Power corrupts and that is true of anybody. The more absolute the power the more corrupting. The period after the last General Elections when Barisan National won 85% of the parliamentary seats was a bad time for Malaysia. When there was no effective voice in parliament to question and demand accountability, the ruling party was free to unleash gross excesses and abuses on the society. One by one, the checks and balances of democracy were removed. The cornerstone of democracy, a free press was squashed. The mass media has never dared to criticise the government much, but there is a difference between being passively uncritical and being used as a subservient tool and a propaganda machine as now. The Judiciary, the Attorney-General's Office, the Police, the ACA which should have been guardians of democracy have become savage dogs of the ruling party to be unleashed against political enemies. Even the reserve power of the Sultans were removed. We have seen the sad results of this degradation in our cherished instruments of democracy in the surge of economic and judicial abuses in the past 2 years. Have Malaysians been so abused that we no longer feel outrage at the rape and plunder of our society? But for keeping silent, the abuses becomes worse and worse until the price becomes too heavy to pay as what happened in Indonesia. Here are a sampling of abuses which are by no means exhaustive.
1. Lim Guan Eng & Rahim Thamby Chik
Something is horribly wrong with our judicial system when a rapist is not even charged for his crime and the person demanding that justice be done is charged and jailed instead. This was what happened when Lim Guan Eng, an opposition MP criticised the Attorney-General's prosecution of an underaged girl who was victim of a statutory rape by powerful politician Rahim Thamby Chik. The AG mercilessly prosecuted Lim and secured a conviction while Rahim was not even charged. He was sentenced to 18 months jail for daring to speak out against the powerful and the corrupt. The sentence was upheld despite two appeals which shows that there is no lack of puppet judges willing to do the ruling party's bidding. 300,000 Malaysian signed a petition urging that Lim be pardoned which demonstrate the widespread sense of injustice at his conviction.
2. Anwar's Trial Under Augustine Paul
It was not a real trial but a show kangaroo court, a crude parody of justice in which the puppet judge had been ordered to find Anwar guilty of a technical point of corruption. Along the way, judge Augustine Paul showed the world just how crude a kangaroo trial can get until it became bizarre circus on the world's stage. To achieved his master's aim, judge Paul illegally restricted the defense team, prevented evidence in favour of the defendant from being admitted in court, protected his political masters from embarrassing evidence, threatened defense lawyers who put forward too good a defense and even jailed one of them for submitting conspiracy evidence involving the Attorney-General. Never has there been such a shameful trial in the history of independent Malaysia. Read "Monster of a Judge" for the full details. There is no greater anguish than cruelty and oppression perpetrated in the name of law and justice.
3. Beating of Anwar
That an ex-Deputy Prime Minister could be brutally assaulted while in a high security prison under the custody of the custodians of law and order is shocking enough, but when Mahathir suggested that it could be self-inflicted, it became too revolting to stomach. The perpetrator was not identified in an internal investigation and it took a Royal Commission of Inquiry formed under intense pressure to confirmed what everybody had known all along, that the culprit who beat Anwar in prison was the then police chief, Rahim Noor. For almost killing a man, he was treated with kid's glove, charged with a minor offense, released on bail without any surety and his trial postponed to the distant future. Perhaps he will be let off with a wrist slap when the establishment thinks that matter has been forgotten by the public. Something is sickeningly wrong with our system. Justice has been raped, sodomized and left bleeding to death.
4. Datuk Nallakaruppan
What is the penalty for forgetting to renew your license for 125 lousy bullets? For this minor infraction, Attorney-General Mokhtar deemed it such a threat to the nation's security to warrant charging Datuk Nallakaruppan under ISA which carried the mandatory death penalty. It all became clear when Datuk Nalla's attorney Manjeet Singh revealed in a sworn affidavit that his client who was a close friend of Anwar was being pressured to fabricated false evidence of sexual indiscretion against Anwar in exchange for a lighter charge. We have sunk to a new low when a man's life is used as a bargaining chip to further political aims and our AG office acts in tandem with puppet judges to make the judiciary a cesspool of lies and deceit. Datuk Nalla refused to co-operate and the charge was eventually amended to the Firearms Act. Nevertheless, he was given the savage sentence of 3 years jail after being tortured, abused and his health broken. As Datuk Nalla declared, the sentence was not for 125 lousy bullets but because he played tennis with a great man.
5. Sukma, Munawar and Mior
Is there nothing that the political leaders are not capable of in their bid to destroy one man? Should all our cherished instruments of democracy be sacrificed and abused to further their aims? The revolting story of how Sukma, Munawar and Mior were arrested, mentally tortured and forced to admit to false sodomy with Anwar will haunt our psyche for years to come. All three of them repudiated their forced confessions as soon as they were released and gave horrifying details of mental torture and abuse. We have become a modern day Stalinist State. In what must have been a bizzare example of twisted logic, Sukma's repudiated confession was accepted by Judge Arifin as evidence in Anwar's sodomy trial despite his testimony in court that it was all forced. It is a clear confirmation of the awful rot that has set in when the police, the AG's office and the judiciary can collude to trample and destroy innocent lives for the sake of a dictator who wants to find a political enemy guilty.
6. Daim's Corruption as Finance Minister
Is there anybody in Malaysia to match Daim's unholy greed for money? This money-loving billionaire is not shy of using his power as a Finance Minister to solicit money to feed his vast hunger for wealth. When he was finance minister from 1984 to 1991, Daim received money and shares from three prominent corporate figures worth hundreds of millions of ringgit. Accoding to Anwar's police report, Renong Berhad's chairman Halim Saad's letter dated April 1990 stated that he was holding about 52 million Faber Merlin. shares and 130 million Renong shares in trust for Daim. Land and General Bhd's Chairman Wan Hamzah and MAS Chairman Tajuddin similarly confirmed in separate letters at the same time that they were holding in cash RM150 million and RM70 million respectively in trust for Daim. Will the police will investigate? Don't make me laugh.
7. Rafidah Aziz - Business as Usual
For a person whom is publicly known that a prima facie case of corruption has been established, Rafidah Aziz, the Minister of Trade and Industry looks pretty secure in her job. She still cavorts round the world representing Malaysia and is very much in the public eye opening functions and trade events quite unaffected by all the fuss. Her corruption case involving the granting of millions in shares to her nephew was referred to Mahathir who promptly quashed all moves to prosecute her. This has earned him rabid dog-like loyalty from Rafidah who once pleaded impassionly for her protector not to consider stepping down. A typical case of how Mahathir keeps people on a leash. The more corrupt the person, the stronger the leash and the more Mahathir likes them. Would Mahathir go down in Malaysian history as God Protector of the Corrupt?
8. Eric Chia and Perwaja Steel
A near-monopoly market, a booming construction industry and cash payments demanded for its products, so how could Perwaja Steel chalk up accumulated losses of RM2,985 million and liabilities of RM6,939 million in 1995? Not without a lot of help from gross corruption and mismanagement. Independent auditor Price Waterhouse found many irregularities such as a payment of RM76.4 million paid to a fictitious company in Hong Kong. Another payment which smacks of scandal was the RM93 million disbursed for the Perwaja staff housing scheme in Kemaman and Gurun which worked out to an exorbitant cost of RM121,000 for a single storey terrace house in Kemaman and RM113,000 in Gurun. Despite these obvious frauds, an eyewash ACA investigation has gone nowhere and the man responsible for this financial debacle lives a leisurely life in his mansion in Petaling Jaya, free as a bird and safe in the thought that he will never be charged as long as the corrupt political leaders who acted in cahoots with him hold power. It has become a feature of Malaysian life that a person exposed for massive wrong-doings only just has to resign and all is forgiven. Meanwhile billions of ringgit in taxpayers money had to be pumped in to save the ailing steel giant, a bitter irony to the thousands of small honest businesses who had to fend for themselves when the economic downturn came.
9. Daim's CLOB initiative
After he was reinstated to the corridors of power by Mahathir, Daim's actions to increase his wealth is getting far more aggressive and daring than his earlier days. In a thinly disguised attempt to rob the holders of CLOB frozen shares, Daim had his close friend, a nobody by the name of Ali Akhbar proposed to buy up the whole CLOB shares at a massive 50%-60% discount off the market price which would have netted this robber baron at least RM2 billion in guaranteed profit. That this tiny company with a paid-up capital of RM 1 million had managed to secure all the regulatory approvals for this daylight CLOBBERY showed Daim's hand behind the scenes. Fortunately the deal was scuttled when CLOB shareholders collectively rejected this outrageous offer.
10. Muhammad Taib's Wealth
Caught with 4 million ringgit undeclared cash at Sydney airport, so what? In Malaysia's culture of political patronage, all you have to do is resign your public position and we'll just sweep everything under the carpet. Besides the cash, this ex-Mentri Besar of Selangor had revealed in his Australian trail of tens of millions worth of properties in Australia which would have taken a few hundreds of years of living on bread and water to acquire under his official salary. To appease the public, the AG slapped him with a mild charge of failing to declare assets with a maximum penalty of RM2000.00. To add insult to the AG's contempt of public intelligence, Mat Taib was charged under a defunct legislation which had already. been amended to higher penalty. But no matter, he could not even make this mild charge stick for Taib was duly acquitted. The AG said he would appeal�he did not. Now, shouldn't the IRS be interested?
11. Bridge to Indonesia
A fabulous fairy-tale bridge to Indonesia, to be the longest in the world spanning two countries across the busy Straits of Melaka. How fanciful can you get? Never mind that it is economically senseless, hugely unproductive, and a massive waste of resources to build such a gargantum bridge to connect two sparsely populated areas, but when Mahathir pronounces an idea no matter how absurd and illogical, some party must strive to show that the PM speaks words of wisdom rather than stupid nonsense. Of course the supine mass media obediently plays up any rubbish as long as it comes from the old man. Even worse some slavish sycophant may try to bring a bad idea to fruition. This time Renong took it upon itself to expand on this fantasy bridge, even doing up a model and starting well-publicised talks with Indonesia. Yes, the very same Renong responsible for 1/3 of the nation's bad debts, already almost bankrupt even before the onset of the Asian economic crisis and in no financial position to start another mega infrastructure project. Pity the crisis dissipated this project like vapour before Renong bankrupt themselves to the point of no return with it. Come to think of it, when we already have trouble with Indonesian illegals swimming across the Straits, do we want to make it easier for them? Stupid! Stupid!
12. Eusoff Chin's New Zealand Holiday
Chief Justice Eusoff Chin has Mahathir's stamp of approval. He fulfills the first criteria - being corrupt. You never know when you need a few judicial favours as you sit on the thick file of his wrong-doings. This totally perverted CJ carefully hand-picks judges for cases that Mahathir and gang must win. To feed off the legal system, he runs an influence buying ring via his wife's legal firm where the well-heeled may buy the correct judgement by filling his pockets. Judges are intimidated by Eusoff Chin's readiness to transfer them to the back of beyond when judgements displease him. In a 1996 defamation suit by Vincent Tan against an AWSJ reporter handled by V.K. Lingam, the lawyer placed Eusoff Chin in his debt by getting their families to holiday together in New Zealand. The holiday involved flights together to luxury resorts in Queenstown and Christchurch where Lingam and the chief justice posed for pictures with their arms around each other and with each other's families. Go to Pictures From An Album to view these touching "family pictures". Such revelation would have brought down a public servant in any decently democratic country. But the pictures have been on the internet almost a year and it's business as usual. Eusoff Chin even got another honorary award from the King. Where others cannot, Malaysia Boleh!
13. Rescue of Mirzan Mahathir's Konsortium Perkapalan by Petronas
It's not easy to run a shipping line. Just ask Mahathir's son, Mirzan. The market has given him a harsh lesson that this tough, competitive, cut-throat business is for hard-nosed, real businessmen, not softies like him with no track record in business. But Mirzan has something most others don't have. What he lacks in DEDICATION, he makes up for in DADDY-KASI. When you have big daddy to order the national oil company to buy up your floundering, money-losing, badly run business you don't have to pay the price of your lack of business acumen and stupidity in buying up somebody's old rusting ships at high price. You may even get away with a tidy sum of cash in your pocket. And the next time you stumble, the taxpayers will be ready to pick up the tab. Daddykasi again.
14. Bailout of Renong
"Renong is responsible for 30% of the nation's non-performing loans", so Halim Saad proudly announced. Of course he can be smug about it. In Bolehland, you do not have to pay the price of failure from a badly managed, reckless, short-sighted, politically entangeled corporation with no proper business culture. As with all crony businesses you can keep the profits if you make any, if not the government will be ready to pick up the tab. And what a tab it was. To rescue this bankrupt company, UEM had to issue RM8.4 billion in bonds when UEM is not even worth half that amount. And don't think it's not a bailout. There's government incentives and arm-twisting to financial institutions to buy the bonds. With 10% interest on the bonds piling up every year, UEM will have to pay back RM16.6 billion at the end of 7 years. Can they get the money? Not likely even if they milk road tolls until the public screams for the next seven years. No wonder they call it a bullet repayment. And if UEM can't come up with the money we know which way the gun is pointing.
15. Ling Liong Sik's Billionaire Son
How did Ling Ling Sik's son, Ling Liong Hee acquired RM1.2 billion in corporate assets at the tender age of 27 without any track record in business and in the space of a few months? After all not too long ago, he was languishing in the jungles of Sarawak working as a project manager for Uncle Ting of Ekran. Perhaps his Minister father should give us all a lesson on how to achieve such fabulous wealth so fast. Was he a nominee for his father who would be seriously embarrassed to own up to such wealth on his government salary? A report was lodged with the ACA but don't expect charges anytime soon. In fact, don't expect charges any time at all as long as the depraved BN holds the reins of power. Malaysians are known to be tolerant of abuses, but this one raises the bar to new heights.
16. Daim's Bank Merger Asset Grab
One would think that at his age and his untold billions, money would by now be secondary to Daim. After all you can't take it with you when you meet your Maker can you? But not to Daim whose rapacious greed knows no bounds. Now firmly entrenched in the corridors of power as Finance Minister, Daim hatched a plan to consolidate all the country's commercial banks, merchant banks and financial institutions into six major groups by shotgun marriages. Of the six anchor banks selected, none is more telling than Daim's tiny Multi-Purpose Bank which was set to swallow three bigger institutions including the newly-merged RHB-Sime Bank, which is eight times larger than Multi-Purpose Bank. If this forced merger had gone through, MPH share will rise from 1% to 24% of nation's banking assets. It's bold, it's brazen and it doesn't pretend - only the fear of losing an election prevented this grotesque exercise from being consummated. Who knows what will happen should BN be returned with 2/3 majority? As for Daim, his chronic hunger for money is a psychological illness that he would be well advised to seek treatment.
17. Mahathir's Palace in Putrajaya
It's huge, it's gaudy, it's sumptuous�Mahathir's Palace in Putrajaya is a fantastic, residence he built for himself as a monument to his megalomania. Claiming in parliament that it only cost RM17 million, one wonders whether this modest sum would be enough to pay for the fencing and the landscaping. The actual cost may be in excess of RM200 million, an abuse of public money that is all the more galling in the economic downturn. Small wonder that the public has never been treated to pictures of his ostentatious palace in the controlled mass media for this modern day pharoah knows all too well that he had overstepped the bounds of public decency with his gross creation. There are whisperings on the grapewine that when he retires the government will present the palace to him as a gift from a "grateful" nation. Or should we say a robbed, clobbered and sodomized public?
18. Jailing of Murray Hiebert
What did Murray Hiebert, a Far East Economic Review journalist wrote to justify being charged for "destroying the integrity of the court" and jailed 3 months? Did he anger Mahathir? Did he praise Anwar? No, Hiebert merely wrote about the merits of a court case involving a mother's suit against an international school for dropping her son from the debate team. All Hiebet wanted to emphasized was that Malaysia is getting more litigious although not at the level of the U.S. yet. For this mild article in careful polite language, he was dragged to court and sentenced to jail as if he had damaged the super-fragile integrity of the court. But the real reason for the court's pretend outrage was far more chilling and sinister for it exposed the deep rot of the Malaysian judiciary. The vindictive mother in question was angered by Hiebert's article because it showed clearly the frivolous nature of her suit and petitioned the court to cite Hiebert for contempt. She happened to be the wife of Sri Gopal Ram, an appeals court judge close to Chief Justice Eusoff Chin. When Eusoff Chin wanted a certain decision, no judge dare throw out the case. The ball was set in motion and when it stopped rolling, it would end up in the court of world opinion which castigated Malaysia for this piece of backyard justice. The sentence was all the more puzzling as it came on the eve of APEC and the Commonwealth Law Conference. The appeal court could have easily overturned the lower court, but by then the rot in the judiciary was too far gone to correct itself.
19. Bank Bumiputra the Politicians' Personal Piggy Bank
For much of its checkered history, Bank Bumiputra is has been operating as the piggy bank of the powerful and the corrupt. However this is a piggy bank where loans are easily forgiven if you have certain "connections". For the past 12 years this 100% government owned bank had to be bailed out with taxpayer's money 3 times to the tune of RM4.5 billion. The recent merger of Bank Bumiputra with Commerce Asset was yet another bailout, the fourth. This mating of a sick bank with a healthy well-run bank to prop up the sicko was accomplished by Danaharta buying BB's bad debts of RM6 billion at face value when other better, more deserving banks had to take a haircut of up to 60% on their non-performing loans. So as usual, BB did not have to pay the price of their reckless, politically motivated lendings, the taxpayers did. Perhaps we'll now have an even bigger piggy bank for the politicians' needs. Was that the idea of saving Bank Bumiputra all along?
20. Kedah Land Reclamation Project and Northern Region Airport
Never mind that Kedah has lot's of flat land, you don't ask too many questions when personal interests are involved. Besides, what's RM30 billion to pour into the sea to show that Malaysia Boleh? And when we have poured in all that taxpayer's money to get from the sea what we have plenty on the mainland, what shall we do with it? It must be huge�and expensive so that we UMNO greedy politicos can gorge ourselves big. How about an airport costing another RM10 billion? We'll call it an "airport in the kampung". And just in case there's it may be under-utilised, we'll close down Penang airport for good measure. So there goes another senseless mega project thinly disguised as development but no more than a scandalous vehicle to enrich those in power and their cronies. Fortunately the Asian crisis shelved this outrageous plan to take the public for a wildly expensive ride, but it is just waiting in the backburner to spring up anew as soon as the economy recovers. If BN wins the elections that is.
So here we have a sampling of the worse abuses that have been inflicted on a helpless public? What can we as ordinary citizens do about it? We have no mass media to voice our grievances, insufficient representation in parliament to object to the abuses, no right to hold public protest gatherings and no independent court to challenge the abusers. But there is something we can do: we can use our vote to send a resounding message to the morally bankrupt government.
We must VOTE NO to corruption, NO to cronyism, NO to injustice, NO to judicial subjugation and NO to protection of the corrupt. We must give the opposition more voice in parliament to function as a check and balance on the government. We must deny the BN 2/3 majority or we are in grave danger. We must use our votes wisely for this elections is our chance to steer the ship of our country against the howling winds of corruption and oppression back to the correct course.