PERWAJA SCANDAL: RESIGN, MAHATHIR!
27.02.2002
Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad has flopped completely in his explanation for
the Government’s failure to crack the long-standing RM 10 billion Perwaja
Steel scandal.
He admits to mismanagement and frauds as reasons for the Perwaja fiasco, but
disclaims responsibilities for failing to nail the culprits by putting the blame
squarely on the Swiss authorities’ reluctance to unveil a Swiss account
holding RM 76 million, which was siphoned off fraudulently from Perwaja Steel.
Mahathir’s explanation is totally unacceptable.
Firstly, it runs afoul of the statement by the former Director of the
Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) (Ahmad Zaki Husin) a year ago, when Zaki disclosed
that he was on the verge of a break-through in the Perwaja investigation through
impending unlocking of the Swiss account with the anticipated co-operation of
the Swiss Government. However, Zaki’s disclosure was followed soon by an
abrupt announcement of the non-renewal of Zaki’s service in ACA. Since
then, nothing was heard of this case from Zaki’s successor, who is a former
police officer, and whose role as ACA Director has been so low profile that he
is hardly visible or audible. (The reason for Zaki’s sudden cessation of
service at this critical juncture of the Perwaja investigation will be apparent
from the paragraphs appearing below).
Secondly, the RM 76 million in the Swiss Account is pittance, compared to the RM
10,000 million losses that the people of this Country are burdened with (all
liabilities of the failed Perwaja are taken up by the Government).
What happens to the numerous multi-million dubious deals that have contributed
to the mountain of debts that Perwaja has found itself laden with? Surely,
it can’t be true that all these improprieties were not transacted by Perwaja
personnel and did not take place within this Country! Then, how is it
possible that ACA could not land up with a single prosecution, with a staff of
thousands, and after 7 long years of investigations?
It must be obvious that either ACA is hopelessly incompetent, or the government
is covering up the scandal. Common sense tells us that the latter is the
case, and this is borne out by the following facts.
Former Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim (now jailed), in his report to the
police on 22nd July 1999 (Report No 19625/99), accused Mahathir point blank as
the man who directly controlled then Managing Director Eric Chia whose
stewardship of Perwaja was the cause of this investigation. Anwar stated
in his police report:
¡§He (Eric Chia) in fact repeatedly claimed that his actions had the support
and under the directions of the Prime Minister Dato Seri Dr. Mahathir. And
this is further substantiated with letters written by the Prime Minister
himself. With the so-called mandate, the Board was sidelined, tender
procedures were blatantly ignored and there were questionable,
“unsatisfactory” payments made to certain parties.¡¨
Through this police report, Anwar had practically accused Mahathir as the head
of the Mahathir —Eric Chia axis which caused the Perwaja disaster through
improprieties. These surely were accusations of the gravest nature
directed at the head of a government, by the former deputy head of the same
government, made through the foremost law-enforcing agency (the police), and
involved the biggest financial scandal in the country’s history (the losses
are equal to one tenth of the national budget).
Lim Kit Siang, then Opposition Leader, had rightly and promptly attempted to
move a motion in Parliament to debate this issue and called on the Prime
Minister to give his account there. As could be expected, Lim’s motion
was barricaded from Parliament by the”dutiful” Speaker, who rejected the
motion on the ridiculous ground that it was “not urgent.”
Until today, Mahathir has not answered these accusations. Neither is the
police (or ACA) known to have taken any action on Anwar’s police report.
If Mahathir has been innocent, wouldn’t he have welcomed the opportunity of a
parliamentary session to declare his innocence and wouldn’t the police or ACA
have promptly acted to expose the accuser (Anwar) as a terrible liar?
The conspiracy of silence among the principal himself (Mahathir), Parliament,
police, ACA and the ever-compliant press and broadcasting stations in the face
of such serious tainting of PM’s reputation can only mean one thing: the
principal is guilty.
There is only one honourable way out for the Prime Minister, and that is to
resign. For, even in the unlikely event that he is not personally
entangled in this scandal, he is still guilty of unpardonable negligence, for as
the Cabinet Minister directly in charge of the ACA, he must take full
responsibility for ACA’s utter and inexcusable failure to come up with any
meaningful result on such a colossal scam, after investigating it for such a
long period.
Kim Quek.