MGG Pillai Commentary View

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Corrupt BN cabinet ministers 'cannot be charged' for lack of evidence

IN THE RUNUP TO the 21 March general election, a controversial advertisement appeared in the Chinese newspapers which raised many an eyebrow: Tun Mahathir Mohamed ran an administration for 22 years - it was coyly described as 'previous government' - that was 'corrupt and rotten to the core' ... with no aspect of life untainted by corruption', but that of his successor, Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, is suffuced and cloaked in integrity and righteousness. It pledged an open and transparent system of governance. There is nothing unusual about it. It is standard practice for the new BN and UMNO leader on taking the highest political office to claim he cuts a new path, that his predecessor was wrong, and he would not make those mistakes.

The advertisement carried the BN logo, which it could not if was not an official advertisement. It was to show that Pak Lah would act against corruption to the point of biting the hand of his predecessor and mentor. It became an issue when the Opposition leader, Mr Lim Kit Siang, raised it in parliament in the debate on the royal address, which had claimed that corruption was not prevalent. The minister in charge of Parliament, a new post that makes him the court jester in the Pak Lah cabinet, Dato' Seri Nazri Aziz, said 'anonymous sources' placed it, and refused to investigate. The Election Commission must act since 'anonymous sources' hijacked a party logo, but it would not budge unless the advertisement had praised the Opposition instead. As the BN's lapdog, it knows when and how to bark.

Dato' Seri Nazri Aziz is caught offguard. Would he be so sanguine if it attacked Pak Lah and praised Dr Mahathir? Or attacked both? Or the Chinese papers had carried similar advertisements, with the BN or Opposition logo, to praise the Opposition? He justifies it in the name of press freedom. 'We are for press freedom. We can't control what is published. The election advertisement was not published upon the instruction of any political party,' he said. We know the BN's approach to press freedom: if you support it, don't criticise it, praise its leaders, attack the Opposition, you have the unfettered right to do so. If you take a centrist role, and lay the blame where it ought to, the Information ministry will organise a demonstration outside your offices, as it did when it had a difference of view with the Internet newspaper, malaysiakini (www.malaysiakini.com) last year.

But, silly me, I keep forgetting: the previous administration was in power, which as the BN knows only too well now, the BN administration last year was corrupt to the core. This advertisement sugests that Pak Lah is the Malaysian Judge Bao, a Chinese legendary figure known for his justice and integrity. But he was refused to intervene to correct the BN injustice which led to its deputy prime minister jailed in a kangaroo court after he was beaten to an inch of his life by the Inspector-General of Police. In any case why should this uprighteous figure pick up the excesses and wrongheadedness of his predecessor? The new dawn begins the moment he takes office, and that cleanses him so thoroughly that his past wallowing in the Mahathir corruption cess pit is miraculously erased.

Several questions arise from this. If the Mahathir administration was corrupt and rotten to the core, and almost everyone in the former regime is in the new, does it not follow that the Pak Lah cabinet is a cesspit too? He made corruption the corner stone of his populist approach to politics, and is now caught in its quicksand. He had a business man and a cabinet minister arrested for corruption. A cabinet minister said another 18 would be arrested. Pak Lah was not amused. The man was demoted in the post-election cabinet. Then Pak Lah says it was not 18 individuals but 18 groups. Now Dato' Seri Nazri tells parliament it is 18 individuals, of whom 12 have been charged, and six more await the consent of by the Attorney-General's Chambers to prosecute.

If this is true, why is the government so confused about its anti-corruption plans? By any yardstick, what Dato' Seri Nazri said is welcome. Why did not Pak Lah say this instead of releasing a gobbledygook statement of his own. Now we are told that the international trade and industry minister, Datin Rafidah Aziz, is not corrupt at all, despite authorising to give her son-in-law 150 automobile permits a month, to give him a conservative RM1.5 million, for being who he is. If she had been a Singapore cabinet minister, she would have been sentenced and jailed years ago. Then maybe not. She would not have had the right to issue automobile permits and licences without a thorough review, and she would have known by then which side of the bread is buttered.

So, are our cabinet ministers corrupt? As a rule, yes. They escape trial and conviction because it is the Prime Minister who decides if they should be condemned. Whatever you might say of Dr Mahathir, he kept detailed files on the BN members, including the cabinet, and used it to keep them in line. Dato' Seri Anwar challenged him, so he goes to jail. Datin Seri Rafidah did not, so she does not. Even Dato' Seri Nazri admits the allegations of corruption against him are false: there is insufficient evidence, the case is closed, so how could he be corrupt? He threw a tantrum when the ACA confronted him last year over how taxi licences were distributed. He resigned. He was persuade to stay. Now he talks of retiring. He is amongst several cabinet ministers who husbanded their resources so carefully that in office they acquired assets in excess of RM100 million.

This is not corruption, you understand. It is optimum asset management. Their success in the stock market is phenomenal. Their innate ability to strike top prizes in the lottery and in games of chance and on the gaming tables in casinos the world over is phenomenal. In every other country, when money is spent without parliamentary or auditing controls, it is stolen hand over fist. It does not matter where it is: the United States, Zimbabwe, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, India, China, Japan.

But not here. In Malaysia, politicians in the ruling party are deemed to be corrupt not because they are, but because their enemies are upset they are not brought into the gravy train. As I said, Dato' Seri Nazri is the court jester in the Pak Lah administration. His job is to open the can of worms and insist it is nothing but tuna. Does it mean there is no corruption in Malaysia at the highest level? Is the government serious about rooting out corruption? Has anyone in high office been convicted for corruption outside the kangaroo court that convicted Dato' Seri Anwar? No. No. No. The court jester only proves that Pak Lah does not know if he comes or goes.

M.G.G. Pillai
pillai@streamyx.com