Who are the most evil and corrupt men and women in Malaysia? Here is
a listing of the Dirty Dozen, ranked in order of how evil the person is
and his effect on society. The more evil the person and the more damaging
his effect on society, the higher up the scale they go. Besides the top
dog, the list includes his dark knights installed in every powerful institution
that is meant to protect and uphold democracy in the land. From the Attorney-General
to the Chief Justice, judges, the ACA, the Election Commission and the
police force, there is no institution which has not been corrupted by Mahathir.
As Tunku Abdul Rahman said after the sacking of the Lord President Tun
Salleh Abas, we are all in grave danger.
1. Mahathir Mohamed
The Father of Corruption
As the most dictatorial prime minister ever,
this man certainly tops the list of most evil persons in Malaysia. He has
practically destroyed all the institutions of democracy in Malaysia including
the independence of the judiciary and there are no more checks and balances
to his power. Concepts like justice, democracy and human rights mean little
to him and he is comfortable hobnobbing with brutal regimes like Myanmar
and Cuba. Corruption and cronyism flourish under his rule to an extent
never before seen. Like a leader who corrupts all those under him, most
of the people holding high office in the country are corrupt and beholden
to him. The hallmark of Mahathir's rule is that corrupt men and women do
not have to pay the price of their corruption as long as they remain loyal
to him. An egomaniac who expounds large construction projects to cover
his lack of spiritual values, he channeled the resources of the country
into economically senseless mega projects to feed his ego and his cronies'
pockets. Slowly but surely Mahathir's rule of corruption, cronyism and
public-milking privatization is lowering the standard of living in
Malaysia and making life harder for the ordinary citizen who must pay the
ever increasing corruption tax. He will forever be remembered for his cruel
and inhuman treatment of his deputy Anwar Ibrahim whom he jailed after
Stalin and Hitler style show trials.
2. Daim Zainuddin
A rapacious robber baron whose greed is boundless
His low profile belie the immense power he wields in his hands and he
has used his power to amass fabulous wealth. Never ever satisfied, this
rapacious robber baron seems to want everything. A brazen attempt to force
merge the country's banks to increase his share of banking assets to dangerous
levels was aborted only because Umno needed Chinese votes win the elections.
However billions of ringgit in frozen Clob shares
fell prey to his greed when badly treated foreign investors had to pay
him a cut to get their shares released. His economic plunder helps to keep
the Mahathir regime in power and fuel the money politics that the party
machinery runs on. Daim's lust for money is equal in intensity to
Mahathir's lust for power. With the number one man in the country power
crazy and the number two man money mad, the country is in "good" hands.
3. Mohtar Abdullah
A legal thug best describes this totally repulsive
man
For sheer gusto in carrying out Mahathir's nefarious designs, Mohtar
Abdullah has no equal. In fact this most repulsive
Attorney-General in Malaysia's history doesn't need orders from the
top to go on a legal rampage, he sometimes pursue political opponents relentlessly
on his own initiative. He turned the office of the A-G into a dictator's
tool of oppression to drag to court perceived political critics and enemies.
With the Chief Justice to select the proper judge to hear the case, he
just can't lose. Lim Guan Eng felt brunt of his legal thuggery for merely
criticizing his non-action over the statutory rape of a schoolgirl by powerful
politician Rahim Thamby Chik. Datuk Nallakarupan was charged with mandatory
death penalty for forgetting to renew his license for 100 lousy bullets
because his life was to be used as a bargaining chip to fabricate evidence
against Anwar. Mohtar's zeal in prosecuting politically unfavoured persons
is matched by his stony inaction to go after really corrupt big shots.
This evil man is not above fabricating evidence to secure convictions when
real evidence is hard to come by in cases where innocent people are dragged
to court. Mohtar is evil without conscience, a perverter who turns
good and bad on its head landing hammer blows on society's moral
shell with every politically motivated prosecution. Although Eusoff Chin's
perversion of the rule of law is greater than Mohtar due to Eusoff's Chief
Justice position, Mohtar has been ranked above him in evil due to his extraordinary
enthusiasm in committing injustice and wickedness to serve the dictator
and further his own worldly ambition.
4. Eusoff Chin
He sat on the bench to ensure its subservience to
Mahathir
When the country's Chief Justice is corrupt what can you expect of the
judicial system? Eusoff Chin has been photographed
holidaying in New Zealand with highly successful lawyer V.K. Lingam
who has never lost a case in Eusoff Chin's court. But Eusoff's corruption
goes has a far more sinister and damaging effect than mere personal enrichment.
He is used by Mahathir to select suitable judges to hear important cases
and to lean on judges to deliver the "correct" judgement. Any judge whose
judgement displease Eusoff is bound to find himself packing for a posting
in a backwater place and his career immediately stunted. Under this shady
perverter of justice the judiciary has won a smelly reputation locally
and abroad as being thoroughly compliant to the executive. With Eusoff
at the helm the government has never lost an important case. But for Mahathir,
having Mokhtar as Attorney-General and Eusoff Chin as Chief Justice is
a dream come true and a combination not likely to be exceeded in future.
5. Kadir Jasin
His newspapers were the propaganda machine of the
ruling party
Kadir Jasin does not hold any high office to directly corrupt the institutions
of democracy but as Group Managing Director of the New Straits Times Press,
his role in corrupting minds is far-reaching indeed.
In the dung filled pages of the New Straits Times and Berita Harian,
this sycophantic editor who once called for foreign journalist to be arrested
under ISA for reporting the truth tried to mould public opinion by hiding
the excesses of the ruling party and heaping undeserved praise on corrupt
leaders to keep them in power. The strategies used
include biased opinion pieces, omission of all negative reporting of
the establishment, public airing of unsubstantiated allegations against
political opponents without right of reply, sycophantic adulation of the
prime minister, reporting only the negative points of the opposition and
playing them up, outright lying and filtering foreign viewpoints for the
favourable comments only. By covering up abuses and protecting the guilty
from public exposure the mass media helps to perpetuate and deepen abuses
and corruption. Kadir Jasin was certainly at the forefront of this information
web of deceit until he was sacked by his political masters for not being
sycophantic enough and daring to lose market share by feeding intelligent
readers with politically motivated rubbish.
6. Augustine Paul
A monster judge rode roughshod over all principles
of jurisprudence to convict Anwar
Augustine Paul was handpicked to do a specific dirty job, that is to find Anwar Ibrahim guilty of some fanciful trumped-up charges. Anxious not to disappoint his political masters on his first important assignment, he proceed to trample truth and justice in his courtroom in the crudest possible manner in his overzealous mission to convict the fallen politician. He ran a banal kangaroo court which was so blatantly biased that it will forever shame the nation in the eyes of the world. His parody of justice evoked memories of the infamous show trials of Stalin and Hitler.
The evil of a man who is willing to send an innocent man to jail cannot
be glossed over. One may argue that Augustine Paul was a puppet judge who
had no choice. This is a false rationalization as he would never have been
selected as a puppet judge if he wasn't rotten to the core and trusted
to give the pre-determined judgement. He could have exercised his independence
once on the case and there would be nothing that Mahathir can do to remove
him without triggering world outrage. But why was Paul selected to grace
this rogues' gallery instead of Lamin Yunus although he (Paul) has been
known to betray justice in only one celebrated case while Lamin is an old
government dog with a string of biased judgements to his name? And shouldn't
Ariffin Jaka share the limelight? The fact is that the repercussion from
Paul's evil deed was greater than Lamin's as he robbed the nation of a
great leader who would have brought some morality, transparency and justice
back into the government. Ariffin Jaka at least conducted
the semblance of a real trial allowing all material evidence to be
heard, even those highly embarrassing to his political masters. The way
that Paul bulldozed the flimsy prosecution's case through while suppressing
material evidence from being aired speaks of a pure unadulterated evil
that makes the skin crawl. He held the future of the nation in his
hands but he chose to sell his soul to the devil for a pittance.
7. Omar Mohammad
With a corrupt man at the helm, the last bastion of
democracy fell to Mahathir
The name of Datuk Omar Mohammad does not ring a bell to most people and this is understandable as he is the Chairman of the Election Commission which comes to the fore to conduct the general elections every 5 years. But although rarely in the news, this is one of the most important instrument of democracy. When all checks and balances have been removed in the administration of government, the general election is the last bastion of democracy and the final check and balance to a power hungry dictator. It is the time when power returns to the people who can theoretically kick out an unjust government in free and fair elections.
This is in theory but the sad reality is that even the Election
Commission has been corrupted by Mahathir. Datuk Omar's declaration
the Commission is independent rings hollow in the light of the 1999 general
elections. In the first place gerry mandering of electoral boundaries to
concentrate parliamentary seats in areas of greater support ensured that
it would be very difficult to topple the ruling party. The 1999 elections
was anything but free and fair. A massive 650,000 newly registered voters
who were generally perceived as critical of the government were not allowed
to vote on the shaky premise that it took the EC a mind boggling nine months
to register them. The EC also failed to correct the total monopoly of the
mass media by the ruling party, the unfair media blitz and the stirring
of racial and religious fears by Barisan Nasional politicians to garner
votes. The Election Commission failed the people and as its head, Omar
Mohammad must be held responsible for the fall of the last bastion of democracy.
8. Ahmad Zaki Husin
An agency to flush out corruption or to clean the
corrupt?
Ahmad Zaki is the Director-General of the Anti-Corruption Agency. Under Mahathir this body has become severely degraded in the eyes of the public as a blindfold toothless tiger when it comes to going after the big fish. Instead of fearlessly pursuing and exposing corruption without fear or favour this agency seems to drag its feet when big shots are involved. Worse, the ACA has frequently been abused as a weapon to investigate and pull down political opponents of the ruling party. To add insult to injury, we now have corrupt slimy politicians using the ACA to claim themselves pristine after a "cleansing investigation" by the agency.
The ACA's most celebrated failure is its inability to conclude investigations into the Perwaja Steel case and bring charges against Tan Sri Eric Chia who lost frightening billions for the steel giant under suspicious circumstances. This is despite a devastating auditor's report which detailed fraudulent financial transactions with dummy companies. After four years of "investigation", one should not hold one's breath that Eric Chia will be brought to justice anytime soon. It also sank into a listless stupor over Anwar's four police reports with documented evidence against political bigwigs. On the other hand the ACA suddenly sprang to life over Datuk Murad's wild and unsubstantiated allegations of billions in Anwar's "master accounts" although to date it has managed to dig up nothing. Other high profile cases of corruption such as Eusoff Chin's well-known holiday with lawyer V.K. Lingam never saw the light of day although pictures of their fond relationship have been on the internet for years.
Why is Ahmad Zaki ranked one step below Omar Muhammad on the scale of
evil? Corruption is after all an insidious cancer which affects everybody
and happens far more frequently than general elections. The ordinary citizen
pays the price of big time corruption in higher prices of utilities and
goods and the wastage of public funds. But one must remember that the ACA
reports to the Attorney-General and the Prime Minister now, not directly
to parliament. This means that it derives the corruption of the overlords
it is subservient to. When the PM wants to sit on a case of prima facie
corruption, there is nothing much that the Director-General can do while
other entities such as the Election Commission, the A-G , the Chief Justice
and the judges can exercise their independence but choose to sell their
souls to the devil. Still, one cannot be too lenient on Ahmad Zaki. Anyone
who is contend to sit in a post and willingly play along inflicting harm
onto society must himself be a member of the dark domain.
9. Ling Liong Sik
He is the epitome of village headman bought over with
money and whisky to keep the natives in line
As the most useless leader ever to do
nothing for the people he represents, Ling Liong Sik has no equal. This
political hack is only interested in maintaining the status quo while he
goes about the serious business of gathering wealth. And what an embarrassment
of riches it has been with his son coming from nowhere to be an instant
billionaire at the age of 27. On issues affecting the Chinese, you will
not find this timorous leader speaking out whether it is the Nipah virus
devastating the pig industry, non-acceptance of Chinese High School Certificates
or criticism of too many Chinese movies in Astro. In fact he is ready and
willing to accept erosion in Chinese rights and mortgaging of Chinese future
to maintain his personal position, a fine example being his declaration
that TAR college will not be upgraded to university status. Ling is the
towering epitome of the village headman who has been bought over by outside
colonizers to keep the natives in line. Besides a genius at doing nothing,
his other skills include the fine art of carrying the Prime Minister's
balls on whom he depends to protect his position and keep a lid on his
corruption. It must be a bitter irony to the Chinese that this bogus leader
who claims to represent them is elected from a Malay dominated electorate.
To Mahathir he is the perfect running dog in the so-called partnership
of the Barisan Nasional - a convenient eyewash for power sharing and an
apologist for Umno, never asking for anything for the Chinese and never
critical of any government policies against Chinese interests. A more putrid,
self-serving politician you could not find.
10. Samy Vellu
Architect of the MAIKA Telecom shares scandal, Samy
Vellu proves that corruption pays in Malaysia
Samy Vellu is to the Indians what Ling Liong Sik is to Chinese. After 21 years of Samy Vellu at the helm of the MIC, Indians remain economically backward and left behind in Malaysia's economic growth. Trapped in a vicious cycle of poverty, they have no financial, commercial or industrialized structure, marginalised in every economic field and in danger of becoming an underclass. Despite the burden on the low income, Samy Vellu goes round the country opening and justifying road tolls, a super-apologist for the rich cronies set on milking the public and derisively berating those who criticize the proliferation of toll booths. His shinning achievement is the extension of Kamunting Berhad's concession to collect toll at Jalan Kuching in exchange for nothing despite the concession period having expired and company having recouped many times its original investment. An let's not forget Samy Vellu's role in hijacking MAIKA's Telecom shares to three unknown companies controlled by his proxy in 1990 thus depriving the agency entrusted with uplifting Indians of an estimated RM70 million in profits.
Although Samy Vellu has done nothing for his race and got rich in the
process just like Ling, he is a little more outspoken than the timorous
Ling who would never stick an inch of his political neck out for the people
he represents. Ling must certainly be ranked above Samy in evil as he betrays
a larger group of people (30% of the population as against 10%) and he
has enriched himself far more than Samy.
11. Rahim Noor
The Chief of Police turned out to be a lawless thug
but he beat one prisoner too many
Rahim Noor was the Inspector-General of Police serving Mahathir faithfully by misusing the police force until he was forced to resign after beating up a deputy prime minister in prison. After shaming the police force and the nation he did not resign until his repulsive action was about to be exposed by a Royal Commission of Inquiry. And let's have no illusion that this Royal Commission was convened voluntarily by Mahathir to find out the truth. In true Mahathiran fashion he tried to protect the guilty and the corrupt until the insistent demands by the opposition and international critics were so great that there was no choice but to sacrifice Rahim Noor. But to this day the shame of the nation is not redeemed as Rahim Noor is treated with kid's glove by the corrupt judicial system and will no doubt escape with a wrist slap.
Rahim Noor is certainly a willing evil minion of Mahathir. Under him
the police were cruel and oppressive, sometimes summarily executing criminals
and beating up people in detention to the point of death. The Special Branch
was in charge of fabricating evidence from the dungeon of their confession
factory with Muslim intellectual Munawar Anees as their most famous guest.
Through Munawar's affidavit we are given a horrifying glimpse of torture
Malaysian style. Rahim is not ranked higher on the evil scale because he
is no longer in a position to influence matters. Also the behaviour of
the police does not seem to have improved with his resignation which means
that his influence wasn't that great.
12. Ummi Hafilda Ali
She plays a virgin in the light but needs no urging
in the night
"Youthful feminine face hiding rotten starving soul" best describes Ummi Hafilda Ali. When she declared brazenly in a press statement that she was still a virgin in denial of media gossip about her, headlines ricocheted from that bold declaration and the nation gasped in disbelief. But subsequent testimony in court during Anwar's trial by a man who was intimate with her in London show the deeply deceitful nature of Ummi and the manner in which she can shamelessly lie through her teeth in public.
Disowned by her family and revealed as a scheming, manipulative, evil woman who would stop at nothing to lie and cheat her way through life, she was the ideal person to be used by corrupt politicians in their conspiracy to destroy Anwar. They found in her the raw evil with the stomach to make vile accusations against an innocent man and even to draw the hapless Azizan Abu Bakar into her web of deceit. Totally without conscience and thinking nothing of shamelessly promoting her wicked lies in public, she was a cesspool of depravity and immorality which made her the darling of like-minded Umno politicians. Her declaration that she was motivated by religion and loyalty rings hollowly in the recesses of her empty soul.
Whatever her motivation for taking part in the conspiracy to destroy
a deputy prime minister who was fallen for standing in the way of corruption
and cronyism, history has assured Ummi a place in the dark halls of shame
after her brief moment of notoriety in a Malaysia made morally hollow by
corrupt and evil men.
So here we have a rogue's gallery of the worse that Malaysia can produce.
It comes as no surprise that most of the corruption has stemmed from the
font of evil, Mahathir himself. Evil men are useful and necessary to Mahathir.
They will willingly do his bidding no matter how odious and they can be
blackmailed on their past if they ever have a change of heart. So it is
evil, corrupt men who fluorish under his rule and advance to positions
of power and wealth. Working in co-operation with each other under the
tyrant, they ensure that Mahathir, his family and his cronies continue
the feast of corruption, cronyism and nepotism at the expense of ordinary
Malaysians.