’wow’ moment why is it that the associates of Mahathiri get nailed every time but Mahathir gets off scot-free?
Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, urging prime minister Najib to end his political career
Najib should resign as Prime Minister and devote himself full time to party work. This is the only way that the UMNO–which is going downhill – can rejuvenate itself. Popular wisdom is that in the 2018 general elections Barisan weighed down by the anti -incumbency impact of Mahathir will be booted out of power.Since the anti-incumbency is expected to be demonstrated by the electorate in the form of a vote against rising corruption, Najib can play a great role in warding off this impact.
I will go empty-handed from this world, but the pain of not being able to attain freedom for the country will accompany me,
being a Muslim, I cannot think about rebirth,
But in case I am able to find Allah,
In place of heaven, I will beg rebirth.
“Just as the cult of patriotism teaches us today that the individual has to die for the family, the family has to die for the village, the village for the district, the district for the province, and the province for the country, even so country has to be free in order that it may die, if necessary, for the benefit of the world… There is no room for race hatred there. Let that be our nationalism… It is impossible for one to be internationalist without being a nationalist… It is not nationalism that is evil, it is the narrowness, selfishness, exclusiveness which is the bane of modern nations which is evil. Each wants to profit at the expense of, and rise on the ruin of, the other. Indian nationalism has struck a different path. It wants to organize itself or to find full self-expression for the benefit and service of humanity at large.”
Even if we are not able to follow all these in their entirety, we can at least take a few steps towards them. That will be enough to get rid of fake nationalists and pseudo secularists.
Isu perkauman digunakan oleh sesetengah ahli politik di Malaysia bagi melindungi kegiatan rasuah yang dilakukan pemimpin terbabit, kata bekas Naib Canselor Universiti Malaya Tan Sri Dr Ghauth Jasmon (gambar).
Beliau berkata isu perkauman juga dimainkan bagi melindungi salah laku selain mengelak mereka yang terlibat daripada dituduh atas aktiviti tidak bermoral itu.
“Jika negara dipenuhi dengan pemimpin rasuah, mereka akan menggunakan isu perkauman untuk melindungi kesalahan bagi menarik perhatian.
“Adalah penting kita memisahkan manusia dengan politik. Di Malaysia, kita selalu diingatkan oleh ahli politik tentang masalah perkauman malah terdapat juga kumpulan tertentu yang menyokong isu tersebut,” katanya semasa ucaptama Persidangan Asia Barat dan Afrika 2013 di Kuala Lumpur hari ini
Pak Samad ,said Mahathir had mastered the art of doublespeak. It was not that they did not know what has happening that Mahathir’s attitude of always commenting on issues could be construed as criticising but without any concrete backing. unfortunate part of using the language of ‘us’ and ‘them ‘is that it leads to deterioration of relations between communities leading in some places even to riots. Therefore it would not be a matter of surprise if the communal situation in the country deteriorates the `fake nationalists’ led by Mahathir.However, people, particularly the privileged class, are also to be blamed for the mess because they have allowed themselves to be swayed by the politicians who have distorted the meaning of the terms like , Hinduism, Islam, secularism, patriotism and nationalism to suit their vested interests. All of us are unaware of the real meaning of these terms which played crucial role in country’s freedom struggle and shaping the idea of Malaysia Today, fake nationalists are emulating Hitler (hate and racial supremacy) and pseudo secularist the British (divide and rule). Both have forgotten the philosophy of greats Nationalism can be best understood
“Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high
Where knowledge is free
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments
By narrow domestic walls
Where words come out from the depth of truth
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit
Where the mind is led forward by thee
Into ever-widening thought and action
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.”
There has been clear evidences in this high profile and wide-connected corruption case that procecution and members involved ( includingsome witnesses) had been closely connected in their political life. It surprised no one that such a weak procecution could stand the scrunity of the court. In this boleh-land, almost all politically connected corruption cases were thrown out by the court judges on ground of insufficinet evidences. If procecution team is not willing and serious, no concrete evidence and cases could be put up for the court. It is always the easy way out besides wasting taxpayer’s money in trying in court.the most important question and issue was never tabled and discussed in court by the AG. I have written about this before. The Cabinet Paper which approved the PKFZ was NEVER declassified and tabled in Court; why not? Only that would have defined the parameters of the project and conditions attached, including the calculation of selling price. When those were not submitted; the ex-Ministers look rather legitimate; and, the truth still lies untold Pun intended! Stop further selective lying! Tun Ling is a friend, but truth has not been served in this case!
This stratagem of Machiavellian Mahathir politics can have many variants and be described in many other ways: the principle of Barisan-government, the halo of sacrifice, the backseat driver, or the remote control principle. However, in simple terms they all amount to having the cake and eating it too.Some skeletons refuse to remain locked in a closet, no matter how firmly we shut the door.Nancy Shukri,Malaysians are not fools like you,please tell your stories to the rural Malays in Sarawak.Bumiputras who are poor will end up robbing others,what a half-past six Cabinet Minister we have. Nancy. Is interest charges the only issue faced by PKFZ? Is Dr. Ling the only person liable to be charged? Is there no one else? Why charge Dr. Ling for cheating the Cabinet? Why not charge the whole Cabinet for cheating? What about the bond guaranteed letters issued by MOT? Who said these letter are good when the Financial Procedure Act clearly stated this is not? The AG should not appeal the PKFTZ scandal at this time but to wait for Pakatan Rakyat to take over the country after the 2018 GE after doing away with the first past the goal-post idiotic system.The verdict to discharge the rot starts from the fish-head ex-MCA President was expected when the Mamak ex-PM told the court that he was not cheated by the former Minister of Transport. What do you expect from those birds of the same feathers,they flock,Why not appoints Datuk Seri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah as a prosecutor to appeal the case. At least it shows that the government is sincere in wanting to bring the culprit to book.That decision not to appeal reflects, exhibits out govt. approach, policy to fight corruption, abuses, incompetency on the part of the AG’s Chamber, perhaps intentionally incompetent. Our leaders, our institutions! tell us you Nancy have experts You saved us time and money. Next excuse please, Nancy.looking at the case we want to know what these so called remote control principle”experts” saw that made an appeal untenable. You are giving excuses
Recently, Dr Mahathir called on the government to bring back the teaching of Science and Mathematics in English policy (PPSMI), saying that the decision to reverse an earlier decision was made because Putrajaya had heeded Pak Samad’s advice.
Dr Mahathir had also said that Samad was only a scholar, who was an expert in the Malay language but did not have any expertise in science.
Citing himself as example, Dr Mahathir said he was an expert in science and English and could also communicate in Malay.
Samad, however, countered that Dr Mahathir’s actions today were motivated by the desire that his son, Kedah Menteri Besar Datuk Mukhriz Mahathir, would assume the country’s top leadership one day.
“We know that he wants to ensure that Mukhriz continues his legacy. That is fine, but at least do it the correct way. We know leaders make leaders, but it has to be done in an honest and sincere manner.
“If you look at Mukhriz, all the characteristics are there. There is a big chance that Mukhriz would lead the country one day but let it be on a proper platform and not by finding fault with others. His time will come because he has good characteristics,” said Samad.
The Bersih 2.0 co-chair added that the time has come for Dr Mahathir to stop interfering in the leadership of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, and to allow the Cabinet to chart the country’s future, free from any interference.
“He should stick to bigger international issues, as for internal issues, leave them to government leaders.”
Samad also described Dr Mahathir as someone who liked to cause conflict, targeting local leaders.
“Try to name one leader whom Dr Mahathir has not fought with. He has fought with Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Hussein Onn, Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and Datuk Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat.
“It can’t be that everyone else is always wrong, they would have been right at some point. Also because the press entertains him, that gets him more excited.”
In August, Dr Mahathir, when answering criticism in the book Awakening:The Abdullah Badawi Years in Malaysia, had said that the Barisan Nasional government led by Abdullah in 2008 was a rich one but the people still voted the opposition.
Although Abdullah saved billions of ringgit, voters still delivered five states to the opposition and BN lost its two-thirds majority in Parliament.
How IAS officers in India can let off their colleagues, officially
True, section 19 (1A) of the Prevention of Corruption Act (PCA) 1988 requires the nod of the Government of India (GOI) before an IAS officer is prosecuted. It also requires that the application for prosecution be routed through the state government. In the case of Mr Acharya, however his colleagues decided to do something which turned out to be a huge favor for the arrested officer. The officials of the General Administration department (GAD) who handle such applications just let this request be. Under the excuse that the CBI request for prosecution had come along with voluminous papers and that needed to be examined first, the GAD of the Government Of AP decided to sit on the application. When asked by newspersons, the head of the GAD said that the papers were “being examined” and let it be known that he could not specify a date by which this process would be complete and when the request would be forwarded to the union government.
The special judge of the CBI court, however did not ask about the details of the sanctions sought by CBI. The honorable judge said that since there was no clearance from the GOI there was no point in keeping Mr Acharya in jail. He released the IAS officer from jail on bond of Rs 50,000 and more importantly refused to take cognizance of the charge sheet filed against him. The CBI in its charge sheet- that pertains to the Emaar case – had arraigned Mr Acharya not only under two sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act (PCA) but also four sections of the Indian Penal Code including section 120 B ( conspiracy), 420 ( cheating), 409 and 477-A. The case relates to a golf course, cum residential complex in Gachibowli , a post enclave of Hyderabad. The allegation is that Mr Acharya as vice chairman of the Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (APIIC) allowed Emaar of Dubai to bring in a partner into the venture such that the government stake in the joint venture was reduced. Further the marketing rights of the venture were transferred to a private company Emaar MGF. All this led to a huge loss run into tens of crore to the AP government.
Thus by resorting to the standard tactics of delaying files (so typical in babudom and something that babus are so adept at), the IAS lobby ensured that CBI was effectively blocked from proceeding with the prosecution of one of its own officers. Incidentally Mr B P Acharya had a road named after him in the industrial area where APIIC had joint ventures with many private parties.
Mr Acharya, was not the only officer bailed out by the IAS lobby. Another IAS officer L V Subramanyam who is also an accused in this case was similarly let off. Subramanyam , also a 1983 batch IAS officer, had however not been arrested, so it was not that he was in jail. But in his case also the CBI court refused to take cognizance of the charge sheet filed. Incidentally he had in another case also got a similar safe passage. This relates to the Volkswagen case of 2005 where a fraud was committed on the Andhra Pradesh government which paid money into the accounts of a company called Vashistha Wahan which was touted as a front for Volkswagen. The CBI wanted to charge sheet Subramanyam for this case too, but again it never got official sanction to proceed against the officer. Today the IAS officer is the chief executive officer of the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD)!
Investigations in the Emaar case began after CBI was directly asked by the AP High Court to do so. This followed a PIL by a ruling party MLA who was subsequently made a minister but was later axed. The PIL came after the AP government’s own Vigilance and Enforcement Department unearthed a scam in the whole affair.
A police officer serving in the Anti- Corruption Bureau (ACB) tells me that there are many cases not only in Andhra Pradesh but in all parts of the country, where IAS officers are not permitted by the government (read IAS officers) to be prosecuted. Not surprising, the standard practice is to sit on files relating to permission for prosecution for an indefinite period without saying either yes or no. This in effect turns out to be an emphatic no.
Grappling with this practice, the Supreme Court in a 2G scam related matter had observed in January this year that the government could take up to three or at most four months to deal with an application for permission for prosecution. If the government does not answer with either yes or no in this stipulated period, it should be assumed that it has given “deemed sanction.” Lawyers however presume that the apex court had made a mere observation and it is for the central government to amend the PCA to include this stipulation in the relevant sections of the Act.
Whether anybody would approach the apex court for a clarification or not is not known but last month that the IAS Officers’ Association of Andhra Pradesh had convened an extra ordinary general meeting of its members and had come up with a slew of demands. Among them was that IAS officers be quizzed by CBI sleuths only in their offices (and not that of the CBI) and that too in the presence of civilians who are conversant with business rules (read IAS officers). They had also demanded that the legal costs of defending the IAS officers be borne by the state government. The officers had also gone on a delegation to the chief minister. Although a strike and a pen down by the officers had been proposed by some officers, in the eventuality no such demand was made. The IAS lobby being so strong who knows ultimately these demands may be get codified as a standard practice.
It is usual for analysts to blame politicians- netas – for all the ills of the country. But to me it seems that the officers – the babus are as complicit as the netas if not more. If the IAS lobby sits on a file for prosecution for so long, it is also because the political executive is weak or fully complicit in the matter. In the instant case, it is because the political establishment in Andhra Pradesh is very weak and cannot assert its authority in running the government. But that is another story.
