Another Rosmah pie cooking in the kitchen cabinet, Nazri?

Does Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Mohd Nazri Abdul Aziz think we are fools to accept his explanation that we would get “confused” if the F.L.O.M. directory listing assigned to Rosmah Mansor remained on the PM’s website?

During a sitting in the Dewan Rakyat, Anthony Loke (DAP-Rasah) had asked a supplementary question as to why FLOM had been listed, especially as “no such division had been set up”.

Nazri stated: “This was done when the website of the PM's Department and directory were updated.”

He reiterated his parliamentary answer last December, that the ‘division’ was never a part of the PM's Department, but simply a listing of officers seconded to help Rosmah Mansor with her duties as the PM's wife.

“There is no contract or permanent staff assigned specifically to the premier's spouse. Instead, officers from the department, from time to time, are assigned to assist her.”

Nazri explained that the officers helped Rosmah handle correspondence and invitations to national and international events and that the staff assigned to ‘temporarily help’ the PM's wife were from the PM's Office.

Alas, Nazri continues to treat us like imbeciles.

“There is no question of extra costs as they are already part of the PM's staff,” said Nazri.

The PM’s department costs RM4 billion to run and has 44,000 staff to run it. This is a mini-kingdom on its own. By right, this department should be scaled down.

FLOM has a six-member staff headed by special officer Siti Azizah Sheikh Abod. The rest of the unit comprises two personal assistants Saleha Mohd Rabani and Siti Zaiton Abdul Ghani and three assistant officers with special functions – G Vimala, Rizal Mansor and Nurul Rosemiemmy Kahsimi.

When FLOM first appeared, speculation about the First Lady’s ever increasing political role, especially as she is only the wife of prime minister attracted public criticism. Who was she trying to upstage?

Undeterred, both the PM and Rosmah thought they would further advertise her ‘special qualities’. We were treated to behind the scenes glimpses of the First Lady’s supposed “hard work” to “support hubby”.

However, when she elevated her status to a political role, and started to receive foreign heads of state, deputise for her husband and push Muhyiddin aside, that was when many of us felt that “enough was enough”.

If the First Lady has political aspirations, then she should not take short cuts and sideline others, much as we would have liked the Deputy PM to relinquish his position. Instead, Rosmah should get herself nominated and elected, just like everyone one else.

If APCO was behind the promotion of FLOM, then they seriously misjudged the public mood. It was ill-advised and the headlong rush to promote Rosmah was an idiotic move.

We were disgusted from the time Rosmah paid (USD 7 million) for her own publicity with the centerfold spread in an American newspaper, to the highly publicised and controversial Islamic Fashion Week which culminated in a pathetic sing-song on stage with Albert of Monaco, the pointless RM4.5 million three-day First Ladies Summit and equally mind-numbing high-powered “shopping trips cum state visits” to the middle east.

So, Nazri, we are not confused.

There is no confusion when taxpayers money has been spent on one frivolous woman. There is no confusion when millions of ringgits have been channeled into Rosmah’s Permata project. There is no confusion when the operating costs for running a six-member department is kept secret.

The only confusion is with Nazri himself. Did he think we were going to condone the waste of public funds and allow a vain and conceited First Couple to get away with shameful excesses?

FLOM’s calculated political plan to win influence has backfired. - Malaysia Chronicle