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Revoke the dato'ships and other awards from that master criminal, Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim!

PARLIAMENT IS TOLD NO Federal award has been withdrawn. Not true. The former chief minister of Singapore, Tun Lim Yew Hock, had his title removed in the late 1960s, after he was arrested in a Malacca gambling den. Singapore insisted it be, with a hint of more to come if it was not. The then Prime Minister, Tengku Abdul Rahman Putra, had no choice but to recommend it. The SMN was revoked. Mr Lim later converted to Islam, and when the Tengku became the first secretary-general of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, after he was forced out as Prime Minister, he had Mr Lim, a personal friend for years, appointed as assistant secretary-general, and who died in that office a few years later. [Need it be said that Malaysia vehemently opposed it when the late King Feisal of Saudi Arabia offered the job to the Tengku.]

But stories like this are not meant for Parliament's ears, not when it is the Tunship awarded to the former MCA president, Tun Ling Liong Sik. When it came for discussion, the government was at pains to insist on an unfortunate fact of life in today's Malaysian politics. It does not matter if your past is dodgy. It does not matter if a title is awarded to a man whose actions while it might not be criminal is nevertheless a breach of trust, or to a crook. The book on Dr Ling's past is still open, but creative politics and investigations have cleared him. So, he is awarded the SSM. It is also the same rule that allows the states to award dato'ships to criminals, gangsters and of the ilk. Yet when it happens, there is the usual flurry of comment on how it could happen.

The point of Dr Ling's award is not that he cannot be a Tun, which is the government's argument, but if he should be made one amidst outstanding accusations of official and political wrongdoing, as cabinet minister and MCA president, for personal gain and political insensitivity. His son, Mr Ling Hee Liong, you would recall, obtained a RM1.2 billion loan when he was 27 in his quest, and folly, of carving a business empire out of political and filial connexions. Dr Ling has not satisfactorily explained his role in his son's sudden rise and collapse in the business world. The man who helped the Lings, Dato' Soh Chee Wen, has quoted chapter and verse in how the rules and the law were bent.

But there is no scam and no offence, insists the ACA. Dato' Soh could well have to explain why he maligned this upright man's reputation. Did he not know that the cards were stacked against him when he, as an outsider, began his quixotic quest for justice? If he wants to know more about this, he should consult the lawyers of one Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim who is cast to the wolves though he was deputy prime minister because he forgot, as Dr Ling did not, that loyalty to the prime minister is more important than loyalty to the nation or justice or some deranged ideas like that.

What Dato' Soh forgot and we must not is that the National Front (BN) government looks after its own, allows them to do what they want but with one condition: absolute loyalty to the Prime Minister. Tun Ling did not waver. When the MCA ground wanted him out as president, the prime minister of the day, Dr Mahathir Mohamed, insisted he stay. He did. When he left, a political sleight of hand kept his rivals out and for his poodle to succeed him. Then it turns that the new MCA president, Dato' Seri Ong Ka Ting, had recommended a few upright Chinese business men for state dato'ships, but who turned out to be involved in nefarious activities like gambling, prostitution, gangsterism and the like.

How could this happen? A stringent selection process is in place, insists the government. Nominees are checked on their background, if they have criminal records or corruption investigations against them. It is all above board. The reality is different. The names are submitted at the last possible minute, often a few months before the award date. BN political party nominees are not checked as stringently as they should, and as the date approaches, they are cleared in haste. The gasp of surprise from the public when the list is released is of course ignored: but it clear to them that the wrong men have been titles and awards. But the government comes with creative explanations that make no sense. It is to cover up what they did not do.

Since the federal and state governments do not investigate the backgrounds thoroughly as they should, the recent call to withdraw the titles and awards from all those convicted does make sense. Even BN and UMNO leaders agree to it. The government is right to assume that the people are annoyed and angry at how the awards are given. The call to revoke them should be given great thought. Conviction in a criminal court automatically renders their titles and awards void. The governments should promptly revoke them, and advertise that in the government gazettes. That way at least would make many awarded - for their contributions to society or the power of their cash - may hesitate to accept it if they could be humiliated when their past and present catches up with them.

It is a good move. The government should begin right now. I can suggest one man who has more dato'ships than he knows what to do with. He is a convict. Jailed for 15 years for corruption and sodomy. A common criminal, insists the court which put him in Sungei Buloh, and the appeal courts; and so the man who put him there, and his successor. The man insists he is there for his politics. But he forgets one inalienable fact of Malaysian life: Malaysian courts are upright in administering justice. It does not matter if your and I or even the chap in Sungei Buloh disagrees. All that matters is the government insists it is. And so it is ordained. The BN and UMNO establishment. insists he is a nobody. So he must be. No one cares if he lives or dies. Since the dato'ships of suspected criminals are revoked, the case is strong for those awarded to a master criminal, as this man undoubtedly is, is too.

He is a good example for the government to insist all is above board, and titles must be protected from rascals and scoundrels who somehow got them. If he got them because of high official status, then all the more it must be revoked swiftly. The prime minister, Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, should order the state governments the BN controls to ensure that every one of the dato'ships Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim was awarded are revoked for his criminality. Pak Lah knows full well, as he repeats to anyone who would listen, that the man is history, he plays no role in the Malaysia of the future, and the people are happy to see the last of him. He should do it, and quick. At least the UMNO rank and file would recognise for what it is: the removal of a man who has done UMNO much wrong. It would also frighten those with titles from walking away from the straight and narrow, and forever be grateful for the crumbs the BN and UMNO throws off their table. And ensure Pak Lah would earn points for putting his money where his mouth is, and the UMNO would love him for it in September. No doubt about it.

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