NFC loan, we have the right!

NFC loan, we have the right: To the Shahrizats, Malaysians were all born yesterday!

Beleaguered Wanita Umno Chief, Shahrizat Jalil, came out from the Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission beaming from ear-to-ear at the media and for the benefit of the cameras. It was a photo-op not to be missed, especially for the glamor-loving Women's minister.

But appearances are not what they seem. It seems now that it was the MACC who called her and told her to get into their office as soon as possible. Earlier she claimed that the MACC did not call her at all and that in fact she called them - out of righteousness - and volunteered to come forward and meet them “to clear her name”.

With that, Shahrizat seems to think that she has swept away the National Feedlot Corporation (NFC) controversy swirling around her and her family by simply denying any role whatsoever in the alleged theft of public monies, among others, in the cattle breeding project.

The Women's minister hid behind technicalities. It reminds us of Bill Clinton swearing that he “did not have sex with that woman (Monica Lewinsky)”, when he had clearly abused his office and position. Likewise, according to Shahrizat’s disingenuous statement, she doesn’t know anything about the NFC, that it was “apparently” run by her husband, and that she was not involved in any manner in the Federal Government forking out RM 250 million of the people’s money, if at all, unsupervised to fund her family company.

The point is, according to her, the issue of conflict of interest on her part and abuse of power and position doesn’t arise. Those were the only issues that the MACC reportedly wanted to clear with her; Shahrizat went on to spin to media before beating a hasty retreat.

Prerogative or not, it's still public money and not 'grandfather's money'

Based on her brief statement, she could in fact have been in and out of the office in a jiffy, and not the 2 hours odd that she actually spent there. No wonder most people doubt if the MACC really asked her anything at all or just had tea with her while discussing whether they could stay for free from time to time at one of the two multimillion ringgit luxury condominiums the NFC allegedly purchased in Singapore!

A day later, her son added salt to the wound. He revealed that there was nothing in the government loan agreement to stop their family from buying condos or whatsoever investments they felt best suited NFC.

“The issue of NFC managing its loan monies amounting to RM250 million is the company’s responsibility to administer and utilise. NFC retains the prerogative to invest the funds in the best interests of the company.  It is not a grant or free money but a repayable loan,” Wan Shahinur Izmir, the NFCorp CEO, had told an online portal.

What were Muhyiddin, Pak Lah and even Najib doing?

So the Shahrizats are now implying they had every right to buy the 5 condos, and it's none of your business whatsoever. It looks like due to laxness of the government leaders, people like Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin who was the then Agriculture minister approving the project to the Shahrizats in 2006, former premier Abdullah Badawi who was then also the finance minister and even Prime Minister Najib Razak who also had a hand in giving the green light, are to blame.

If Malaysians want to see their money back, then these guys should pick up the tab if they don't take action to make the Shahrizats pay back the loan. If they continue to cover up for each other, then all of them should be sacked. Why should Malaysians elect politicians to power who care only about fattening their own wallets, and completely ignore simple basic protective requirements so as to help each other 'cari makan'!

It seems that the MACC is set to sweep things under the carpet as Umno factions wrestle each other on when to call for the 13th General Elections - between May this year and the next - or to do an Abdul Razak Hussein - Najib's dad who grabbed power by plotting the May 13, 1969, racial riots.

In true Umno style, Shahrizat will be allowed to make her grand and dramatic return from the brink of political oblivion. Her family thinks Izmir's disclosure of the lax loan conditions will make everything rosy again for the NFC, Umno and most of all themselves. It is not our fault but the opposition's - but surely Malaysians are not that stupid any more. Or are they?

Enough is enough!

Cowgate is not the be all, and end all of life in Malaysia. Let it not become a long-running sequel like the infamous Watergate Scandal in Washington which eventually brought down the Nixon administration. Malaysians must be sick and tired of reading about the NFC, Shahrizat and her husband, who has got more than his 15 minutes of fame so far, day after day.

Action must be taken. Shahrizat has to go and go quickly or be sacked from her Wanita Umno post – elected or otherwise – and also from her position as Women and Community Development Minister. Her Wanita deputy Kamilia Ibrahim and predecessor Rafidah Aziz should really consider pulling together a no-confidence vote to oust her or Umno will be destroyed sooner than expected.

Shahrizat's position has become untenable and with good reasons too. For starters, whether Shahrizat is guilty or not, the public believes she is. Not because of the opposition or PKR or Rafizi Rami but because of the lame reasons that her family and herself have given so far. To add insult to injury, she thinks that the public are a bunch of morons who will swallow her tall yarns hook, line and sinker.

Will she next tell us that she didn’t really threaten to spill the beans on others in Umno who have similar skeletons like her, and other skeletons, in their collective cupboards. Then will her son say he didn't mean to make it sound as if the RM250million government soft loan - conditions or without conditions - was his 'grandfather's money' and up to him to spend as he wished.

Double standards

Shahrizat shouldn’t expect us to believe that the Federal Government was willing to generously fork out RM 250 million of the people’s money to her husband, an obscure body from nowhere, without her influence - direct or indirect. On this score alone, she can be charged with corruption and hauled to Court like Anwar Ibrahim.

Anwar  was accused of abusing his then office as Deputy Prime Minister to induce the police to close the file on Sodomy 1. He was thereby alleged to have committed a corrupt act.  Anwar’s conviction stood upon appeal and even after the Sodomy 1 was over-tuned by the Appellate Court. Shahrizat has not even been given a public warning or reprimand by the prime minister. But then, this is the famed BN double standard Malaysians have been forced to live by for the past 55 years.

Do the right thing as a politician, wife and parent

If Shahrizat was a serious leader, she would have warned her husband against using a chunk of the RM 250 million to allegedly purchase multimillion ringgit luxury condominiums, among others, in Kuala Lumpur and Singapore. Luxury cars were also purchased and the whole kampung went along with the family for holidays abroad.

Can the family have bought these without telling her? And can she still be in the dark about these irresponsible deals?

Sharizat must do the honourable thing and advise her husband and children to return what remains of the RM 250 million to the Public Treasury and surrender/transfer the title deeds of the said properties and vehicles to the Government. The Government should also seize all the remaining cattle with NFC and auction them for the proceeds.

The husband and wife duo must also propose how they intend to reimburse the Government for the monies already spent. These would be the actions of responsible parents, not pushing the son out to insist that the family had the right to do as they wished with the loan, which is still very much public money.

Shame on Sharizat and family for taking the NFC debacle and Malaysian politics to such ludicrous depths. She should accept her karma like the pious woman that she no doubt is and co-operate with the authorities. No one is going to give her an Oscar for her performance so far at the MACC and in front of the media.

And while she’s at it – co-operating with the law --, she should spill the beans as well as she earlier publicly threatened, on all the other crooks like her in Umno and Government who are stealing from the public.

God will bless her for that and forgive her, if not forget, for the RM 250 million debacle.

Written by  K Suresh, Malaysia Chronicle