MGG Pillai Commentary View

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Rafidah is guilty but she won't resign nor will she be sacked

The minister of international trade and industry and UMNO women's wing president, Datin Serii Rafidah Aziz is the next cabinet minister proven corrupt. The mainstream newspapers and mainstream TV media have confirmed it. Which means it is true. There are other stories of cabinet ministers and others corrupt, but if the alternate media write about it, then the laws of defamation apply, and they are stopped in their tracks. One UMNO leader has said he would have sued a mainstream journalist, but would not since that fellow does not have money. In other words, money is used to bankrupt the fellow. If one the other hand, an alterate journalist seems to be winning or gets a fairer corum of jiudges, on appeal, then the case is delayed as long as possible. The cynicism extends to UMNO members who are used to defame opposition figures. They are dropped and they are not supported in court or are not helped with the amount ordered by the courts to be paid to the opposition figure. So, Datin Seri Rafidah Aziz, like the warlord before here in the cabinet, Tan Seri Isa Samad, is banned from UMNO for corruption but will not resign nor be sacked from the Pak Lah cabinet. The Prime Minister sacks from his cabinet only those who defy him personally: Tun Ghazali Shafie, Dato' Shahrir Samad and Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim, all by the then Prime Minister, Tun Mahathir Mohamed.

What is Datin Seri Rafidah Aziz's offence? She gave her son-in-law APs. You are not, by the government rules, allowed to favour your relatives and she did. That is the offence. It does not matter she gave APs to other UMNO figures, or their relatives, APs. She is a figure of propriety at cabinet meetings, and wigged off a cabinet minister for daring to ask her for APs to be given to the string of co-operatives he controlled. Nor does it matter if the former Prime Minister, Tun Mahathir Mohamed's son, got APs. She should not have given it. She did. She is responsible. She must go. She won't. Nor would she be sacked. It is a far cry from the time she was appointed a senator. She was then a lecturer at the University of Malaya. She traipsed into the staff canteen room, where I was talking to a lecturer, saying she did not have to pay road tax anymore. When some one asked her why. She said she had been appointed a senator. She resigned from the university, and in 1978 stood for Kuala Kangsar, and later became one of the Perak warlord, of whom the main one is Dato' Tajol Rosli, whose father was warlord before him.

The cabinet in Malaysia is a conglomeration of warlords, like the Liberal Democratic Party in Japan, and dismissing a warlord from the cabinet means the prime minister has one enemy more to contend. In Japan, calling an election is easier than confronting a warlord, as Mr Junichiro Koizumi proves. In Malaysia, the prime minister would rather than sack a warlord for fear of more opposition to him at the UMNO general assembly elections. So, corrupt cabinet ministers stay on. Datin Rafidah Aziz has ordered the mainsream media and TV stations to cut off coverage, as Tan Sri Isa had done before him, and the issue is no more covered. But warlords outside the cabinet but in parliament wants her to explain the mess. She hopes the matter has died down, and the Malaysian public, given only one side of the equation at any one time on matters affecting their lives end up like sheep, now get to hear the other side of the story, and do want to hear her side of the story. The issue will not go way.

Over the years, and UMNO has remained in power 50 years, two years before Merdeka, corruption is a way of life in UMNO. What do you then expect of the cabinet, where corruption is second nature? We talk of it in coffee shops but no where else. Now they are being taken to task. Money is spent galore to get elected. Even the village chief demands a Mercedes Benz. So, it is corruption all the way. And the Chinese business man bribes him, either with a Mercedes Benz or dollops of cash and shares in his firm, for which he does not way. What then divisional leaders or supreme councillors? They have to meet the hotel bills of delegates, and they demand five-star hotels. So what was wrong, in UMNO circles, with Datin Seri Rafidah Aziz giving APs to her son-in-law that gave him a monthly income of about $150,000? From the Prime Minister down, corruption is involved. He also has payments to make. He gives parties to delegates at UMNO general assembly, flies around the country on government planes and helicopters with a bevy of government officials, and more on UMNO business. And UMNO headquarters does not pay to the government cost of their President using government facilities. The Prime Minister of India, Mrs Indira Gandi then, was jailed after the Election Commision had interdicted the Congress for not paying to the government the cost of government facilities used by Mrs Gandhi for her election campaigning.

The worm is turning. The public at large is more aware of the leaders and the runing party using government machinery on party work. All parties in the ruling National Front are at fault. That is one reason why the leaders remain in the government for decades, at the expense of the people they claim to represent, and failed party leaders remain in the government after their defeats. They should rightly resign from the goverment, but the UMNO president, who automaticallay becomes Prime Minister, had make it clear that it is his government, and it does not matter if they have lost their party posts. Resignation from the government is therefore discouraged.

It is corruption all the way. It has gone one step further. Corruption is also to enrich members of one's family, as Datin Seri Rafidah's case has shown. But this can be done with alacrity. The government agencies will not act as they have been ordered by the Prime Minister not to. So Datin Seri Rafidah Aziz, Tan Sri Isa Samad and other members of the cabinet are safe, for the time being. This practice of the government to charge former holders of post for corruption, will in time extend to former cabinet ministers. This is the inevitable change brought about globalisation. It is already happening to other politicians. Globalisation is not only about business. It is about other aspects of life too. Ånd politics is one of them. As for Datin Seri Rafidah Aziz, she is on a charm offensive. But it won't wash. Those close to Tun Mahathir say she lied to the Tun about the rumours (as it was then) and said it was not true. Tun Mahathir should not have believed her, but that is another story.

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