A Kadir Jasin

PEMBAHAS Zed-85 dalam komen 12.52AM menulis: “Sekadar perbandingan, dahulu Anwar berjawatan TPM disabitkan kesalahan didapati bersalah dalam rasuah walaupun tidak ada nilai satu sen pun dalam kesalahan.

[PERINGATAN: Komen guna “Anonymous” tidak akan disiarkan. Sila guna Google Account atau Name/URL. Boleh pakai nama samaran.]

Sekarang ini terdapat lebih RM2 ribu juta yang dipersoalkan dalam siasatan.

Kita mungkin boleh anggapkan ini adalah "Stress Test" untuk sistem yang sedia ada sama ada prinsip "Nobody is above the law" benar-benar berfungsi di negara (kita).”

Ramai orang mempunyai sentimen yang serupa dengan pembahas Zed-85. Tetapi ramai terkejut dan berasa tidak masuk akal apabila timbul cakap-cakap dan ramalan bahawa Perdana Menteri Mohd Najib Abdul Razak mungkin menghadapi tindakan undang-undang.

Kemungkinan ini menjadi semakin jelas apabila dakwaan akhbar Wall Street Journal (WSJ) bahawa beliau pernah mempunyai simpanan AS$681 juta (kira-kira RM2.6 bilion) tidak dinafikan, sama ada oleh beliau sendiri atau oleh bank yang dinamakan, iaitu AmBank Berhad.

Sama ada akaun berkenaan masih cergas, tidak aktif atau sudah ditutup bukan isunya. Persoalannya ialah Mohd Najib pernah ada RM2.6 bilion dalam akaun itu.

Dalam posting Facebooknya, beliau sekadar berkata: “Let me be very clear: I have never taken funds for personal gain as alleged by my political opponents – whether from 1MDB, SRC International or other entities, as these companies have confirmed.”

(Biar saya katakan dengan jelas. Saya tidak pernah ambil tabungan untuk kegunaan peribadi seperti yang didakwa oleh musuh politik saya – sama ada daripada 1MDB, SRC International atau pihak-pihak lain seperti yang telah disahkan oleh syarikat-syarikat ini.”)

Sampai hari ini beliau tidak menafikan bahawa akaun atas nama beliau dengan simpanan AS$681 juta itu pernah wujud, tetapi ditutup tidak lama selepas pilihan raya umum 2013.

Kalau akaun itu tidak wujud, apa susahnya beliau sekali gus menafikannya atau AmBank menafikan yang akaun atas nama Mohd Najib itu tidak pernah wujud. Tetapi yang lebih utama bukan kewujudan akaun itu tetapi daripada mana datangnya dana AS$681 juta itu dan apa kegunaannya.

Sebaliknya beliau dan penyokong-penyokong beliau membuat laporan polis terhadap WSJ dan peguam beliau mengutus e-mel kepada penerbit WSJ di New York “meminta akhbar itu mengesahkan sama ada ia mempertahankan laporan itu atau tidak” dalam masa 14 hari. Ia dilihat sebagai langkah melengah-lengahkan kerana WSJ telah pun secara terbuka berkata ia mempertahankan dakwaan terhadap Mohd Najib itu.

Sejarah Mengajar Kita

Sesiapa yang mengetahui sejarah atau tidak lupa sejarah tentu tahu bahawa sudah ramai orang politik dituduh di mahkamah kerana rasuah, salah guna kuasa dan pecah amanah. Ada yang didapati bersalah dan ada yang tidak.

Jadi kemungkinan Mohd Najib dihadapkan ke mahkamah bukanlah sesuatu yang luar biasa. Cuma belum ada Perdana Menteri yang diseret ke mahkamah atas tuduhan jenayah sebelum ini.

Sejak zaman Almarhum Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra lagi berlaku kes pecah amanah, rasuah dan salah guna kuasa melibatkan orang kanan politik. Ada yang berakhir di mahkamah dan ada yang tidak, tetapi umumnya ahli politik yang terbabit meletakkan jawatan. Antaranya adalah:

1. Allahyarham Abdul Rahman Talib, Menteri Pelajaran merangkap Menteri Kesihatan dalam Kabinet Tunku pada tahun 1964. Beliau kalah kes sivil melawan S.P. Seenivasagam yang memberi implikasi bahawa beliau terlibat dengan rasuah. Allahyarham mengundur diri daripada Jemaah Menteri.

2. Menteri Besar Perak, Allahyarham Ahmad Said didedahkan memiliki hampir RM1.2 juta. Daripada jumlah itu RM330,000 dirampas kerana didapati diperoleh secara rasuah. Beliau meletakkan jawatan pada Februari 1970.

3. Menteri Perumahan, mendiang Khaw Kai Boh diarah berundur daripada menjadi anggota Kabinet pada September 1970.

4. Pada era Allahyarham Tun Hussein Onn, seorang pemimpin politik yang sangat berpengaruh dan dipuja umum, iaitu Allahyarham Harun Idris dihadapkan ke mahkamah atas tuduhan rasuah, didapati bersalah dan dipenjarakan enam tahun. Beliau mendapat pengampunan diraja apabila Dr Mahathir menjadi Perdana Menteri pada tahun 1981.

5. Kata orang putih, “the stake became higher” pada zaman Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad apabila Timbalan Perdana Menteri, Anwar Ibrahim dihadapkan ke mahkamah atas tuduhan rasuah (salah guna kuasa) dan liwat.

6. Banyak lagi kes di mana pembesar politik dituduh di mahkamah kerana rasuah seperti Kasitah Gadam (dibuang kes), Tun Ling Leong Sik (buang kes) dan Mohd Khir Toyo (didapati bersalah/tunggu keputusan rayuan).

7. Ada kes-kes SPR/MACC yang kuat terhadap anggota Kabinet atau bekas anggota Kabinet dibakulsampahkan kerana tujuan politik.

Merenung Bola Kristal

Berasaskan fakta-fakta di atas maka adalah tidak mustahil kalau Mohd Najib dihadapkan ke mahkamah.

Daripada kenyataan Peguam Negara, Abdul Gani Patail, sejak beberapa hari kebelakangan ini, kesimpulan rambang boleh dibuat bahawa ada bukti pembabitan Mohd Najib.

Malah kenyataan bersama pasukan petugas pelbagai agensi mengenai pembekuan enam akaun bank milik pihak-pihak yang dipercayai terlibat dengan kes akaun Mohd Najib pada 6 Julai memberi gambaran mereka tidak mahu berselindung lagi.

Ini bukan calang-calang kenyataan media. Ia ditandatangani sendiri oleh Abdul Gani, Gabenor Bank Negara Zeti Akhtar Aziz, Ketua Polis Negara Abdul Khalid Abu Bakar dan Ketua Pesuruhjaya Suruhanjaya Pencegah Rasuah Malaysia Abu Kassim Mohamed.

Ia memperkukuhkan lagi bukti bahawa akaun yang didakwa oleh WSJ itu wujud!

Seperkara lagi, penubuhan pasukan bertindak itu boleh mengelak agensi-agensi terbabit daripada ditekan, dipujuk malah diperas ugut sekiranya mereka bertindak bersendirian.

Soalnya sekarang, adakah Abdul Gani bersungguh mahu menghadapkan pihak-pihak yang terlibat, termasuk Mohd Najib, ke muka pengadilan?

Beban Maklumat

Beban beliau sangat berat kerana maklumat yang ada di tangan beliau, juga ada di tangan badan-badan penyiasat seperti Polis, SPRM dan Bank Negara.

Selain itu, sebahagian maklumat dan dokumen berkaitan telah pun bocor dan jatuh ke tangan pihak ketiga, termasuk media massa asing.

Kalau Mohd Najib tidak dituduh sedangkan ada bukti yang kukuh, satu dunia akan ketawakan kita dan sahlah kita tidak serius membanteras rasuah dan salah guna kuasa di peringkat tertinggi.

Peguam Negara terpaksa meyakinkan Polis, SPRM dan Bank Negara mengapa pendakwaan tidak dilakukan. Kalau tindakan tegas tidak diambil, ia akan menyebabkan pegawai-pegawai yang bertungkus-lumus menyiasat dan mengambil risiko, berasa putus asa dan hilang semangat. Dan mereka mungkin bercakap kerana mereka tidak mahu dituduh bersekongkol atau tidak cekap.

Beban yang sama beratnya dipikul oleh orang seperti Timbalan Perdana Menteri Muhyiddin Mohd Yassin kerana beliau juga mempunyai maklumat yang sama dan berkuasa untuk melakukan sesuatu.

Beliau perlu segera bertindak dengan berani dan tegas kalau mahu menyelamatkan negara daripada krisis imej dan keyakinan yang semakin meruncing yang telah merebak menjangkiti ekonomi dan kesejahteraan rakyat jelata.

Wallahuaklam.

A Kadir Jasin

SEORANG ibu tunggal. Miskin. Ada dua orang anak. Yang bongsu sihat. Yang sulung dilahirkan sempurna, tapi jadi cacat akibat demam panas. Makan cecair melalui tiub - intravenous feeding.

[PERINGATAN: Komen guna “Anonymous” tidak akan disiarkan. Sila guna Google Account atau Name/URL. Boleh pakai nama samaran.]

Perlukan tiub bersekali butang penutup. Perlu diganti setahun sekali. Dulu kos mesin RM700. Sekarang RM742 kerana GST.

“Orang miskin macam saya pun kena bayar GST,” rintih si ibu tunggal itu.

Sebuah cerita derita daripada berjuta. GST cukai terangkum simpul mati. Tiada siapa terkecuali. Siapa berbelanja dia kena. Tak kira si miskin atau si kaya.

GST buat Fitch gembira. Naikkan rating hutang negara. Hasil kerajaan bertambah. Rakyat jelata susah. Perniagaan turut terima padah.

Persatuan Peruncit Malaysia (Malaysia Retailers Association (MRA)) kata, pertumbuhan jualan makin kecut. Pengguna makin takut.

Mereka turunkan unjuran kali ketiga untuk tahun semasa kepada empat peratus saja.

Pengguna enggan berbelanja. Kos sara hidup yang tinggi jadi punca. Kelemahan ringgit bawa bencana. Itu kata mereka.

Ibu tunggal. Anak cacat. Beban GST. Banyak perniagaan terhenti. Itulah antara sejuta cerita derita menjelang hari raya.

Wallahuaklam.

A Kadir Jasin

KITA, rakyat Malaysia, khususnya orang Melayu, nampaknya sangat mudah dipesongkan dan sangat cepat lupa.

[PERINGATAN: Komen guna “Anonymous” tidak akan disiarkan. Sila guna Google Account atau Name/URL. Boleh pakai nama samaran.]

Kerana asyik bercakap mengenai akaun bank AS$700 juta (RM2.6 bilion) milik Perdana Menteri Mohd NajibAbdul Razak, kita seolah-olah lupa isu sebenar, iaitu penyiasatan ke atas 1MDB.

Kita kena terus tumpu perhatian kepada 1MDB kerana inilah punca masalah dan dari sinilah bermulanya jejak wang (money trail) yang berpuluh-puluh bilion itu.

Alhamdulillah, nampaknya sejak seminggu dua ini selera dan modus operandi badan-badan penyiasat telah berubah. Daripada mata kasar, nampak mereka lebih serius, bebas, terbuka dan telus menyiasat hal-hal berkaitan 1MDB, termasuk akaun Perdana Menteri (Datuk Seri) Mohd Najib Abdul Razak di AmBank Islamic.

Sampai saat ini pun Mohd Najib tidak menafikan yang akaun itu pernah wujud. Ia dibuka sebelum pilihan raya umum (PRU) 2013 dan ditutup beberapa bulan selepas itu. Beliau hanya berkata, beliau tidak menggunakan tabung negara untuk kepentingan diri beliau sendiri.

Penubuhan Pasukan Petugas mengandungi Pejabat Peguam Negara, Polis Diraja Malaysia, Suruhanjaya Pencegah Rasuah Malaysia dan Bank Negara Malaysia menambahkan keyakinan bahawa penyiasatan pada peringkat ini adalah lebih bebas, berani dan telus.

Alhamdulillah, Peguam Negara (Tan Sri) Abdul Gani Patail, nampaknya lebih gigih dan berani menyiasat. Namun kita belum boleh lagi mencurahkan air di tempayan kerana mendengar dentuman guruh di langit. Macam orang putih kata, "anything can happen" (apa saja boleh berlaku.)

Pasukan Petugas perlu membongkar dan memperjelaskan modus operandi 1MDB, khususnya yang berkaitan dengan pinjaman-pergi-balik melibatkan PetroSaudi dan pembelian penjana elektrik bebas (IPP) kerana disyaki berlaku penyalahgunaan kuasa, pecah amanah, bayaran bawah kaunter dan rasuah.

Tidak dapat dinafikan lagi iaitu 1MDB membayar harga yang sangat tinggi bagi membeli IPP tua yang hampir tamat tempoh konsesinya. Kalau konsesi mereka tidak disambung, IPP berkenaan akan menjadi harta TNB dengan bayaran RM100 sahaja.

Rakyat jelata tentu ingin tahu bagaimana sebuah syarikat Kementerian Kewangan yang menterinya Mohd Najib sendiri boleh berhutang hingga RM42 bilion dengan modal berbayar hanya RM1 juta tanpa Kabinet mengetahuinya.

Apa yang strategik mengenai perniagaan hartanah dan utiliti (elektrik dan air) sedangkan kita sudah pun ada banyak syarikat dan agensi kerajaan yang berpuluh-puluh tahun menjalankan perniagaan seperti itu - Sime Darby dan UEM dalam hartanah dan TNB dalam bidang tenaga?

Yang nampak strategik dalam erti kata yang mencurigakan ialah kerajaan menjual tanah milik negara kepada 1MDB dengan harga sampah - orang putih kata “dirt cheap” - (sekitar RM60 sekaki persegi) dan menjualnya 40 hingga 50 kali lebih tinggi. Tabung Haji, misalnya, membeli dengan harga RM2,700 sekali persegi. Kalau setakat jual-beli tanah itu bukan strategik namanya.

Ancaman Terhadap Kedaulatan Negara

Kita juga hendak tahu apakah potensi ancaman terhadap kedaulatan negara apabila 1MDB berhutang berbilion-bilion ringgit daripada pihak asing seperti International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC), PetroSaudi dan Aabar?

Apakah yang dicagarkan kepada IPIC sehingga mereka sanggup meminjamkan AS$1 bilion (RM2.7 bilion) kepada 1MDB Mei lalu?

Kita hendak tahu apakah ancaman terhadap kedaulatan negara kita apabila Singapura tahu rahsia usus niaga 1MDB di republik itu.

Pihak Berkuasa Mata Wang Singapura (MAS) tahu apa sebenarnya berlaku dengan duit 1MDB di Singapura yang pada mulanya tunai, kemudian jadi sijil harta dan lepas itu “unit”.

Kalau penyiasatan MAS tidak menemui apa-apa yang buruk tentulah Bank Negara dan media arus perdana telah mencanangkannya. Sebaliknya apabila MAS menyerahkan laporan siasatannya kepada Bank Negara, Gabenor (Tan Sri) Zeti Akhtar Aziz berkata ia adalah rahsia.

Kita takut maklumat yang ditemui oleh MAS dan pihak-pihak luar yang lain digunakan sebagai “leverage” untuk memeras ugut pemimpin kita.

Kita mahu tahu Pasukan Petugas memberi pencerahan kepada kita mengenai peranan Jho Low yang terbukti sangat akrab dengan Mohd Najib, keluarganya serta ramai lagi pembesar dan pegawai tinggi Kerajaan Malaysia.

Apakah keistimewaan “dealmaker” kelahiran Pulau Pinang ini sehingga beliau begitu bebas dan terlindung?

Jhlo Low (kiri sekali) bersama Najib dan keluarga

Kita hairan mengapa orang ini bukan sahaja sangat berkuasa dan berpengaruh malah seolah-olah tidak boleh disentuh oleh undang-undang negara sedangkan beliau adalah warganegara. Apa rahsia yang dipegangnya?

Alhamdulillah Jawatankuasa Kira-Kira Wang Negara (PAC) akhirnya membuat kenyataan umum bahawa ia akan memanggil Jho Low untuk memberi keterangan dalam siasatannya mengenai 1MDB.

Sekiranya Jho Low enggan bekerjasama, PAC wajib membuat laporan polis terhadap beliau supaya dengan itu PDRM boleh meminta bantuan Polis Antarabangsa, Interpol untuk mengesan beliau.

Kalau beliau tidak bersalah atau tidak ada apa-apa yang hendak disembunyikan, beliau tentu berani kembali ke tanah air sendiri untuk menghadapi PAC dan membersihkan namanya.

Kesan Jangkitan 1MDB

Masalahnya, 1MDB hanyalah salah satu daripada banyak isu yang menyebabkan politik dan ekonomi kita dalam keadaan kacau-bilau dan amat membimbangkan.

Ada banyak lagi isu yang menyebabkan ekonomi kita tertekan dan kita mengalami defisit keyakinan (confidence deficit) yang teruk.

Kita belum lagi mendedahkan secara terperinci apa yang telah dan sedang berlaku dalam syarikat dan agensi terpilih seperti Tabung Haji, Felda, Felda Global Ventures (FGV), SRC International Sdn Bhd, Pembinaan PFI Sdn Bhd dan tabung-tabung pelaburan seperti Kumpulan Wang Simpanan Pekerja (KWSP) dan Kumpulan Wang Amanah Pencen (KWAP).

Yang kita tahu dan sudah pun didedahkan adalah tabung-tabung pelaburan ini, termasuk Tabung Haji, telah pun memberi hutang berbilion ringgit kepada 1MDB dengan membeli bon-bon serta tanah miliknya.

Pencarum Tabung Haji, khususnya dan umat Islam amnya, tentu ingin tahu mengapa tanah TRX dijual pada harga yang sangat tinggi kepada Tabung Haji sedangkan Tabung Haji telah pun memberi pinjaman RM920 juta kepada 1MDB dengan membeli bon-bonnya.

Tapak TRX: Beli murah daripada kerajaan dan jual mahal

Kalau kerajaan hendak berjasa kepada Tabung Haji dan umat Islam mengapa tidak dijual saja tanah itu terus kepada Tabung Haji atau pada harga diskaun daripada 1MDB?

Kerana 1MDB, Tabung Haji terpaksa berbohong dan membuat tipu helah. Pengerusi Tabung Haji, (Datuk Panglima) Abdul Azeez Abdul Rahim berkata pada 26 Mei, banyak pihak berminat membeli tanah Tabung Haji di TRX dengan keuntungan sekurang-kurangnya RM5 juta, tapi sampai hari ini pun belum ada khabar berita yang tanah itu sudah dijual.

Keadaan juga tenat di FGV yang merupakan periuk nasi peneroka Felda dan keturunan mereka. FGV diuar-uarkan sebagai penanda aras IPO apabila sahamnya dijual kepada orang ramai sebelum PRU 2013.

Sekarang, selain menderita keruntuhan harga minyak kelapa sawit dan getah, FGV juga mengalami persepsi pasaran yang negatif akibat urus niaganya.

Harga sahamnya di Bursa Malaysia merudum daripada harga IPO RM4.55 kepada RM1.65 pada 10 Julai. Ini bermakna pelabur, termasuk Koperasi Permodalan Felda yang mewakili peneroka Felda telah rugi lebih 60 peratus.

Orang kepercayaan Mohd Najib di Felda, FGV

Baru- baru ini FGV mengumumkan pembelian ladang Eagle High Plantation milik orang kaya Indonesia (Tan Sri Kehormat) Peter Sandokh yang dianggap terlalu mahal oleh pelabur dan penganalisis pasaran. Sandokh adalah sahabat akrab Mohd Najib.

Sekarang FGV terpaksa menjual aset-asetnya di Amerika dan Kanada untuk menampung kos pelaburan itu serta memperbaiki kedudukan kewangannya yang goyah. Keuntungan tahun 2014 jatuh kepada RM20.21 juta berbanding RM982.2 juta tahun 2013.

Masalahnya bukan 1MDB sahaja berniaga dengan berhutang, tetapi beberapa buah syarikat Kementerian Kewangan yang lain pun melakukan hal serupa, misalnya Pembinaan PFI Sdn Bhd yang berhutang lebih RM25 bilion dengan KWSP sementara SRC International berhutang RM4 bilion dengan KWAP.

Jadi sebenarnya kalau kita faham ekonomi, perniagaan dan kewangan kita akan berasa sangat bimbang dengan apa yang sedang berlaku sekarang.

Nampaknya bukan sahaja rakyat jelata hidup dengan berhutang, tapi kerajaan dan syarikat-syarikatnya pun berhutang dalam jumlah yang sangat besar.

Hari ini hutang kerajaan sudah pun mencecah tahap maksimum, iaitu 55 peratus daripada Keluaran Dalam Negara Kasar (KDNK). Sebab itulah apabila syarikat penarafan antarabangsa Fitch menaikkan taraf hutang Kerajaan Malaysia daripada negatif kepada stabil, para pelabur tidak yakin.

Kesimpulannya, kita wajib kembali menumpukan perhatian kepada penyiasatan ke atas 1MDB kerana dari situlah bermulanya jejak wang (money trail), nawaitu yang songsang, kemungkinan pecah amanah, penyelewengan, salah guna kuasa dan rasuah. Malah ada orang kata, penderhakaan kepada negara (treason).

Wallahuaklam.

A Kadir Jasin

1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) continues to claim its victims. The primary casualties are all of us Malaysians. We are being made to suffer indignity and its contagion effects.

[REMINDER: No anonymous comments will be published. Please use Google Account, OpenID or Name/URL. Pseudonym is accepted. Please be respectful .. No swearing. Thank you]

The Finance Ministry-owned "strategic investment" company has become what, in the Malay folklore, is called “Sang Kelembai” or “Gedembai”.

Sang Kelambai is so evil and sinister that whatever it touches or touches it turns into stone.

This famous "elephant rock" is said to be the handiwork of Sang Kelembai

To cite just two examples; it touched Tabung Haji and Tabung Haji got into trouble. Its deposits thronged its offices to withdraw their savings. It touched TNB and TNB got into trouble. Investors dumped its shares.

And don’t forget, 1MDB has also been established as one of the reasons for the prolonged weakness of the ringgit in addition to the global factors.

The latest victim is an individual by the name of Badlisyah Abdul Ghani. He is the CIMB Islamic Bank chief executive officer.

Badlisyah, the latest victim of Sang Kelembai

In his enthusiasm to prove the Wall Street Journal’s expose on the Prime Minister’s billions (some RM2.63 billion to be exact) in AmBank Islamic wrong, he had to resign from his job and face internal inquiry. He could end up losing his employment benefits.

Soon after WSJ published its report on July 3, Badlisyah posted a Facebook comment, casting doubts on the authenticity of the documents WSJ used.

The US business newspaper, had among other things, alleged that some US$700 million flowed into Mohd Najib’s account at AmBank Islamic, believed to be from 1MDB.

The mainstream media and the Mohd Najib-linked bloggers (those he once called “bangang” (stupid)) went into feeding frenzy, publishing and broadcasting Badlisyah’s comment.

He subsequently released a statement admitting that his analysis was wrong and that the views expressed in his Facebook page were strictly his personal opinion.

Whether he was trying to prove his prowess as a banker or he harboured a deeper motive – like attempting to defend the Prime Minister – he paid a heavy for touching the Sang Kelembai.

In a filing with Bursa Malaysia, CIMB Group Holdings Bhd said his resignation as CEO and board member would be effective Aug 15. Earlier, CIMB group chairman Mohd Nazir Abdul Razak – a stern critic of the Prime Minister – had said in an Instagram posting that Badlisyah should not have commented on the documents as it was a technical matter and an internal inquiry had been ordered.

Until today the Prime Minister has not denied the existence of the AmBank Islamic account apart from twitting that he did not use public funds for personal benefit.

PM Give Up Party Leadership

NO, not in Malaysia. I am taking about in Romania, the home of the Dracula and once the domain of dictator Nikolai Nicolae Ceaușescu.

Its Prime Minister, Victor Ponta, had resigned as chairman of the ruling Social Democratic Party amid corruption allegation.

Blood-sucking Dracula

On Monday he was charged with fraud, tax evasion and money laundering dating back to when he was a lawyer and before he became prime minister in 2012.

President Klaus Iohannis called on Ponta to resign as premier but he refused. Ponta wrote on his Facebook page on Sunday that he was quitting the party leadership to prove his innocence. Prosecutors said some of his property has been seized pending the outcome of the case.

Ponta gave up party leadership because he wanted to prove his innocence and also because he is not a Bugis, his party is not Umno and his country is not Malaysia.

Wallahuaklam.

A Kadir Jasin

DALAM kita beraya, ramai saudara-mara, suku-sakat dan kawan-taulan kita sedang bersiap sedia untuk ke Tanah Suci mengerjakan haji.

[PERINGATAN: Komen guna “Anonymous” tidak akan disiarkan. Sila guna Google Account atau Name/URL. Boleh pakai nama samaran.]

Kalau ikut laman web rasmi Lembaga Urusan Tahun Haji (TH), penerbangan pertama musim haji tahun ini adalah pada 16 Ogos.

Sejak ditubuhkan pada tahun 1963, TH amat berjasa kepada umat Islam Malaysia. Ia bukan sahaja membolehkan mereka mengerjakan haji dengan lebih selesa malah membantu menjana ekonomi umat Islam melalui penabungan dan pelaburan.

Walaupun berlaku sekali dua penyelewengan dan salah tadbir, TH umunya diuruskan dengan baik sehinggalah terbongkar rahsia penglibatannya dengan 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) Mei lalu.

Bakal haji: Amanah mereka di bahu Tabung Haji

Sejak itu nama TH tercemar dan ia terpaksa berdolak-dalik serta berbohong dengan umat Islam dalam percubaannya menghalalkan urus niaga dengan 1MDB itu.

Ambil contoh Pengerusinya, Abdul Azeez Abdul Rahim yang juga Ahli Parlimen Barisan Nasional (Baling), yang berkata Mei lalu tanah Tun Razak Exchange (TRX) akan dijual dengan keuntungan dan ramai pembeli menunjukkan minat.

Tapi selepas hampir tiga bulan belum ada khabar berita yang ia sudah dijual sebaliknya timbul dolak-dalik yang tanah itu tidak perlu dijual kerana ia berupa pelaburan jangka panjang yang baik.

Masalahnya ini bukan calang-calang arahan dan bukan main-main punya janji. Arahan jual dibuat oleh Perdana Menteri Mohd Najib Abdul Razak sendiri dan janji untung dibuat oleh Abdul Azeez.

Abdul Azeez (kanan) orang kepercayaan Mohd Najib

Setiap hari berlalu tanah itu tidak dijual, Abdul Azeez “berbohong” kepada khalayak dan ingkar kepada Perdana Menteri.

Hakikatnya, dalam keadaan sekarang dan dengan kontroversi 1MDB yang makin memuncak, tidak banyak pihak yang berani membeli tanah TH itu.

Lagipun mengapa harus beli atas tangan sedangkan masih banyak tanah TRX yang belum dijual.

TH beli tanah seluas 0.63 hektar itu dengan harga RM188.5 juta sebagai sebahagian daripada operasi rahsia untuk menyelamatkan 1MDB yang berhutang RM42 bilion dan ketandusan wang.

Selepas dipersoalkan oleh rakyat jelata yang peduli dan digerudi oleh media atas talian, TH mengaku ia bukan sekadar membeli tanah malah telah memberi “hutang” sebanyak RM920.8 juta 1MDB dengan membeli sukuk Bandar Malaysia.

Sukuk adalah surat hutang syariah dan Bandar Malaysia adalah tapak Tentera Udara Diraja Malaysia (TUDM) di Sungai Besi yang dijual murah kepada 1MDB.

TH Mangsa Manipulasi Peringkat Tinggi

Kerajaan menjual tapak TRX kepada 1MDB dengan harga sekitar RM60 sekaki persegi tetapi 1MDB menjual kepada TH pada kadar RM2,774 sekaki persegi – 46 kali ganda.

Jadi semuanya keterdedahan (exposure) TH kepada hutang 1MDB sebanyak RM42 bilion itu ialah RM1,109.3 juta (diperbetulkan).

TH sebenarnya telah “kena main” dan dianaktirikan. Ia membayar RM2,774 sekaki persegi berbanding RM2,300 yang dibayar oleh Kumpulan Wang Amanah Pencen (KWAP) di tapak yang sama.

Sentuhan Sang Kelembai 1MDB menyebabkan ramai penyimpan dan bakal penyimpan hilang keyakinan kepada TH.

Ketua Pegawai Eksekutif TH, Ismee Ismail sendiri mengaku kepada akhbar Berita Harian bahawa ramai penyimpan mengeluarkan simpanan mereka apabila rahsia urus niaga TH-1MDB terbongkar.

Simpanan bulanan merosot kepada RM40 juta dalam bulan Mei berbanding purata RM71 juta bagi empat bulan pertama tahun ini. 1MDB sudah menjadi “toxic” (beracun).

Tambah membimbangkan ialah Ismee juga adalah ahli lembaga pengarah 1MDB. Nampak wujud percanggahan kepentingan (conflict of interest) dan unsur persekongkolan.

Inilah bencana sumpahan Gedembai 1MDB ke atas TH. Badan Islam itu terpaksa berbohong dan bersembunyi-sembunyi dengan para penyimpannya dan dengan seluruh rakyat jelata.

Jadi apa yang ditakuti dan dipertikaikan oleh banyak pihak apabila Abdul Azeez dilantik menjadi Pengerusi TH pada tahun 2013 kini menjadi kenyataan.

Sumbang Mahram Korporat (Corporate Incest)

Ciri-ciri sumbang mahram korporat yang melibat Mohd Najib, Abdul Azeez dan Ismee ini terbukti merosakkan, di samping mempersenda urus tadbir korporat (corporate governance) dan kewibawaan pengurusan entiti-entiti yang terlibat.

Ismee juga ahli lembaga pengarah1MDB

Walaupun kekusutan membabitkan 1MDB dan entiti-entiti lain yang bersekedudukan dengannya boleh dirungkai melalui “corporate restructuring” (penyusunan semula korporat), tetapi nawaitu yang membawa kepada penubuhan 1MDB tidak boleh dilupakan begitu saja.

Apakah niat sebenar Mohd Najib dan para penasihatnya (termasuk Jho Low) menubuhkan 1MDB dengan modal berbayar RM1 juta tetapi berhutang hingga RM42 bilion?

Di manakah amalan urus tadbir mengenai “debt to equity ratio” (nisbah hutang kepada modal)?

Di manakah ciri-ciri kecukupan modal (capital adequacy)?

Jawapannya diberikan oleh Mohd Najib sendiri apabila beliau tidak menafikan akaun AmBank Islamic atas nama beliau yang pernah mengandungi simpanan RM2.63 bilion.

Setiap hari berlalu dan Mohd Najib membisu mengenai akaun itu, semakin ramai orang akan membuat andaian dan percaya wujudnya pertalian antara urus niaga luar biasa 1MDB dan berbilion ringgit wang 1MDB yang tidak dapat disahkan (unaccounted for).

Adalah hak dan budi bicara beliau serta jentera propaganda beliau mencetuskan pelbagai tipu-helah bagi meyakinkan audiens yang tidak tahu apa-apa mengenai ekonomi, perniagaan dan kewangan canggih.

Tetapi rakyat jelata yang celik ekonomi, perniagaan dan kewangan tidak boleh diyakinkan lagi. Mereka boleh membezakan antara kaca dan permata.

Wallahuaklam.

A Kadir Jasin

UPDATE - ON political ground and, for political reason alone, Mohd Najib would not step down as Umno President and Prime Minister. But he would be forced to step down if it is proven in the court law that he is implicated in criminal wrongdoings relating to 1MDB and other institutions. The arrest and remand of a 39-year old executive director of a Bursa Malaysia-listed property company, believed to be a Chinese Malaysian, could (I repeat COULD) be the beginning of that legal process. The company’s chairman is believed to be an Umno MP and an ally of the Prime Minister.

ORIGINAL POST

THE BLOCKING of the whistle-blowing UK-based Sarawak Report by the Malaysian Communication and Multi-Media Commission (MCMC) on July 20 is another example of the many faces of Mohd Najib Abdul Razak as Prime Minister.

[REMINDER: No anonymous comments will be published. Please use Google Account, OpenID or Name/URL. Pseudonym is accepted. Please be respectful .. No swearing. Thank you]

He may be weak and ineffectual, but there are still enough people – the latest being the once sensible Ahmad Shabery Chik – clamouring to serve him for power and cash. Cash, said Mohd Najib, is king.

The Prime Minister is a man of many policies, programmes and slogans. He is, by his own reckoning, a transformational leader. So he transforms.

It is his ability to transforms that makes it hard to pin him down and shoo him away from the Prime Minister’s office. He is unlikely to pack up and go anytime soon.

Let us consider the following:

1. He started his transformational initiatives by launching the 1Malaysia concept soon after he became Prime Minister in 2009 with the slogan “people first and performance now.”

2. On that basis he declared himself Malaysian first and attached the 1Malaysia label to all things possible. So there were the “salam 1Malaysia” greeting, 1Malaysia shops, 1Malaysia clinics, 1Malaysia people’s housing and, last but not least, 1Malaysia Development Berhad.

Has not lived up to people first, performance now

3. Then there was the New Economic Model, his answer to the New Economic Policy (NEP), which was founded on inclusiveness - hence the declaration “I am the Prime Minister for all” and “the government does not know all."

4. To replace (Tun) Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s Islam Hadhari he launched the Wasatiyyah or "middle of the road" concept - the Arabic version of his "moderation”.

The Transformation of the PM

I had been speaking in past tense because that is what has become of Mohd Najib. He had transformed. Consider the following:

A. His 1Malaysia slogan of “people first, performance now” has been rendered hollow as a result of the sputtering economy and the burdensome Goods and Services Tax (GST). Now it looks more like “Mohd Najib first rakyat later.”

B. From being Malaysian first he had transformed himself into a “Pahlawan Bugis” (Bugis warrior). In his April speech at the presentation of the Government Transformation Plan (GTP) and the Economic Transformation Plan (ETP) 2014, Mohd Najib alluded to his Bugis ancestry saying that a Bugis would not abandon his ship even though it was battered by giant waves, its rudder broken, its sails torn to shreds and the ship is finally swallowed by the ocean. A Bugis would toil on instead of returning to the harbour. (In 2005, as Deputy Prime Minister, he was bestowed the Bugis highest award of the “I Mappadulung Daeng Mattimung Karaeng Sandrobone Sultan Abdul Jalil”).

The making of a Bugis Warrior

C. From being one of us via his inclusiveness, he distance himself from us by bragging about his blue blood. When speaking at a gathering in Kuching on June 4, he declared that he would not be disheartened because the blood in his body was no ordinary blood.

D. From the Prime Minister for all he has become the Prime Minister for members of the Cabinet, the Umno Supreme Council, the Umno Liaison Chairmen and the Umno divisional heads. They number less than 300.

He thrives on love

E. His inclusiveness has change into exclusiveness. He is concerned only with those who support him.

So, since Mohd Najib is concerned with only these few people, why should he want to step down even if the majority of the rakyat want him gone?

Mohd Najib is not concerned with the majority, especially the 52-per cent who voted for the opposition in the 2013 general elections.

His position now is determined by the 300 or so Umno warlords and Cabinet members. Only the Umno Supreme Council, the state liaison chairmen and the divisional chiefs can remove him. If he loses their support he loses the privilege to remain Prime Minister. But they are unlikely to revolt because they are beholden to him.

Fighting Separate Battles

So (Tun) Dr Mahathir Mohamad, the bloggers, Sarawak Report, the opposition, the Whatsapp chat groups, the Instantgramers and the Facebookers can shout and scream, and even claim victory but Mohd Najib will stay.

We are fighting two different battles in two separate battlefields.

Those who want the truth about 1MDB, a stronger economy and a respectable country are fighting in the battlefield of public opinion.

They may be winning but they do not have the power to remove the Prime Minister – at least not until the next GE.

Mohd Najib and his exclusive club of supporters may not be winning the public opinion battle but they have the political power – at least until the next GE.

Unless there is a revolt by Umno akin to the storming of the Bastille by the hungry and angry Frenchmen and women in 1789 that saw King Louis XVI and his inconsiderate wife, Marie Antoinette, being sent to the guillotine, Mohd Najib will stay.

He does not need the teeming nation to support him. He only needs theCabinet ministers, the Umno chiefs, the mainstream media and the hangers-on to be loyal to him, even superficially.

Pemuda Umno is making sure he does not fall

And with the power vested in him by the 48-per cent Barisan Nasional voters during the 2013 GE he can continue to rule come rain or shine until the next general polls.

That’s the reality for now.

Footnote: This is my 1,000th article since I started this blog in 2006. Thank you for your support.

Wallahuaklam.

A Kadir Jasin

I BELIEVE the chips are falling in the 1Malaysia Development Berhad scandal.

[REMINDER: No anonymous comments will be published. Please use Google Account, OpenID or Name/URL. Pseudonym is accepted. Please be respectful .. No swearing. Thank you]

I believe too, albeit with slight reservation, that the 1MDB Task Force is serious about uncovering the truth and acting, without fear and favour, against the guilty parties.

My slight reservation is based on my observation of media statements that suggest a certain member of the Task Force is still playing "kayu tiga".

But with two arrests in two days, the Task Force cannot be engaging in play acting or an act of deceit involving the Attorney General, the police, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Agency and Bank Negara. They have to be serious.

On July 20, an executive director of a publicly traded construction company was arrested at KLIA as he was about to board a plane bound for Taiwan.

The 39-year old is believed to be a Chinese Malaysia. He has been variously identified as Jerome Lee Tak Loong and his company is Putrajaya Perdana Berhad.

If the information is correct, his arrest has another twist to it. According to the company’s official website, its chairman is (Datuk Panglima) Abdul Azeez Abdul Rahim, the Barisan Nasional MP for Baling and the chairman of Tabung Haji. Tabung Haji is one of the many government agencies embroiled in the 1MDB debt saga.

The 39-year old must be a very important person in the 1MDB saga because his lawyer is the high-profiled (Tan Sri) Muhammad Shafee Abdullah. Not every Dollah, Tong and Harishan (the Malaysian version of Tom, Dick and Harry) can afford or would need his services.

So logically Lee’s arrest must have been very significant to the case so as to warrant Muhammad Shafee’s services.

Media reports quoted Muhammad Shafee as saying that his client was remanded for fours day for investigation under Section 17 (a) of the MACC Act. He said he did not know the grounds for his client's arrest but was told it was on "investigation on national grounds".

Then yesterday afternoon a high level executive identified as (Datuk) Shamsul Anwar Sulaiman was also arrested and was this morning remanded for five days in relation to the same investigation.

He is the managing director of Ihsan Perdana Sdn Bhd, the company that undertakes corporate social responsibility (CSR) programmes for 1MDB's charity foundation, the Yayasan 1MDB.

Ihsan Perdana was one of the entities mentioned in the Wall Street Journal expose of July 2 as being part of the money trail involving billions of ringgit that led to Mohd Najib's personal accounts.

The MACC prosecutor Ahmad Sazilee Abdul Khairy today said that Shamsul, 54, was met at The Curve and taken to the agency's headquarters where he was arrested under Section 17 (a) of the MACC Act.

Is the PM’s Propaganda Backfiring?

Sources said the arrests were partly hastened by the heightened campaign to discredit the investigation by Mohd Najib’s propaganda machine.

Mohd Najib’s propaganda outfit, led by his Strategic Communications Chief, MP Abdul Rahman Dahlan, had gone on high gear to discredit the Prime Minister's critics and to create doubt about official and unofficial investigations into the 1MDB scandal and its link to Mohd Najib.

The latest to be rolled in the offensive was a little known Sarawak reporter by the name of Lester Melanyi who “confessed” that he knew about the “falsification and adulteration” of 1MDB documents by Sarawak Report (SR), a claim which had since been rubbished by the latter. In addition, SR is taking legal action against Abdul Rahman, the New Straits Times and others for malicious falsehoods.

The emergence of Abdul Rahman and the rolling out of Melanyi and other unknowns coincided with the news that the high-profiled public relations man, (Tan Sri) Lim Kok Wing had hastily resigned as Mohd Najib’s media adviser.

Lim’s resignation is telling. It appears that even he could not burnish Mohd Najib’s sagging reputation. I have known Lim since the 1970’s. He was involved in the advertising aspect of Barisan Nasional’s election campaign over several general elections. In my days, editors did not always agree with him or his role. Some barely tolerated him.

In joining Mohd Najib he must have thought he could repeat and replicate what he did for (Tun) Dr Mahathir. But even in the worse of circumstances, Dr Mahathir’s problems were pale by comparison to what Mohd Najib is going through now. Even the flamboyant Lim could not burnish Mohd Najib’s image and reputation.

Lim is wealthy and has reputation to protect. He could easily say no to Mohd Najib’s money or, maybe, he was doing it for free.

Before Lim jumped onto Mohd Najib’s media bandwagon, many seasoned media and PR personalities had tried to build and burnish his image. They failed and gave up. (Tan Sri) Jalaluddin Bahaudin aka Jalal was one of them. He was Dr Mahathir’s former Press Secretary and Special Assistance.

Medium Is The Message

Now the PM and his protectors (the likes of Abdul Rahman and Ramesh Rao Naidu) had to rummage through the woodwork to find people who would be willing to play the roles once performed by Jalal and other seasoned media people like (Datuk) Khalid Mohamad (former editor-in-chief of Utusan) and (Datuk) Hardev Kaur (the former group editor of NST).

Mohd Najib’s predicament reminded me of the final days of Almarhum Tunku Abdul Rahman in the early 1970’s when chief editors, news editors and senior journalists progressively stopped covering his functions and leaving the task to junior reporters.

I was one of those greenhorns assigned to cover him. It was an honour for me to cover him although I was once threatened with a sack by his Political Secretary, the late Tan Sri Shariff Ahmad, for not following his instruction on how to report Tunku’s speeches.

What is happening to Mohd Najib’s media campaign today defies the very core of journalism and communication as taught by the great journalism guru, late Marshall McLuhan.

This Canadian writer, communicator and philosopher was the originator of the terms “Medium is the Message” and “The Global Village” back in the 1960’s.

He argued that the message is embedded in the medium. If the medium is credible, the message it carries will be believed. On the other hand, if the medium is not credible, even a truthful message will not be believed.

So who is a more credible medium, Dr Mahathir or Abdul Rahman, Melanyi or Clare Rewcastle-Brown, Ho Kay Tat or Ramesh Rao Naidu?

FOOTNOTE: I am sorry I forgot about the Singapore Police freezing two bank accounts relating to an investigation into 1MDB in the republic. In a statement today it said: “On 15 July 2015, we issued orders under the Criminal Procedure Code to prohibit any dealings in respect of money in two bank accounts that are relevant to the investigation.” I think the door is also closing in Singapore.

Wallahuaklam.

A Kadir Jasin

MUTAKHIR Pelik dan hairan. Macam mana orang yang dikehendaki oleh Suruhanjaya Pencegah Rasuah Malaysia dan Bank Negara tiba-tiba menghilangkan diri dan PDRM belum membuat sebarang tangkapan.

Daripada laporan media massa, khususnya media arus perdana, PDRM sangat beriltizam mahu mengorek berita daripada Andre Justo yang dalam tahanan Polis Thai. Apakah Justo begitu tahu mengenai 1MDB?

Apa matlamat Pasukan Petugas Khas – nak siasat ke mana duit 1MDB lesap atau nak dengar cerita Justo? Boleh dengar cerita Justo. Tapi duit yang lesap wajib dikesan. Itu bukan duit rakyat jelata Malaysia. Ia bukan modal Pak Arab atau duit sadakah Putera Puteri Arab.

Kita berdoa kepada Allah agar memberikan petunjuk dan kekuatan kepada pegawai-pegawai MACC, Bank Negara, Pejabat Peguam Negera dan kepada pegawai-pegawai PRDM yang berjuang atas dasar kebenaran.

Cukuplah kita berselindung di sebalik “conspiracy theories” dan menghukum pihak-pihak yang tak sebulu dengan kita. Kalau mereka salah, kita tidak semestinya benar.

Jangan sangka rakyat jelata tidak tahu. Jangan sangka semua orang boleh dibeli atau diancam. Dan yang berkuasa juga jangan sangka mereka tidak ada musuh dalam selimut.

Wallahuaklam.

ORIGINAL POSTING

NAK salahkan orang kita naik angin, emosional dan jadi tak tentu arah pun tak boleh juga. Memang keadaan dalam negara kita kacau-bilau. Politik huru-hara dan ekonomi tak tentu hala.

Tapi, alhamdulillah ada lagi orang kita yang boleh buat jenaka dan gelak ketawa. Orang Utara kata, buat lawak atau kelolo.

Kelolo, bukan koro. Koro penyakit yang serang orang lelaki sampai hilang kejantanan dan segala keberanian (Baca di sini).

Semalam saya minum teh dengan seorang ahli parlimen pembangkang. Mulai 26 Jun lalu, saya boleh minum teh dengan semua orang politik tanpa rasa ragu sebab saya tidak ada afiliasi dengan mana-mana parti politik lagi. Saya sudah jadi non-partisan.

Lagi pula, mulai 1 Julai saya tidak ada kerja atau jawatan lagi. Sudah tutup kedai. Nganggur. Orang Utara kata, sepak kertas. Orang putih kata, jobless. Selama 46 tahun makan gaji – mulai 16 Jun 1969 sampai 1 Julai 2015.

Ahli parlimen bekas Pakatan Rakyat itu bagi tahu saya, bulan puasa dia menjelajah Sulawesi - negeri orang Bugis - selama dua minggu. Dia nak belajar macam mana wilayah Indonesia itu selesaikan pertumpahan darah Islam-Kristian.

Mangsa pergaduhan agama di Sulawesi

Dia kata, orang Bugis bukan lanun seperti yang sering diandaikan, tapi satu bangsa yang sangat utamakan kebenaran.

Saya kata: "Ya lah, mana ada orang Bugis di negeri Bugis nak mengaku ada orang Bugis zaman dulu kala jadi lanun."

Itu zaman dulu. Sekarang, kalau melanun orang Somalia di Afrika Timur nombor satu. Tapi lanun boleh kata ada di semua benua. Di mana ada laut, ada lah lanun. Di darat dipanggil pencuri, perompak, penyamun, perampok dan sebagainya. Sekarang ada perampok kolar putih.

Ahli parlimen itu adalah antara yang kena sekat daripada pergi ke luar negara.

Saya kata, susah juga nak fikirkan apa alasan sebenar mereka dihalang daripada meninggalkan tanah air. Fikir punya fikir, saya mendapat ilham berikut:

1. Sekarang musim durian. Kerajaan mahu mereka tinggal dalam negara dan bantu lariskan jualan durian supaya pemilik dusun, peraih dan peruncit durian boleh cari makan, menjana ekonomi dan memacu transformasi.

2. Sekarang Tahun Melawat Malaysia. Jadi kerajaan mahu seramai mungkin rakyat jelata ambil bahagian dalam Cuti-Cuti Malaysia.

3. Sekarang nilai ringgit merudum. Kalau ramai rakyat Malaysia mengembara ke luar negara, lagi teruklah kejatuhannya.

4. Rizab luar pun merosot. Khabarnya kerana mempertahankan nilai ringgit. Kalau ramai orang kita mengembara ke luar negara dan bawa keluar duit yang banyak, lagi teruklah kejatuhan rizab dan kadar tukaran duit kita.

5. Tapi saya rasa para YB itu tidaklah kaya. Jadi banyak mana sangat yang mereka nak bawa keluar. Lagi pun elaun baru mereka, khabarnya, belum lagi dibayar. Perbendaharaan tak cukup duit kot!

6. Dalam suasana ada macam-macam teori persekongkolan (conspiracy theories) boleh jadi juga pihak berkuasa takut para YB itu pergi ke luar negara untuk sertai IS.

7. Mungkin kerajaan tidak mahu mereka ke luar negara sebab mereka akan disiasat berkenaan dakwaan konspirasi nak jatuhkan Perdana Menteri.

8. Yang lawaknya, dua orang yang Pasukan Petugas 1MDB nak tangkap dah cabut lari ke luar negara. Seorang namanya Nik Faisal Ariff Kamil (peguam) dan seorang lagi Suboh Mohd Yassin, bekas pegawai tinggi kerajaan.

Nik Faisal (atas) dan Suboh

9. Atau boleh jadi juga pihak berkuasa tak mahu mereka ke luar negara pasal takut mereka dapat lagi banyak maklumat dan dokumen berkenaan 1MDB.

Wallahuaklam.

Nasihat saya, janganlah gundah gulana sampai makan tak lalu, tidur tak lena, mandi tak basah, resah gelisah tak tentu arah. Meminjam lingo kontemporari anak-anak muda, jangan emo sangat!

Jangan risau sampai sasau. Jangan tidak ketahuan sampai kena sawan. Lagi teruk kalau kena sawan babi. Tak ada ubat. Kita emo dan susah hati pun belum tentu ada orang peduli.

Ambil iktibar daripada sejarah. Bila pembesar Perancis bagi tahu Marie Antoinette yang rakyat jelata Perancis tak ada roti nak makan, bini raja Perancis itu kata: "Biar mereka makan kek!"

Marie Antoinette amat berpengaruh

Tak lama lepas itu rakyat Perancis bangkit memberontak. Marie Antoinette dan laki dia, Raja Louis XVI kena pancung.

Dua puluh sembilan tahun lalu, Presiden Marcos lari tinggalkan negara kerana diburu rakyat jelata. Nasib baik Amerika tolong seludup. Sekarang ada muzium kasut Imelda Marcos di Manila.

Muzium Kasut Imelda Marcos di Manila

Akhir kalam, dalam kita berjenaka melegakan sesak di dada, eloklah kita fikir-fikirkan siapa yang kita mahu terajui negara di masa akan datang. Itu saja yang kita boleh buat. Kita hanya boleh berfikir dan bagi pendapat. Kuasa melantik bukan di tangan kita. Kita ada kuasa hanya waktu pilihan raya.

Kita fikirkanlah yang terbaik di kalangan yang kurang baik. Kita memilih manusia bukan malaikat. Fikirkanlah yang tahu agama dan moral, yang tidak terlalu kontroversi, tidak terlalu kaya raya dan yang anak bininya tahu tempat masing-masing.

Wallahuaklam.

A Kadir Jasin

CLOSING down newspapers, attacking websites and the IGP’s failed mission to interrogate Xavier Andre Justo in Thailand and the emerging attacks on 1MDB Task Force members are the distractions – a subplot from the movie “Wag the Dog”.

[REMINDER: No anonymous comments will be published. Please use Google Account, OpenID or Name/URL. Pseudonym is accepted. Please be respectful .. No swearing. Thank you]

In the movie, starring Robert De Nero and Dustin Hoffman, the President of the United States was caught making advances on an underage girl less than two weeks before election day. Conrad Brean (De Niro), a top-notch spin doctor, is brought in to take the public's attention away from the scandal. He decides to construct a diversionary war with Albania with the hope that the media will concentrate on this instead. Brean contacts Hollywood producer Stanley Motss (Hoffman) to create the war, complete with a theme song and fake film footages.

I would not put the Prime Minister’s communication chief, Abdul Rahman Dahlan in the same league as the film’s director Barry Levinson but the plot is near enough – to drive attention away from the tightening noose of 1Malaysia Development Berhad’s Task Force.

But what a slap in the face it was for the government when the Thais refused access to Justo to the IGP team but allowed a journalist of the Singapore Straits Times to interview him instead (Read here). As if the Thais were telling our government, if you want to know about Justo read the Straits Times.

Clearly the Thais are more willing to work with Singapore than with Malaysia on this matter. Secrets and blackmails are an evil necessity in international relations.

The IGP could have sent a wrong signal to the whole national by his instance to interrogate Justo and his dismal failure. It gave the impression that he was more interested in the Justo sideshow than in the matter at hand – the Task Force investigation – and was not influential enough with the Thais.

It may have been too late for any one member Task Force to sabotage or pervert the investigation in favour of any party. They have to play the team game or risk being exposed as renegade.

The police sudden shift of attention from the 1MDB investigation to the allegation of conspiracy to topple the PM and the role of Justo had raised concern that it was more interested the political rather than criminal aspect of the case.

The suspicion arose out of the fact that among the four members of the Task Force, the police are the easiest to the influenced because its ultimate boss, Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, is seen as the last few remaining supporters of the Prime Minister.

In fact Ahmad Zahid is seen as the man most likely to be promoted should Mohd Najib Abdul Razak decide to reshuffle the cabinet in the coming days and the most likely casualties are the Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Mohd Yassin and Rural Development Minister Shafie Apdal.

Could Attempts Have Been Made?

Attempts might have been made to force the police to act contrary to the interest of the Task Force but could not be executed because the force itself was against such an interference or because the investigation had gone to far ahead to be effectively sabotaged.

The test to this theory is to see whether the police will work with the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission and the Bank Negara to track down and arrest the people wanted for the Task Force.

The Police are yet to make their own arrest. That could be because the investigations expose abuse of power and corruption rather than crimes that the police are familiar with. The MACC has more expertise in handling abuse of power and corruption cases.

Sources said one of key suspects whom the police “were supposed to hide from the MACC” was handed over to the Commission soon after he was located. It means that political influence is waning as the noose tightens on the 1MDB perpetrators.

It might have been too late for any single person, including the Prime Minister, to divert the direction of the investigations.

A former top law officer told me a couple of nights ago that he believed the Task Force had discovered and established more than sufficient evidence to charge those responsible for the crime.

He said, the law on corruption as it applies to public servant is pretty straight forward. What he or she earns that is not her salary and allowance raises the spectre of corruption and abuse of power. Mohd Najib in a public servant.

He noted that PM has not denied that he once had a personal bank account at AmBank that, which at one point, held RM2.63 billion.

The 1MDB is no longer in the political realm and the telltale signs are clear. Mohd Najib’s defenders are reduced to junior spokesmen like Abdul Rahman and Salleh Said Keruak, Lester Melanyi and Ramesh Rao.


The video man: Lester Melanyi

Ramesh Rao: Bankrupt has money to fund Melanyi

The likes of Fuad Zarkashi, Musa Sheikh Fadzir and Ahmad Maslan have not been heard from for quite some time while the heavyweights like Hishammuddin Hussein and Mohd Nazri Aziz have been largely silence. Or are they preserving their last silver bullets?

Attacks On Task Force

This does not mean that Mohd Najib’s propaganda war has come to a halt. The suspension of the Edge group newspapers could be the beginning of kill-the-messengers strategy.

The attacks can be expected to become more vicious and might even target members of the Task Force. This could be the hara-kiri act of devotion by Mohd Najib’s cyber troupers – the very people he last year called “bangang” (stupid). In fact they have started.

If in Thailand the IGP was refused access to Justo, over in Singapore two bank accounts related to1MDB were frozen.

A former Singapore state minister told a former Malaysian minister in Kuala Lumpur a few days ago that that while Singapore “loves” Mohd Najib, it would not compromise on anything that smells money laundering.

The former law officer said everyday that passes and no charge is laid against the suspect or suspects, the Task Force is making a mockery of the law.

A point of history. When he was Deputy Prime Minister, Mohd Najib outlined six approaches that the civil servants must practise and he stressed that top level civil servants should “reduce their discretionary power in their action in order to avoid corrupt practices.” (Read here)

Yet what has been made known so far about 1MDB shows just the opposite. The PM runs the Finance Ministry, which owns 1MDB, and he is also its de facto chief by the virtue of his chairmanship of its advisory board – the highest policy making body.

And as Muhyiddin was quoted of saying on Sunday night at the Umno Cheras division’s annual general meeting that no one know about 1MDB other than Mohd Najib. (Read here)

A footnote of history: Almarhum Sultan Azlan Shah, when sentencing Allahyarham (Datuk) Harun Idris for corruption in 1976, said, inter-alia:
“It is painful for me to have to sentence a man I know. I wish it were the duty of some other judge to perform that task. To me this hearing seems to reaffirm the vitality of the rule of law. But to many of us, this hearing also suggests a frightening decay in the integrity of some of our leaders. It has given horrible illustrations of Lord Acton's aphorism 'power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely', and has focussed concern on the need of some avowed limitations upon political authority.
“...the law is no respector of persons. Nevertheless it will be impossible to ignore the fact that you are in a different category from any person that I have ever tried. It would be impossible to ignore the fact that, in the eyes of millions of our countrymen and women, you are a patriot and a leader. Even those who differ from you in politics look upon you as a man of high ideals. You had every chance to reach the greatest height of human achievement. But half-way along the road, you allowed avarice to corrupt you.

“It is incomprehensible how a man in your position could not in your own conscience, recognise corruption for what it is. In so doing, you have not only betrayed your party cause, for which you have spoken so eloquently, but also the oath of office which you have taken and subscribed before your Sovereign Ruler, and above all the law of which you are its servant".

Full article by Sultan Nazrin Shah (Read here). Harun was given royal pardon in 1981.

Wallahuaklam.

A Kadir Jasin

IN times like these, it’s understandable for the majority of the rakyat to feel despondent and pessimistic.

[REMINDER: No anonymous comments will be published. Please use Google Account, OpenID or Name/URL. Pseudonym is accepted. Please be respectful .. No swearing. Thank you]

It is the heavy duty of the optimistic few to keep the spirit up and the struggle for truth alive.

The hasty removal of (Tan Sri) Abdul Gani Patail as Attorney-General yesterday, according to legal experts, tantamount to constructive dismissal.

In their opinion, he is still legally the AG. The law of natural justice was ignored. He was removed on the presumption that he is not in good health.

That he is not in the pink of health is an open secret. But why now and with such a haste that he was removed?

It is the case of the Malay proverb “kalu tidak ada-ada masakan tempua bersarang rendah”?

Is it because he is about to charge the 1MDB perpetrator or perpetrators in court that his tenure was prematurely terminated?

The scrambling for cover was such that it creates the impression that the charging was to happen today or tomorrow.

Assuming that the case in such an advanced stage, would the “sacking” of the AG and the dismissal of Deputy Prime Minister and a couple of ministers seal the boiling cauldron?

Would it not leak or, worse still, explode and spill the 1MDB muck for the whole world to see?

The potency of the executive power may be able to stop the 1MDB muck from being exposed in the court of law, but it has no power to stop it from being tried in the court of public opinion.

So I am still optimistic that the truth about 1MDB and who is or are responsible for its unexplainable business activities and the massive flows of fund, i.e. its debts, would eventually be known.

On his part, (Tan Sri) Muhyiddin Mohd Yassin, has to act fast and furious if he does not want to disappoint the rakyat. If he buckles, the cause is lost for the majority of the people, for Umno and the Barisan Nasional.

And it will be a double whammy for the country if the oppositions, because of their internal squabbles, are unable to take over the torch.

Following is Muhyiddin full press statement:

“Bismillahirrahmanirrahim.

Alhamdulillah, saya mengucapkan terima kasih kepada YAB Perdana Menteri kerana telah memberikan peluang kepada saya untuk berkhidmat dalam pentadbiran kerajaan persekutuan sebagai Timbalan Perdana Menteri bermula 10 April 2009.

Saya juga mengucapkan terima kasih kepada semua ketua-ketua jabatan, pegawai-pegawai kerajaan, pemimpin pertubuhan bukan kerajaan dan semua pihak yang telah menyokong saya sepanjang saya menjalankan tugas sebagai Timbalan Perdana Menteri.

Saya menerima keputusan YAB Perdana Menteri untuk menggugurkan saya daripada kabinet dengan hati yang terbuka. Saya menghormati kuasa prerogatif YAB Perdana Menteri untuk melantik dan menggugurkan mana-mana anggota kabinet.

Sebagai Timbalan Perdana Menteri, saya telah terlibat secara langsung dalam pembuatan dasar-dasar kerajaan dan melaksanakan tugas-tugas yang dipertanggungjawabkan kepada saya dengan penuh amanah.

Selama saya berkhidmat, saya sentiasa mendokong semua dasar kerajaan dan menyokong kepimpinan YAB Perdana Menteri.

Kecuali dalam isu 1MDB, saya mempunyai prinsip dan pendirian saya sendiri dalam mempertahankan hak rakyat, nama baik parti dan kepentingan negara. Jika kerana pendirian saya dalam isu ini menyebabkan saya digugurkan daripada kabinet maka saya redha.

Saya akan sentiasa setia kepada perjuangan UMNO. Sebagai Timbalan Presiden UMNO, saya akan terus melaksanakan amanah yang telah dipertanggungjawabkan kepada saya dan mencurahkan khidmat bakti saya demi memperkukuhkan parti serta mengembalikan keyakinan orang Melayu dan rakyat kepada UMNO.

Kepada Allah saya berserah.

TAN SRI DATO' HJ MUHYIDDIN HJ MOHD YASSIN

28 Julai 2015

[In gist, he said: “Except on the 1MDB issue, I hold a different principle and stand in defending the right of the people, the good name of the party and the interest of the country. If because of my stand on this issue that I was dropped from the Cabinet, I am willing (redha).]

Wallahuaklam.

A Kadir Jasin

MUTAKHIR - Yang terbaru menjadi "viral" - tersebar luas - di media sosial ialah gambar apa yang kelihatan seperti kertas tuduhan (charge sheet) yang melibatkan Perdana Menteri dan seorang lagi dalam kes RM27 juta duit SRC International, anak syarikat Kementerian Kewangan. Wallahuaklam.

POSTING ASAL

MOHON sabar kalau cerita ini panjang. Sukar hendak dipendekkan. Jadi saya mulakan dengan membuat kesimpulan iaitu:

Penyingkiran (Tan Sri) Muhyiddin Mohd Yassin pada 28 Julai dan penamatan undur tarikh (back-dated) perkhidmatan Peguam Negara (Tan Sri) Abdul Gani Patail 27 Julai tidak menyelesaikan apa-apa masalah sebaliknya memburukkan lagi keadaan negara dan imej (Datuk Seri) Mohd Najib Abdul Razak.

[PERINGATAN: Komen guna “Anonymous” tidak akan disiarkan. Sila guna Google Account atau Name/URL. Boleh pakai nama samaran.]

Implikasi dua peristiwa itu serta perubahan-perubahan lain yang menyusurinya di Jabatan Peguam Negara, PDRM, Suruhanjaya Pencegah Rasuah Malaysia (MACC) dan PAC adalah seperti berikut:-

1.Perdana Menteri terselamat daripada kemungkinan diheret ke mahkamah bersabit 1MDB dan SRC International. Satu “donia” sudah dengar cerita duit SRC International yang nawaitunya untuk kegiatan CSR (tanggungjawab sosial korporat) tetapi masuk akaun peribadi Perdana Menteri.

2.Menyiasat dan merangka pertuduhan melibatkan wang CSR SRC International lebih mudah kerana jumlah yang lebih kecil dan melibatkan hanya dua buah bank tempatan berbanding 1MDB yang membabitkan AS$700 juta.

3. Mohd Najib berjaya mengekalkan kuasa eksekutif tetapi di mata khalayak yang mengerti beliau telah hilang kuasa moral (moral authority) untuk memerintah.

4. Kuasa eksekutif beliau menjadi semakin kukuh kerana pengkritik beliau dalam Umno dan kerajaan telah disingkirkan atau digula-gula dengan pemberian jawatan menteri dan timbalan menteri.

Pasukan Petugas Lumpuh

5. Sekali gus pemberhentian undur tempoh Abdul Gani memporak-perandakan penyiasatan Pasukan Petugas 1MDB. Penyiasat akan terhenti atau dialih matlamatnya, pegawai ditukar dan fail-fail hilang atau dibakulsampahkan. (TI Malaysia berkata, Pasukan Petugas itu boleh dianggap terkubur tetapi MACC berkata ia akan meneruskan penyiasatan).

6. Tetapi maklumat berkaitan dengan penyiasatan 1MDB akan terus tersebar kerana banyak pihak dalam dan luar mempunyai maklumat dan dokumen mengenainya. Sudah terlambat menimbus bangkai gajah kerana sudah ditokak-tokak dan cebisannya dilarikan singa, cheetah, harimau bintang, dubuk (hyena), rubah, hereng, biawak dan helang.

1MDB ibarat bangkai gajah

7. Dengan melantik pembesar-pembesar Umno yang kemaruk kuasa dan bermuka-muka menjadi menteri dan timbalan menteri, Mohd Najib boleh mengarahkan mereka mengesan dan membinasakan pencuri-pencuri bangkai gajah itu. Inilah yang sedang berlaku dengan rancak sekarang iaitu mengalihkan perhatian daripada menyiasat jenayah kepada memburu pihak-pihak yang mendedahkan jenayah.

8. Gerakan taktikal Mohd Najib juga melumpuhkan PAC. Hatta pengerusi PAC, Nur Jazlan bin (Tan Sri) Mohamed Rahmat, yang bunyi begitu komited, ikhlas dan berani sebelum ini tetapi dengan riang rianya menerima jawatan timbalan menteri.

9. Speaker Dewan Rakyat sudah pun berkata anggota baru PAC tidak akan dilantik (sehingga Dewan bersidang Oktober ini). Namun Timbalan Pengerusi PAC, Tan Seng Giaw, wajib meneruskan tugas dengan ahli yang tinggal sekali pun tidak mendapat kerjasama pengurusan Parlimen atau hasil siasatan mereka tidak diiktiraf.

Agen Bebas Muhyiddin Yassin

10. Dengan penyingkirannya daripada kabinet, Muhyiddin boleh bertindak sebagai free agent mewakili Umno akar umbi kerana beliau adalah Timbalan Presiden Umno.

Muhyiddin boleh jadikan Umno kembali terangkun

11.Tetapi beliau harus berhati-hati meniti buih kerana Majlis Tertinggi yang berada dalam poket Presiden boleh menyingkirkan beliau atas alasan melanggar disiplin.

12. Muhyiddin boleh menjadikan Umno terangkum (inclusive) sekali lagi dengan berinteraksi dengan akar Umbi walaupun percubaan sudah mula dibuat bagi menyekat beliau mendampingi ahli.

12. Muhyiddin dan para penyokong beliau mungkin tidak berupaya mengubah keadaan di peringkat atas sama ada dalam Umno atau kerajaan tetapi mereka boleh mengubah persepsi dan sokongan rakyat jelata dan pengundi.

13. Mohd Najib mungkin telah berjaya berpaut kepada kuasa tetapi setiap hari berlalu ekonomi bertambah goyah, ringgit dibedal, pasaran modal lesu dan Malaysia menjadi bahan ketawa satu dunia.

Menara Dua Bukit Aman dijilat api

14. Sebagai renungan, apakah berkat apabila, sebaik sahaja menteri polis ((Datuk Seri) Ahmad Zahid bin Hamidi) dinaikkan pangkat menjadi Timbalan Perdana Menteri, menara dua Bukit Aman tiba-tiba dijilat api? Satu kebetulan yang sangat menakjubkan!

Wallahuaklam.

A Kadir Jasin

PEMBAHAS RD– orang Baling kahwin wanita Kubur Panjang – mengulas: “Dr.M sudah agak lama mendiamkan diri. Yang paling saya risau dan hairan, mengapa JebatMustDie terus juga mendiamkan diri.”

[PERINGATAN: Komen guna “Anonymous” tidak akan disiarkan. Sila guna Google Account atau Name/URL. Boleh pakai nama samaran.]

Saya amat biasa dengan Baling dan Kubur Panjang; membuat liputan lawatan Almarhum Tun Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra ke Baling pada tahun 1969 dan kakak saya berkahwin orang Kubur Panjang.

Berkenaan Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, khabarnya beliau ke Jepun. Untuk JebatMustDie pula kita berdoa agar beliau sihat wal afiat dan akan kembali berkarya.

Dalam keadaan laut yang bergelora. Ombak dan badai menggila. Bahtera kita patah kemudi, terkoyak layar. Nakhoda cemas. Anak-anak kapal mengganas.

Orang yang arif mengenai hukum lautan berkata, siapa yang menabur angin dia akan menuai badai. He who sows the wind shall harvest the waves.

Siapa yang menabur angin akan menuai badai

Ketika bahtera merdeka kita dilanda badai, kemudi patah layar berkecai, nakhoda cemas anak kapal mengganas, tentulah ada pendeta dan tukang cerita yang buntu akalnya dan tumpul mata penanya.

Saya pun sekali-sekala berasa terancam juga. Maklumlah kita mentimun mereka durian. Kita menggolek kita kena, mereka bergolek kita kena.

Namun saya bersyukur. Alhamdulillah, dengan sokongan dan doa para pembahas serta pembaca, mata pena tua saya masih tidak kering dakwatnya.

Ini ceritera kaedah berperang. Musuh kita tidak kuat tetapi kita lemah, kita kalah. Musuh kita kuat tetapi kita pintar, belum tentu mereka menang. Kita kuat kerana azam. Kita berani kerana benar. Inilah peperangan mutakhir yang dinanti-nantikan pendekar dan pahlawan sebenar.

Jadi, mari menyusun seroja bunga seroja. Hiasan sanggul remaja puteri remaja. Rupa yang elok dimanja jangan dimanja. Pujalah ia sekadar sekadar saja. Sekarang bukan bermenung, zaman bermenung. Marilah kita bersama
memetik bunga.

Memancing Belida Ikan Belida

Dan kepada yang berminat memancing, biar saya ceritakan cara memancing ikan belida. Orang Kedah kata ikan selat. Orang putih kata, bronze featherback. Ada beberapa jenis ikan belida.

Ikan belida boleh dipancing

Ada orang kata, belida tidak makan pancing. Itu tidak tepat. Dengan cara yang betul, belida boleh dipancing. Ini cara yang diajarkan oleh Allahyarhamah nenek saya – tok, kata orang Kedah – masa saya kanak-kanak dulu.

Guna mata kail yang paling kecil sebab mulut belida sempit. Umpan cacing atau anak sepilai jeruk. Ketika banjir sedang naik, tengok di mana ikan keli dan baung mengorek cacing di gigi air. Turunkan mata kail lima atau enam kaki dari gigi air kerana di situ belida berenang. Kerana bentuk badannya, belida tidak boleh berenang di air tohor. Itu kerja keli dan baung. Turunkan mata kail sekaki atau dua kaki dalam. Insya-Allah dapat ikan belida.

Natijahnya, apa pun yang hendak kita lakukan mesti berbekalkan ilmu, pengetahuan dan pengalaman. Dimulakan dengan bismillah dan niat yang baik, insya-Allah berhasil.

Bahtera kita kukuh dan laju. Kemudi teguh kayu jati. Layar kuat diikat tali pedati. Tiangnya tinggi menjulang. Panji-panjinya Jalur Gemilang.

Tetapi kalau nakhoda kita “landlubber” - orang yang tidak berpengalaman di laut – takut-takut bahtera kita pecah berderai dihempas badai.

Manalah tahu, nakhoda terabai meninjau ufuk kerana memantau anak kapal sudah dirasuk. Andai tidak dipantau, dipujuk dan disogok, takut-takut mereka belot, derhaka dan terjun kapal.

Wallahuaklam.

A Kadir Jasin

The Netizen creativity: Thank you Netizen

ACCORDING a Star online report, quoting the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), the whopping RM2.6-billion allegedly channelled into personal account/s of the Prime Minister, (Datuk Seri) Mohd Najib Abdul Razak, was sourced from donations.

[REMINDER: No anonymous comments will be published. Please use Google Account, OpenID or Name/URL. Pseudonym is accepted. Please be respectful .. No swearing. Thank you]

It was not from 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB).

As my mother would say in this situation: “Awat la cik tak bagi tau awai-awai?”

In plain English: Why don’t you say so from the start?

Why did Mohd Najib and his entire brigade of spin masters have to beat around the senduduk bush?

Why can't they flog this donation story from the start?

Days before today’s MACC announcement, rumours were rife that one or several super rich Arab princes and sheikhs had “admitted” to donating a huge sum of money to Mohd Najib.

That was why in the posting entitled “Hikmah Di Sebalik Pemecatan Muhyiddin” on July 31 I made the following remark in the comment column:

“Saya pun dengar cerita seribu satu malam daripada Ali Baba Bujang Lapok yang kata, ada seorang saudagar yang sangat kaya yang ada ribu-ribu unta dan tikar terbang dari negeri Autastan, jiran Tipustan, bagi sadakah bilion-bilion dirham kepada DS Najib. Masya-Allah, banyaknya duit Sheikh unta itu. Alhamdulillah murahnya rezeki DS Najib. Shukran!”

[I had also heard the story of 1001 nights from Ali Baba Bujang Lapok, saying that there was a very rich trader with thousands of camels and a magic carpet from the nation of Autastan, neighbouring Tipustan, had presented DS Najib billions of dirhams of sadakah (alms). Masya-Allah, so wealthy is the Sheikh. Alhamdulillah, so bountiful is DB Najib’s rezeki. Shukran.]

With the turn of events being so unbelievably fast, dramatic and fantastic since the backdated termination of the services of Attorney General (Tan Sri) Abdul Gani Patail on July 27 and the cabinet reshuffle on July 28, it is hard to force the people not to speculate.

Who are these donors and why did it take such a long time for the MACC and the 1MDB Taskforce to discover that the US$700 million was from donations?

With the benefit of hindsight, the donations story and the talk about the generous Arab benefactor/s could be wholly possible. It has been publicly announced that Mohd Najib’s wife, (Datin Paduka Seri) Rosmah Mansor, is very close to the wealthy Arabs, including members of royal families.

The question is: If the unaccounted 1MDB money or debts did not go to the Prime Minister’s private account, where (corrected) did it go?

Many more questions about 1MDB's modus operandi and dealings remain unanswered.

If the money in the Prime Minister’s account/s was not from 1MDB, why didn’t Jho Low say so or why did people linked to the account/s had to run away from the country?

People who were sought by the Taskforce, including Nik Faisal Ariff Kamil and (Datuk) Suboh Mohd Yassin, should now come forward to clear the Prime Minister’ name.

As for the MACC, the whole bunch of its top echelon, starting with Chief Commissioner (Tan Sri) Abu Kassim Mohamed, should resign voluntarily for failing to discover earlier that the US$700 million in the PM’s personal account/s at AmIslamic was from donations, failing which they should be sacked!

How can they play play with the Prime Minister like that?

Hopefully we are not being presented with yet another round of silap mata and sihir in the 1MDB saga.

In Saudi Arabia, if you are found guilty of practising sihir (black magic), you can be put to death. For stealing you will have your hand chopped off.

Lying is “dosa besar” (capital sin).

Wallahuaklam.

A Kadir Jasin

WE HAVE established beyond a shadow doubt that, with the right knowledge and perseverance, we could use the line to catch ikan belida – bronze leatherback.

[REMINDER: No anonymous comments will be published. Please use Google Account, OpenID or Name/URL. Pseudonym is accepted. Please be respectful .. No swearing. Thank you]

It has also been established that Prime Minister (Datuk Seri) Mohd Najib Abdul Razak, once had RM2.6 billion in his personal account at AmIslamic Berhad.

It was further established, albeit some doubt, that the US$700-million was not from 1MDB.

The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission claimed that the money was “sourced from donations”.

Unfortunately not many people here in Malaysia and abroad believed the donation story.

Yet to be determined

1. The identity of the generous donor, who some speculated was a wealthy Arab royal or a hugely successful camel trader. There could be more than one and not necessarily an Arab or a Muslim.

2. Whether it is legal for the Prime Minister to secretly accept US$700 million in donations, which were credited into his personal account.

3. What did he used the money for? His spin-doctors are flogging the lore that it was used to fund Umno/BN and for the 2013 election campaign.

2013 GE: Did the "donations" pay for this poster?

4. If indeed the mind-boggling RM2.6-billion donations were used to fund Umno/BN and for the 2013 election campaign, would this be legal?

5. If the RM2.6 billion was distributed evenly among the 222 parliamentary seats, each should have received RM11.72 million.

6. Has all the RM2.6 billion been spent or has part of it been siphoned off and kept somewhere in one of the many offshore financial centers?

Burn the House to Smoke Out the Mosquito

In their zeal to defend their boss, the PM’s “tukang cerita” (“tukang karut” in the Dikir Barat tradition) together with the “meanstream media” (yes, they are mean) and the “bangang” bloggers have gone absolutely off the rocker.

They are demonizing all and sundry who they think are a threat to or deemed to be a threat to Mohd Najib. They don’t give a hoot if they destroy state institutions like the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Agency (MACC), the Attorney General’s Chamber and Bank Negara. They have succeeded in discrediting, demoralizing and fracturing the AG's Chamber, the MACC and the police. Now they are attacking Bank Negara.

Yet by demonizing these institutions and their leaders, these spin-doctors acknowledge that these personalities and institutions are more credible and trustworthy than the government led by Mohd Najib.

Their slash and burn tactics affirms their suicidal temperament. To them, if Mohd Najib does not survive then nobody should – not even the country.

The Sang Kelembai Touch Continues

Post-GST nasi lemak bungkus in Kelana Jaya. Compare with the spoon and my ancient Nokia

In the meantime, all indicators point towards the growing contagion of 1MDB, aka the Sang Kelembai effects, and of a weak government:

1. The ringgit is in freefall – declining to a 17-year low against US Dollar on Aug 3.

2. The Bank Negara foreign reserves had declined by more than US$40 billion to just over US$100 billion - the lowest in 5 years – partly in support of the ringgit. That amount could have been better-spent pre-paying debts. Lower debts mean stronger ringgit.

3. Capital flight in full swing. Locals and foreigners are taking their money out. For 14 consecutive weeks foreign capital flowed out of Bursa Malaysia. Last week alone foreign fund managers sold RM845-million worth of Malaysian stocks. So far this year an estimated RM11.7 billion had departed the Bursa compared to RM6.9 billion for the whole of last year.

5. GST, the falling ringgit and weak commodity prices are playing havoc with the livelihood of the people. Household income of palm oil and rubber smallholders falls, prices of good and services have gone up and inflation is on the rise.

6. And the empire is striking back as typified by the holding of a nationwide special prayer (solat sunat hajat) by the MACC officer, seeking Allah’s guidance and blessings. MACC has been the target of intimidation for its unflinching investigations into the 1MDB affairs and the Prime Minister’s RM2.6-billion private account. At the MACC headquarters in Kuala Lumpur, the prayer was led by former MACC deputy chief commissioner (Management and Professionalism), (Datuk Seri)Zakaria Jaffar and was attended by some 100 staff members.

MACC staffs sought devine guidance

And about crime and punishment, poet Kahlil Gibran, in part, wrote:

“It is when your spirit goes wandering upon the wind,
That you, alone and unguarded, commit a wrong unto others and therefore unto yourself.
And for that wrong committed must you knock and wait a while unheeded at the gate of the blessed...”

Do we look like a blessed country now?

Dan Sejarah Saksiku

24. Sebagai langkah proaktif, demi meningkatkan ketelusan dan keyakinan rakyat terhadap pertubuhan-pertubuhan politik di negara ini, kerajaan akan memperkenalkan satu lagi inisiatif di bawah GTP yang bagi tujuan mengawal “political financing”. Inisiatif ini akan beri penekanan bahawa setiap sumbangan yang ingin diberikan kepada mana-mana parti politik sama ada di peringkat pusat atau negeri hendaklah disalurkan melalui akuan rasmi parti. Ini bagi mengelakkan ahli-ahli politik menyalahgunakan nama parti untuk meminta atau menerima apa-apa sumbangan yang kemudiannya diselewengkan untuk kepentingan persendirian.

25. Setiap sumbangan yang dihulurkan perlulah dikemukakan resit penerimaan dan dimasukkan ke dalam akaun parti. Menerusi rekod penerimaan yang teratur ia boleh diaudit pada tiap-tiap akhir tahun kewangan. Kerajaan percaya inisiatif seumpama ini akan mengelakkan sebarang bentuk perbuatan rasuah dan penyelewengan di peringkat akar umbi dan manfaat kepada sumbangan dapat disampaikan kepada segenap peringkat parti dan seterusnya rakyat.

(www.sprm.gov.my/.../Majlis_Pegawai_Integriti_Bertauliah.pdf)

Mohd Najib speech at Program Pegawai Integriti Bertauliah, Putrajaya, 27-02-2012.

Wallahuaklam.

A Kadir Jasin

DARI cerita ikan Belida yang boleh dipancing kalau kita tahu kaedahnya kepada saat-saat terakhir Hitler, sejarah tidak putus-putus mengajar kita teladan dan sempadan.

[PERINGATAN: Komen guna “Anonymous” tidak akan disiarkan. Sila guna Google Account atau Name/URL. Boleh pakai nama samaran.]

Jadi izinkan saya bercerita mengenai saat-saat terakhir Adolf Hitler moga-moga kita mendapat pengajaran daripadanya.

Pada jam 12.10 tengah malam 29 April 1945, ketika di ambang kekalahan, Hitler melantik Robert Ritter von Greim sebagai Panglima Tentera Udara Jerman – Luftwaffe.

Luftwaffe adalah unit terakhir tentera Nazi Jerman yang masih beroperasi. Unit-unit lain sudah dikalahkan oleh Tentera Bersekutu yang sedang mara memasuki Berlin.

Von Greim cedera teruk apabila kapal terbang yang membawanya ke Berlin dibedil tentera Rusia.

Daripada bilik kebal bawah tanah di tengah-tengah kota Berlin, Hilter mengarahkan setiausahanya, Traudl Junge, menulis wasiat yang antara lain dia menyalahkan kekalahan Nazi kepada “pembohongan, rasuah dan pengkhianatan”.

Persembunyian Hitler:Tembok konkrit tidak boleh menyelamatkan

Kemudian beliau membuat beberapa pelantikan baru, antaranya Von Greim, setelah memecat ketua-ketua tentera dan anggota pemerintahannya.

Wanita Merosakkan Kata Hitler

Pada jam 1.30 pagi Hitler menikahi kekasihnya Eva Braun, walaupun dia pernah bersumpah tidak akan berkahwin kerana katanya, wanita mempunyai pengaruh yang merosakkan ke atas lelaki ternama. (Women have a destructive influence on great men.) Hitler dan Braun sudah berkenalan selama 14 tahun.

Hitler dan Eva Braun: Wanita merosakkan, katanya

Pada saat itu, bukan sahaja gandum sudah menjadi bubur bagi Hilter tetapi bubur sudah tertumpah ke pasir dan tidak boleh dimakan lagi.

Kira-kira jam 4.15 pagi, Joseph Goebbels, Ketua Komunikasi Strategik Hitler, teresak-esak memberitahu Junge yang Hitler dan Braun telah membunuh diri dan dia diarahkan mengambil alih pemerintahan sebagai Reich Chancellor - Perdana Menteri.

Sehebat mana pun propaganda Goebbels dan taat setianya kepada Mein Fuhrer (Ketuaku), masa tidak lagi di sebelah beliau. Pelantikan sebagai Perdana Menteri tidak bermakna lagi. Parti Nazi sudah mati dan Jerman dalam acuan Hitler sudah ranap menyembah bumi.

Pada 1 Mei, Goebbels menghantar Jeneral Hans Krebs untuk menyerah kalah kepada jeneral Rusia, Vasily Chuikov.

Kemudian Goebbels membunuh diri bersama isteri dan anak-anaknya.

Von Greim menjadi panglima Luftwaffe yang tidak ada flugzeug (kapal terbang) kerana habis musnah dibom Tentera Bersekutu.

Pada 9 Mei, dia ditawan oleh tentera Amerika dan dua minggu kemudian membunuh diri dengan menelan racun sianida (cyanide) apabila mengetahui yang dia akan diserahkan kepada pihak berkuasa Rusia.

Moral cacatan sejarah ini adalah sekuat dan sehebat mana pun seseorang pemimpin, dia akan jatuh juga apabila kuasa dan kekuatan mula memakan diri dan dia lupa bahawa ada kuasa yang lebih hebat daripada kuasanya, iaitu kuasa takdir dan kuasa orang tertindas yang berjuang penuh keazaman berlandaskan kebenaran.

Lest We Forget

Khairy: Menanam tebu di tepi bibir mengenai rasuah

"I can tell you there is political will to let [the corruption commission] to investigate as much as possible - without fear or favour - and for the Attorney General to prosecute should there be sufficient evidence." - Aljazeera.

Wallauaklam.

A Kadir Jasin

RUNNING side by side in the today’s Sunday Star, separated only by a Giant supermarket advertisement, are two very interesting articles.

[REMINDER: No anonymous comments will be published. Please use Google Account, OpenID or Name/URL. Pseudonym is accepted. Please be respectful . No swearing. Thank you]

On page 14 was a report headlined “Separate but mutually prospering” written by Singapore’s Prime Minister, Lee Hsien Loong. He was espousing the virtues of Singapore-Malaysia relationship. (Read here)

On Page 17 was (Datuk Seri) Wong Chun Wai’s regular column “On the beat” in which he spoke of the need to focus on the economy. (Read here)

Both persons appear to be placing their hope on the same person – the Prime Minister of Malaysia, (Datuk Seri) Mohd Najib Abdul Razak. But they could be wishing against hope.

Imbedded in PM Lee’s writing is the hope that the “mutually prospering” 50-year old Singapore-Malaysia relationship would continue long into the future. He credited Mohd Najib and Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi for bringing the two countries closer together.

Lee credited Mohd Najib with improved relations

As for Chun Wai’s plea “to turn our attention back to money matters” I think we should all take it seriously. He is not just a writer like me, but he is also a businessman. He runs the Star Media Group as its group managing director and chief executive officer.

Things Are Complicated

Unfortunately for PM Lee, Chun Wai and for all of us, things are a lot more complex and complicated than mere hopes and wishes. Consider the following:

1. Mohd Najib is too preoccupied with political survival that he shows neither the interest nor the capacity to solve the country’s dire economic situation.

2. Hardly any member of the Cabinet, with the exception of (Datuk Seri) Abdul Wahid Omar, says anything comforting about the economy lately. Even Abdul Wahid could only say that the ringgit’s current decline was not as bad as in 1997/98.

3. There is no sign of any affective steps to check the ringgit’s downhill slide apart from what appears to be an ineffective Bank Negara interference that saw its external reserves falling by over US$40 billion to under US$100 billion - the first time in five years.

4. The ringgit suffers a double whammy – the weak external factors and even weaker domestic fundamentals. The contagion Sang Kelembai effects of 1MDB, the allegations of corruption against the PM and the undermining of key institutions by the PM’s spin-doctors compound the ringgit’s problem, making it the worse performing Asian currency. The ringgit is falling dangerously close to RM4 to a dollar.

5. The capital flight is in full swing. For 14 consecutive weeks until last week, foreign capital had been flowing out of Bursa Malaysia. So far this year, foreign investors had withdrawn an estimated RM11.7 billion from the Bursa compared to RM6.9 billion for the whole of last year.

6. In their attempts to prop up Mohd Najib, his supporters are destroying the very institutions that offer a semblance of respect and credibility. They are burning the house to smoke out the mosquitoes.

Mohd Najib vs the People

1.Mohd Najib’s focus is on political survival and fending off a possible criminal charge over the transfer of funds from SRC International, a Finance Ministry company, to his personal account.

2. Economic issues are important to him but he appears to have lost the credibility and moral standing to fix them. The double whammy is he is both the PM and Finance Minister.

3. This is the danger that I have been talking about since the time when Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad temporarily took over the Finance Ministry in early 1990’s upon the resignation of Tun Daim Zainuddin. It has been my mantra since then that PM should not double as Finance Minister.

5. Mohd Najib has fenced himself in. From an inclusive Prime Minister for all, he has become exclusive to 300-odd Umno heads, the mainstream media and the paid bloggers.

6. The 300 or so Umno leaders, comprising Supreme Council members, state liaison chairmen and divisional chiefs, are the people who determine whether he stays or goes.

7. For now, the majority of them are either loyal or beholden to him. He gave them power and money and, in some probable instances, he knows their dirty little secrets. But there are signs of unease among many of them. Their fear and, possibly, conscience are causing them to seethe and sweat.

8. The country’s problems and the well being of the rakyat will only see hope of being attended to in a credible manner if Putrajaya enjoys the trust of the key players – the investors and consumers.

9. As it now stands, even simple consumers do not have the confidence to spend.

10. Finally, all political parties should look beyond their existing leaders – Mohd Najib, (Datuk Seri) Anwar Ibrahim, Lim Kit Siang and (Datuk Seri) Abdul Hadi Awang. Malaysians deserve better leaders and a brighter future.

Wallahuaklam.

A Kadir Jasin

TEUKU Adnan bin Teuku Mansor menggelar Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad “the green-eyed monster”. Diterjemahkan literal ke bahasa Melayu, raksasa bermata hijau.

[PERINGATAN: Komen guna “Anonymous” tidak akan disiarkan. Sila guna Google Account atau Name/URL. Boleh pakai nama samaran.]

Raksasa bermata hijau atau tidak, kebijaksanaan harian (conventional wisdom) mengatakan bahawa Dr Mahathir lebih diyakini dan lebih popular daripada Teuku Adnan.

Mohon maaf saya menggunakan gelaran Teuku dan bukan Tengku atau Tunku kerana lama sebelum beliau menjelma menjadi “Tengku Adnan”, nama asal beliau adalah Teuku Adnan. Itulah gelaran beliau sewaktu saya mula mengenali beliau sebagai ahli perniagaan pada awal tahun 1980-an.

[Teuku adalah gelar ningrat atau bangsawan untuk kaum pria suku Aceh yang memimpin wilayah nanggroe atau kenegerian. Teuku adalah seorang hulubalang atau ulee balang dalam bahasa Acehnya. Sama seperti tradisi budaya patrilineal lainnya, gelar Teuku dapat diperoleh seorang anak laki-laki, bilamana ayahnya juga bergelar Teuku. Seorang Teungku dapat pula berubah menjadi Teuku, apabila ia dialihkan dari jabatan keagamaan ke jabatan pemerintahan atau sebaliknya. Bacaan lanjut di sini.]

Malangnya, bagi kita yang berfikir dan membuat analisis mengenai krisis politik (Datuk Seri) Mohd Najib Abdul Razak berasaskan kebijaksanaan harian (conventional wisdom), kita akan tersesat kerana beliau dan jentera diayah beliau telah lama mengetepikan kebijaksanaan harian.

Namun bagi kita yang masih berpegang dan percaya kepada “conventional wisdom”, kita mempunyai berapa kaedah yang boleh digunakan bagi memahami dan mengungkai kekusutan yang kita hadapi sekarang. Antaranya:

1. Mohd Najib boleh memilih untuk terus bertahan dengan menggunakan kuasa pentadbiran (executive power). Tetapi pemerintahan serta ekonomi negara akan terus terumbang-ambing kerana kredibiliti kerajaan yang rendah. Umno dan Barisan Nasional akan semakin lumpuh dan pembangkang mempunyai modal besar untuk pilihan raya umum akan datang.

2. Pihak-pihak yang menentang Mohd Najib boleh menggunakan kuasa perundangan (legislative power) untuk memaksa beliau berundur melalui undi tidak percaya di Parlimen. Ahli Dewan Rakyat daripada BN dan pembangkang boleh membuat pakatan dua pihak (bi-partisan) untuk mengemukakan undi tidak percaya terhadap beliau atau melalui perutusan (deputation) kepada Majlis Raja-raja Melayu.

3. Gerakan massa (mass movement) boleh menggunakan keingkaran sivil (civil disobedience) secara aman dan sah dalam semangat Mahatma Gandhi dan Nelson Mandela untuk memaksa beliau meletak jawatan.

4. Menggunakan saluran kehakiman. Pendapat umum dan kebijaksanaan konvensional mengatakan bahawa sudah terdapat bukti (evident) yang mencukupi untuk mendakwa beliau di mahkamah berkaitan "derma" RSC International dan wang RM2.6 bilion dalam akaun peribadi beliau.

5. Jalan keluar terhormat dan terjamin bagi Mohd Najib adalah merundingkan laluan selamat (safe passage) di mana beliau tidak akan dituduh di mahkamah dengan syarat beliau meletakkan jawatan. Namun inilah yang diidam-idamkan oleh pembangkang kerana ia akan memberikan mereka modal mutakhir untuk PRU akan datang.

Kaedah kelima bukanlah baru dalam sejarah Malaysia cuma ia belum pernah membabitkan seorang Perdana Menteri.

Ramai pemimpin politik daripada menteri, menteri besar, ketua menteri dan ahli parlimen meletak jawatan bagi mengelak daripada diseret ke mahkamah atas tuduhan rasuah, salah guna kuasa dan pecah amanah.

Tetapi ada juga pemimpin tertinggi Umno/BN yang memilih untuk dibicarakan daripada mengundurkan diri secara sukarela. Ada yang sabit kesalahan dan ada yang dibuang kes.

Kesimpulannya, Mohd Najib boleh memilih untuk bertahan dengan menggunakan kuasa politik dan wang untuk menambat hati ketua-ketua Umno dan anggota kabinet atau memeras ugut mereka yang ada rangka bergantungan di dalam almari.

Beliau boleh menggunakan kuasa pentadbiran untuk membeli kesetiaan kakitangan awam atau mengenakan tekanan ke atas mereka seperti yang dilakukan ke atas Suruhanjaya Pencegah Rasuah Malaysia (MACC).

Malangnya, bagi rakyat jelata masalah mereka tidak akan dapat ditangani dengan berkesan kerana tumpuan Perdana Menteri adalah untuk menyelamatkan diri beliau dahulu selain hakikat bahawa kerajaan pimpinan beliau telah hilang keyakinan umum.

Di pihak penentang Mohd Najib pula, khususnya anggota perundangan (legislative), mereka sepakat bahawa Mohd Najib perlu disingkirkan demi kelangsungan negara tetapi tidak mempunyai keazaman politik (political will) untuk berpakat menjatuhkan beliau melalui undi tidak percaya.

Sementara di kalangan elit Umno dan BN, hipokrasi menjadi kata kunci – di depan puji dan puja di belakang caci dan cerca. Tetapi suara berani ahli akar umbi meminta Mohd Najib mengundurkan diri sudah mula kedengaran dalam mesyuarat agung tahunan bahagian-bahagian Umno.

Wallahuaklam.

A Kadir Jasin

OR would he choose to be a zero?

I have been many a time condemned for suggesting that Khairy Jamaluddin is the future leader of Umno and the country. There are many KJ haters and sceptics out there.

[REMINDER: No anonymous comments will be published. Please use Google Account, OpenID or Name/URL. Pseudonym is accepted. Please be respectful . No swearing. Thank you]

I am no KJ’s admirer, but I have say that, given the dearth of promising young leaders in the party, KJ shines like a distant star in the dark void of space.

I have not met him for years now. All that I know about him is from the media and from the people who dislike him.

But no matter how hard I try, I could not seem to find another equally visible candidate to take over Umno in the years to come, assuming that the party survives the current leadership crisis, witch hunt, vendetta and MAD (mutually assured destruction).

Although I have ceased to be associated with Umno since June last, I still think it has a good chance of surviving – if not as a ruling party at least as a strong opposition.

If the latter should be the case, KJ could be a good candidate for Ketua Pembangkang Parlimen (Parliamentary Opposition Leader).

At the rate Umno is going down the chute under (Datuk Seri) Mohd Najib Abdul Razak and his merry men and women, the latter is a distinct possibility.

Back in 2008 is wrote in this blog an article entitled “KJ: Daripada Shooting Star kepada Underdog” to which his mother, whom I know rather well, took serious umbrage. KJ had described himself as shooting star and tall poppy to explain widespread resentment against his meteoric rise under the patronage of (Tun) Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

I contended that in the Malay language, shooting star is called “tahi bintang” which I literally translated as the excrement of the star – a burning asteroid plunging down to earth. Read here if you wish.

Is KJ Saying PM Is A Goner?

In recent months KJ has been in dilemma - not knowing exactly how to protect his own flank without being seen to be disloyal to his beleaguered party president and Prime Minister.

He has been alternating between dithering, hedging and pontificating.

But his latest statement is brave, pointed and damning. Speaking at the Malaysian Student Leaders Summit in Kuala Lumpur on Aug 9 he said the government needs to immediately deal with its trust deficit and the crisis of confidence it faces to stem the free fall of the ringgit.

He was also quoted as saying that the party, meaning Umno, is bigger than one man (read Mohd Najib).

The Youth and Sports Minister said the lack of confidence and trust in the government also caused investors to take their money out of Malaysia.

“No one trusts the message or the messenger. This crisis in confidence is why the ringgit is in free fall and investors are taking their money elsewhere.

“The more the ringgit falls, the more expensive things are,” Khairy was quoted telling the summit.

Like many in Umno KJ knows that Mohd Najib is a goner is as far as public confidence and trust are concerned.

Many of the more educated and independent Umno leaders, including in the party’s supreme council and the cabinet, know that for as long as Mohd Najib remains the PM, public confidence and trust will remain dismal.

So for KJ to say that the country is suffering from trust deficit and the crisis of confidence is nothing out of the ordinary. What would be out of the ordinary is his solution to the problem.

Would he dare to lead the charge of the light brigade to topple Mohd Najib and rebuild public trust and confidence? Or would he continue to dither, waver, vacillate, falter and hesitate?

As for the economy and the ringgit, that is what we have been saying for months. The fall of the ringgit to below RM4 to a US dollar on Aug 12 was the ultimate proof of that.

If he KJ does nothing beyond speaking, he will go down in history as an Umno Youth Leader who misses the opportunity to do something good for his party and great for his country.

The young people in front of whom he made the statement would remember what he said for a long time to come. They would have shared what he said with their online friends.

Where does he stand and what is his feature in all the formulations and permutations concerning the future leadership of the country in the post-Najib era?

He could seize that occasion to prove that he dares to walk the talk or to affirm that he is yet another self-serving, sweet-talking fake pejuang.

FOOTNOTE: The PKR could have fallen into the PM’s trap when it filed a civil suit against him for allegedly committing electoral offences. The suit could render debate on Mohd Najib’s multi-billion ringgit political “donations” sub judice.

Wallahuaklam.

A Kadir Jasin

ONE thing is sure - the country needs a change of Leader.

[REMINDER: No anonymous comments will be published. Please use Google Account, OpenID or Name/URL. Pseudonym is accepted. Be respectful. No swearing. Thank you]

What is less sure is who will it be. Three possibilities are being mentioned: the sacked former Deputy Prime Minister (Tan Sri) Muhyiddin Yassin, his replacement (Datuk Seri) Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and the former Finance Minister, Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah aka Ku Li.

Depending on which source you get your information and who is making the analysis, the front-runner keeps changing.

According to Pak Belalang (the protagonist in the P. Ramlee movie “Nujum Pak Belalang”), if the Prime Minister (Datuk Seri) Mohd Najib Abdul Razak has his way, he would want Ahmad Zahid to be his successor.

Having sacked Muhyiddin for criticising him and for supporting the investigations into the 1MDB affairs, surely the Prime Minister would not want Muhyiddin to succeed him. Allowing Muhyiddin to become PM is as good as signing his own death warrant.

Ahmad Zahid looks like a safer bet. He has been Mohd Najib’s ally for a long time and is the strongest and the most popular of the three elected Umno vice-presidents.

The second elected VP, (Datuk Seri) Shafie Apdal of Sabah had been done away with. He was dropped from the Cabinet together with Muhyiddin. The third VP is Mohd Najib’s own cousin, (Datuk Seri) Hishammuddin Hussien, who was the front-runner before the 1MDB scandal surfaced.

In recent months, Hishammudin has adopted a more neutral stance towards his cousin by urging for an open and transparent investigation into the 1MDB affairs. That automatically makes him a less reliable. Still he is being touted as the DPM candidate should Ahmad Zahid gets promoted.

The problem is how would Ahmad Zahid overcome the question of having Muhyiddin at the top of him in the Umno hierarchy? Muhyiddin is Deputy President and his image as the defender of the party and the voice of the ordinary rakyat has catapulted following his July 28 sacking. He now enjoys considerable sympathy from Umno members and Malaysians in general.

Picture tells a thousand words: Sultan Ibrahim Johor, Johor MB, Zahid and Muhyiddin

For Ahmad Zahid, Muhyiddin is a necessary ally. Little wonder that when the two of them were photographed laughing away in the presence of the Sultan of Johor on Aug 11 the rumour mill went into overdrive.

No less significant is the emergence of the Johor Sultanate as a critic of the PM and the royal champion of the rakyat, which gives rise to yet another set of analyses. They concern the behind-the-scene involvement of some Malay rulers in seeking solution to the country’s deepening problems.

The Ku Li Solution

Then there is what could be described as the Ku Li’s solution. The veteran Umno leader and the MP for Gua Musang could very well be ahead in race to replace Mohd Najib.

Ku Li and Najib: Not a handover letter yet

The 78-year old former Finance Minister and Umno VP, who, ironically, is also Mohd Najib’s earliest mentor (in Petronas), has been actively putting together a coalition of MPs from both sides of House with the hope of democratically ousting him.

If he succeeds, he stands out as the most likely successor to Mohd Najib and, would introduce a whole new equation to contemporary Malaysian politics i.e the formation of a national unity government in which Umno could be in the minority.

However, in spite of widespread rumours that Ku Li has received the blessing of the former PM (and his nemesis) (Tun) Dr Mahathir Mohamad, he faces an uphill task to coax at least half of the 222 members of the Dewan Rakyat (the House of Representatives) to join him.

The opposition is badly fractured following the ouster of the non-religious faction from PAS. The clerical PAS may not be inclined to join Ku Li. But the PAS professionals who now called themselves Gerakan Harapan Baru (New Hope Movement) may break rank and side with the Kelantan prince. The DAP and PKR are likely to be amenable to the idea of a unity government under Ku Li provided one of their members is made the DPM.

Still Ku Li would not have enough members to topple the PM unless he is able to get the support of upward of 45 BN members. If PAS members are not with him, he would need more BN defectors. And could not rely on mere promises. He has to get a legally valid assurance from each of them.

From the governing point of view, Ku Li is perhaps the best candidate to rescue the economy because, despite his shortcomings and missteps in the past, he is highly experienced and knowledgeable in economic matters. More than anything else it is the economy that needs mending and Ku Li beats all other contenders in that aspect.

In recent months, Dr Mahathir, Ku Li and another former Finance Minister, (Tun) Daim Zainuddin, appeared to have set aside their differences and are having regular conversations about politics and the economy.

FOOTNOTE: Met (Tun) Musa Hitam again on Friday (at Sime Darby’s open house). He told me (in front of one or two staunchest supporters of the PM) that plot has changed yet again. Now the old fox is having the upper hand over the chicken.

Wallahuaklam.

A Kadir Jasin

Anina Saaduddin Berpidato

MARAH mu dapat ku rasa

Kerana seperti mu juga

Aku pernah muda

Jiwa ku juga pernah gelora

Marah terbakar panas membara.

Pernah ku tuliskan puisi

Dalamnya menyala api

Mengutuk memarahi

Ayah ku sendiri

Kerana orang tua ku itu

Setianya kepada Umno melulu.

Aku sayang dia

Aku kasih dia

Dialah wira ku

Dialah idola ku.

Tapi aku tidak setuju

Setianya kepada ketua terlalu

Seolah-olah mereka itu tuhan

Harus dipuja tanpa batasan.

Maka ku kata kepadanya

Apakah kita anjing-anjing mereka?

Ayah tidak memarahi ku

Kerana pendirian ku itu

Cuma katanya

Kasar bahasa ku

Bukan cerminan

Bangsa Melayu.

Dan kalau hari ini

Di sini aku berdiri

Tidak takut bara dan api

Meluahkan rasa hati

Itu semua kerana ayah ku

Yang menyemai semangat jitu

Agar aku tidak takut bayang-bayang

Tidak gentar hantu dan jembalang.

Maka aku boleh merasa marah mu

Panas membara jiwa mu

Melihat bangsa ini dipersenda

Dibuaikan dengan nyanyian dusta.

Orang Muda Yang Berani

[Kononnya ada raja yang sangat kaya

Harta banyak tidak terkira

Sangat mulai hati budinya

Memberi sadaqah dan derma.]

Alhamdulillah, dalam generasi mu

Masih ada anak muda seperti mu

Yang tidak mudah diperdaya ditipu

Dengan cerita karut merapu

Dan diayah palsu.

Ayuh, gerakkan generasi mu

Agar tidak longlai dan layu

Kerana bumi ibunda ini milik mu

Engkaulah penyambung hayat bangsa

Srikandi pengarak panji-panji negara

Kerana untuk mu lah Malaysia

Untuk pemudi dan pemuda

Yang masih segar jiwanya

Belum kotor dinodai kuasa

Belum korup disuap harta

Belum buta kerana wang berjuta

Belum bisu takutkan ketua

Belum tertipu dengan kata dusta.

Buat mu anak ku

Doa dan pesan ku

Hidup ini tiada makna

Kalau sekadar tidur lena

Dibuai mimpi-mimpi palsu

Sedangkan bangsa mu

Makin pudar dan layu

Dicemuh dan dicerca

Dihina sepanjang masa.

Perjuangan mu baru bermula

Perjuangan ku belum selesai

Ayuh, mari kita bersama-sama

Menongkah arus melawan badai

Melayarkan bahtera merdeka

Agar tidak patah kemudinya

Tidak tumbang tiang layarnya

Demi Malaysia negara kita

Bumi tercinta

Anugerah Tuhan Yang Esa.

Wallahuaklam.

Tak Menghairankan Jika PM Didakwa

Merenung Bola Kristal

Satu Cerita Daripada Berjuta Derita

A Kadir Jasin

Jangan Terpesong Daripada Penyiasatan 1MDB

Ancaman Terhadap Kedaulatan Negara

1MDB: Sang Kelembai and Its Victims

TH: Manipulasi dan Mungkir Janji Peringkat Tinggi

The PM Does Not Need You

A Kadir Jasin

1MDB: Task Force Showing Seriousness

A Kadir Jasin

Medium Is The Message

Jangan Tertekan Sampai Tak Lalu Makan

Hard to Sabotage 1MDB Task Force Now

Attacks On Task Force

Sackings Will Not Make 1MDB Scandal Disapper

Hikmah Di Sebalik Pemecatan Muhyiddin

Pasukan Petugas Lumpuh

Agen Bebas Muhyiddin Yassin

Betul Cara, Ikan Belida Boleh Dipancing

Donations: Why Does It Take So Long to Say So?

A Kadir Jasin

Commit A Wrong Unto Others and Therefore Unto Yourself

Burn the House to Smoke Out the Mosquito

Ikan Belida, Hitler dan Para Pemimpin Hujung Usia

Seething and Sweating in PM’s Camp

Things Are Complicated

Mohd Najib vs the People

Lima Senario Kesudahan Krisis Politik Mohd Najib

Khairy: A Chance To Be A Hero

A Kadir Jasin

Is KJ Saying PM Is A Goner?

Who Would It Be: Zahid, Muhyiddin or Ku Li?

The Ku Li Solution

Puisi Perjuangan Buat Anina