
answer actually lies with the citizens of Malaysia. It is clear that
they have allowed the 'bad guys' too much rope in the past. Flaccid will
and apathy rather than prohibitive government structure or a lack of
laws are the problems. If the people insist on accountability and
responsibility, then they would be able to clear their country of a lot
of very bad and immoral examples and save themselves billions upon
billions of ringgit lost annually through endemic corruption.
Evidence aplenty
In
fact, controversial businessman Deepak Jaikishan is but one of the many
prominent people waiting in the wings to spill their guts out on a slew
of corrupt deals purportedly sealed by Najib, Mahathir and other
Umno-BN bigwigs.
Catching
Mahathir too won't be difficult as he ruled the country for 22 years
from 1981 to 2003. By the fact that he wielded so much power during his
time, Mahathir not only did not bother to conceal many of his tracks, he
did not think it would ever be necessary.
But
history is filled with upsets and shock changes. Both Najib, Mahathir
and their corrupt colleagues in the Umno-BN coalition may not be able to
escape any more. Their luck may have finally run out!
Historic coming of age
As
the Global Financial Integrity's latest report has warned and to which
neither Najib, Mahathir nor the country's central Bank Negara have dared
to respond to, more than a trillion ringgit has been lost in illicit
outflows in the ten years from 2000 to 2009.
Given
such blase' attitude and determination by the incumbent government to
cover up its misdeeds, it was not surprising that in 2010, Malaysia took
the dubious honour of being the world's No. 2 most corrupt country,
winning the 3rd spot for the cumulative ten years from 2001 to 2010.
Against
such concrete data, it would be shocking if Malaysians who are better
educated than many of their peers in Southeast Asia would want to retain
the BN as their government.
Change
for the better is indeed very close at hand and those who do not want
Malaysia to do well - and this sadly includes the likes of neighboring
Singapore which would have to face up to greater competition from a much
more dynamic and efficient new government - are watching GE13 closely.
Fortunately, so are the true friends of Malaysia. As Malaysians around the country now say - see you on balloting day!
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