First Haris Onn, then Badawi: Is someone trying to clear a way to the top

Amid whispers that the chaos we are currently seeing in Malaysia is being orchestrated by Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin to humiliate his boss, Prime Minister Najib Razak, the sudden appearance of former premier Abdullah Badawi in two unexpected 'starring roles' has set tongue wagging.

Firstly, Abdullah was the person Bersih chief Ambiga Sreenevasan made sure to publicly thank after having a private chat together that culminated with the King granting an audience to the Bersih committee

This means that Abdullah must have played a key role in trying to secure a compromise solution for her free-and-fair elections rally that Najib and Muhyiddin are opposing with all their might and using the most bizarre methods.

Then, as if by design, after this unexpected but high-profile gesture, Abdullah found himself handling another controversy - this time, a personal one.

Abdullah was accused of being of one several highly influential Malaysians whom Australian banknote firms approached to help swing big contracts with the Malaysian central bank.

Hisham's brother

A few weeks back, Australian daily The Age charged that a Malaysian company, Liberal Technology, was hired by Australian firm Securency to help win banknote-printing contracts.

This would have flown under the radar if not for the vague fact that Liberal Technology’s biggest shareholder is or was Haris Onn Hussein, as highlighted by The Age. Haris is the brother of Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein and cousin to Prime Minister Najib Razak.

Interest was immediately sparked as the close association with members of the Malaysian ruling government opens ups the possibility of corruption and abuse of power.

Liberal Technology’s directors, in a written statement, have refuted the charges made by The Age. They said that Haris had discharged all shares in their company in 2006, three years before the said agreement between Securency and Liberal Technology. Thus, Haris is in no way associated to Liberal Technology, the directors insisted.

However, Liberal Technology’s official records with Companies Commission of Malaysia had, until June 2011, listed Haris Onn Hussein as owning 180,000 shares. The directors of Liberal Technology were asked to explain the discrepancy. And their answer is that it was a clerical mistake whereby the secretary had forgotten to update the shareholders records with the Commission - a five year lapse until the issue was pointed out by The Age of Australia.

Then Badawi

The Australian government investigation is digging deeper and the Reserve Bank of Australia's banknote firms are being suspected of attempting to bribe Abdullah in order to get his help to win a AU$31mil (RM99.82mil) currency contract.

According to the report, Abdullah was one of several highly influential Malaysians whom anti-corruption authorities believed Securency and Note Printing Australia had tried to bribe. It was also reported that a sum of AU$4.2mil (RM13.52mil) in commission payments were made to two Malaysian middlemen.

Last week, Malaysian authorities arrested a former Bank Negara Malaysia assistant governor accused of receiving two bribes from Note Printing Australia Ltd.

Datuk Mohamad Daud Dol Moin, 58, claimed trial at a Sessions Court to two counts of accepting bribes amounting to RM100,000 from a businessman to help procure a contract from the central bank. The contract was to print RM5 polymer bank notes by Note Printing Australia Ltd.

Is the DPM and Dr M clearing a way to the top

The Australian investigation is digging deeper into the scandal and as more information crops up, more high-flying names may hit the headlines again. It is a sad indication of how deeply rooted corruption is within the government of Malaysia.

Abdullah Badawi has since denied remembering any attempts to bribe him and even if there was such an attempt, he would have reported it to the authorities, he assure the local press.

Even so, although there is are no charges against Abdullah Badawi, the mere hint of an attempt to bribe him has created bad press for the former premier.

He used to be known as 'Mr Clean' until his resignation in 2009. Stories and allegations of huge deals that benefited his son Kamaluddin and his son-in-kaw Khairy Jamaluddin then suddenly surfaced and buzzed around town.

To date, the people involved in the bank note controversy have had ties to Najib, and the timely nature that Abdullah Badawi’s name is being dredged up as their embattled and talent-drained UMNO party look for legitimate leaders seems to point to a move to pre-empt or prevent Abdullah and Khairy from returning to active politics/

Najib and Hisham have clearly been left to hang for their part in the Bersih fiasco and now Malaysians are being reminded that Abdullah and Khairy have been previously accused of huge deals to benefit their own family and firms.

Which leaves the question of who then benefits from the fall of these leaders within UMNO?

If the obvious answer is the Muhyiddin faction, it may also mean that another ex-premier Mahathir Mohamed may be helping to string the puppets.

- Malaysia Chronicle