Equality Before the Law: The Case of Khir Toyo and Others less fortunate

Equality before the Law: The Case of Khir Toyo and Others less fortunate

by Din Merican

When Dato’ Seri Mohd Khir Toyo became Menteri Besar of Selangor, he wanted to show that he was not just a “new broom sweeps clean” type of MB. So, he spoke of change and chided the state government agencies for sloppiness. He would even publicly humiliate heads of departments of state agencies, and awarded one head of department with a broom (ala’ the wooden spoon awarded to very bad golfers during tournaments).

From Kampong Boy to Menteri Besar

Khir Toyo was riding high then. After all, this was a rags to riches story – of a kampong boy who rose to become MB Selangor, the most prosperous and advanced state in Peninsular Malaysia. He became MB at a blink of an eye. He was an “Anak Wak Jawa Totok” (a Javanese country mouse’s son) who made good. He was the epitome of the New Economic Policy (NEP) which had enabled him to enter University of Malaya, graduate a 3rd grade dentist and move on to become MB of Selangor. His transformation from an ugly duckling into a handsome swan was very fairy tale like, although he insisted it was due to his tempe eating habits (soya bean cake eaten by Javanese ethnic).

I do not have a problem with Khir Toyo’s new good looks as my concern is about good governance. Just like watching movies about Werewolf, Dr Jekyl and Mr Hyde and The Incredible Hulk, it would be incomplete if we do not also see the special effects of visual transformation to understand how a man becomes a wolf or how mild mannered Dr Bruce Banner can become a green monster in The Incredible Hulk. So also, it would help to understand how Khir Toyo’s internal transformation is also related to his external appearances, as can be seen from this picture montage of him:

Lord Acton said: “Power Corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely”. That is what happens to the holder of the MB Selangor post. From the time of Dato’ Harun Idris and even before that, the MB Selangor is a very powerful post because Selangor is a very rich state. The richer the state, the more there is to plunder, and the more one plunders, the more powerful one becomes! That is power law in operation.

Also the Story of CM Pehin Sri in Sarawak

Thus, the rags to riches part also seems to be true in Khir Toyo’s story. That is not just the story of Selangor but also of Sarawak. Despite all that have been said of the plundering by CM Pehin Sri Haji Abdul Taib bin Mahmud, every Sarawak citizen knows that the MACC would not dare move against him.

Taib Mahmud would only be hauled up if he continues to fund opponents who wish to topple PM Najib as retaliation for the humiliation that PM Najib inflicted on him during the recent Sarawak State Elections.

Khir Toyo’s Excesses known before GE12

Khir Toyo’s excesses were already exposed even before GE 12 in 2008. However, either due to sheer arrogance or because it was not politically expedient to remove him, UMNO tolerated him. That proved to be very costly when on March 8, 2008, Selangor fell to Pakatan Rakyat . The Select Committee on Competence, Accountability and Transparency (SELCAT) probe exposed that Khir Toyo treated the state’s finances like his own personal coffers. His excesses of using state funds were just amazing and included expensive trips overseas to Paris, Tokyo, Morocco and Hong Kong and the infamous RM 1.8 million trip to Disneyland.

Khir Toyo was adamant that SELCAT was politically motivated by Pakatan Rakyat’s new MB Selangor, Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim, and that SELCAT did not get the approval from the A-G to be set up. Khir is on record as saying that “Any law that involves enforcement must be done by the Federal government first of all. They have said they want to jail people and stated that they can jail up to two years and fine RM2,000. Who is going to jail the person? Does the state have the authority to do this?”

Very brave of a man already shown to be plundering state coffers. Was it because AG Gani Patail was behind him and had advised him to say all that?

Khir Toyo must have enjoyed a certain immunity. How else do you explain his arrogance when confronted with all these excesses including his RM 24million Bali Palace. It was so laughable when he explained that his wealth came from his dental practice!

Despite all the information available in public domain medium, the MACC was reluctant to take action against Khir Toyo. This seems to be the case whenever a VVIP aligned to the political powers or to A-G Gani Patail is involved. We saw that happening in the MAS Scandal. In Tun Dr Mahathir’s memoirs “A Doctor In The House”, Dr Mahathir made fun of Tan Sri Tajudin Ramli’s claim that he was doing National Service when he plundered MAS.

Tajudin is still a free man today because he has a strong cable with AG Gani Patail through one Shahidan Shafie, an ex-Police Inspector once charged for accepting bribes in releasing some Johor secret societies gang members.

There are just too many allegations of selective prosecution by the MACC and A-G Gani Patail. It seems A-G Gani Patail even takes sides in corporate tussles involving his friends like what happened in the case of Ho Hup Bhd.

A-G Gani Patail and Friend at Ho Hup

Khir Toyo’s immunity with the MACC and A-G Gani Patail, even caused Marina Mahathir to comment: “I’m just wondering why the MACC hasn’t pulled him up for questioning yet. Or do they actually find his explanations plausible?”

It seems that a deal has been cut and Khir Toyo will walk away. This makes a mockery of PM Najib’s Government Transformation Plan (GTP) which made eradication of corruption as one of the NKRA. Under severe criticisms, PM Najib Tun Razak had to deny that the decision to charge Khir Toyo was a gimmick by UMNO-BN. PM Najib said that it was an independent decision by the MACC and A-G Gani Patail.

So, this was an independent decision by A-G Gani Patail? If so, why did A-G Gani charge Khir Toyo under Section 165 of the Penal Code? Why not charge Khir Toyo under the MACC Act? My lawyer friends explained that a charge under Section 165 of the Penal Code provides for only two 2 years maximum penalty. A deal has been cut, that’s why.

Section 165 Penal Code states:

“Whoever, being a public servant, accepts or obtains, or agrees to accept or attempts to obtain, for himself or for any other person, any valuable thing, without consideration, or for a consideration which he knows to be inadequate, from any person whom he knows to have been, or to be, or to be likely to be concerned in any proceedings or business transacted, or about to be transacted, by such public servant, or having any connection with the official functions of himself or of any public servant to whom he is subordinate, or from any person whom he knows to be interested in or related to the person so concerned, shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to 2 years, or with fine, or with both.“

If Khir Toyo was charged under Section 16 of the MACC Act, he can be punished under Section 24 and would face a maximum of 20 years’ imprisonment and a fine of not less than five times the amount of the bribe or whichever is higher. This means that they can put him away for good and seize all his ill gotten assets.

But MACC did not do that because Khir Toyo had cut a deal with A-G Gani Patail. That was why he was charged under Section 165 of the Penal Code and not under Section 16 of the MACC Act. The deal would involve Ditamas Sdn Bhd director, Shamsuddin Hayroni.

With public pressure mounting, A-G Gani Patail finally charged Khir Toyo with buying two plots of land in Section 7, Shah Alam lower than its market value. Hang on! The charge is for buying property cheap? Not for corruption?

The Razak Baginda Case

It was the same thing that A-G Gani Patail did in the Altantuya murder case. Originally, Razak Baginda was supposed to be released upon representation being made by another former DPP turned lawyer, Wong Khian Kheong. But when things got too heated up, A-G Gani proceeded with the case and organised it in such a way that Razak Baginda would be acquitted without his defence being called. Upon acquittal, Razak quickly left the country and A-G Gani Patail said that there would be no appeal because it was a finding of fact by the Court.

Khir Toyo’s on-going trial also revealed something more significant. It revealed about Khir Toyo’s using proxies and nominees to do things and hide assets. It is common knowledge that Khir Toyo uses Shamsuddin Hayroni and Datuk Sumadi Ismail to hold his assets in return for them getting projects in Selangor. And yet the MACC does not know?

Did A-G Gani Patail and MACC make Khir Toyo declare his wealth? If they did, how did they not discover evidence of all his wealth? If they did discover this evidence, why was Khir Toyo not charged for amassing extraordinary wealth? That would have been the foundation for making various charges under the MACC Act against Khir Toyo. Did the MACC freeze Khir Toyo’s banking accounts and those of his spouse, relatives and associates? After all, that is the modus operandi of the MACC and A-G Gani Patail when they take action against the many Customs, Immigration and Police officers including the late Ahmad Sarbaini.

The Dato Ramli Yusuff Case

That was also how they brought down the former Director CCID, Dato’ Ramli Yusuff, over dubious allegations which have now been shown by the Courts to have no basis whatsoever. Readers will remember that Dato Ramli was fixed by former IGP Musa Hassan and AG Gani Patail by using the MACC. They charged him in KL and at the same time they charged him in Sabah, making it very tough for him and his lawyers to appear at these two courts in two states separated by the South China Sea.

In the Sabah case, the MACC alleged that Dato’ Ramli had used a police Cessna for personal use, whereas at that time, Dato Ramli was on official duty in full uniform escorted by other uniformed personnel. Unlike Khir Toyo’s Disneyland trip with wife, maids and entourage in tour, Dato’ Ramli’s trip was serious police business to survey the porous Sabah border because Dato’ Ramli had earlier controlled the Abu Sayaf infiltration when he was CPO Sabah.

All these were duly documented and the falsity of the charge became clear when DPP Kevin Morais had to amend the charge several times throughout that trial. They even fixed the arrangement of witnesses by calling the two pilots as the last witnesses as PW73 and PW74 because these pilots would tell the truth. Former IGP Musa Hassan would appear as PW75 which is the last witness to neutralise all that have been said by the earlier police witnesses. Seeing all these must have revolted Judge Supang Lian who condemned Musa Hassan as “an incredible witness whose evidence is not to be believed”.

Yet, today I am told that Musa Hassan is a lecturer at the Law School in UiTM. What calamity will befall UiTM with Musa Hassan’s history of fabricating evidence and fixing-up people. Is that what he will teach these law students?

Dissatisfied that Dato’ Ramli was acquitted by the Sessions Court, A-G Gani Patail appealed to the Sabah High Court. Judge Abdul Rahman Sebli of the Sabah High Court also dismissed the A-G’s appeal. You would think that would be the end of it. But No, A-G Gani again appealed to the Court of Appeal. And how did I know this?

This afternoon (June 19), my friend, who stays a few doors away from Dato’ Ramli, came to visit me to ask me about my Cambodian trip. He told me of a commotion that occurred at Dato’ Ramli’s house yesterday. Apparently, some MACC officers came to Dato’ Ramli’s house and embarrassed his whole household by demanding to see him. They were very overt about their visit with the MACC signage emblazoned on their cars.

Dato’ Ramli was not at home and these MACC officers wanted to serve a notice for him to appear in the Kota Kinabalu Courts on Monday June 20, 2011. Apparently A-G Gani Patail has appealed to the Court of Appeal and the MACC just realized that they needed to serve a notice personally on Dato’ Ramli. Otherwise, the appeal cannot proceed!

Clearly, the visit was the MACC’s calculated way to make a last minute humiliation on Dato’ Ramli and his family. Clearly, the MACC wanted the whole neighborhood to know that they have unfinished business with Dato’ Ramli.

It is too glaring that A-G Gani Patail did not make Khir Toyo declare his assets. It is too glaring that Khir Toyo was not charged under the MACC Act. It is too glaring that A-G Gani did not appeal when Abdul Razak Baginda was acquitted over the murder of Altantuya Shariibu. And it is too glaring that the countless appeals against Dato’ Ramli is an open display of a revolting discriminatory and selective prosecution. It is a blatant arrogance of power.

All these demonstrate A-G Gani Patail’s inconsistent, irrational and arbitrary conduct just because he considers prosecution as his absolute prerogative. This arrogant behavior has brought discredit to his office, smacks of vindictiveness and makes the public distrust the government and its institutions.

All these show that when dealing with the MACC, do not expect equality before the law. When dealing with the law, you better have friends in the corridors of power. If you do, you will get preferential treatment. Otherwise, you will suffer selective prosecution and will be persecuted to no end.

I tried to call Dato Ramli but I could not get through. Probably he was making his way to Kota Kinabalu. I hope he will get to read this before he enters the court room this morning. I want him to know that Malaysians are behind him in his quest for justice. Malaysians wants to see him vindicated regardless of the fact that the vindictive A-G Gani Patail will continue to hound him. God is watching us!