Finally, Shahrizat's husband speaks up: But holy cow, what an unlikely story!

Salleh Ismail, the husband of Umno Women's chief Shahrizat Jalil, having received a RM250 million to develop the cattle industry in Malaysia, promptly turns around and purchases two luxury apartments in Bangsar.

Caught in the act, he maintains a guilty silence for days, before finally emerging, like a flat-tailed worm from under a damp rock, to attempt to defend this indefensible abuse of the public trust that is the NFC scandal. He was accompanied by the favorite lawyer of Umno miscreants, Shafee Abdullah, whose oily presence itself can generally be taken as a sure sign of guilt.

The logic of Shahrizat's husband

Going by Salleh’s perverted logic, one could procure a multi-hundred million ringgit loan from public funds, purportedly to undertake some project for the public good, and then splurge it how one likes. You could buy land in the Yukon, sure to go up within the next three or four hundred years, or drill for diamonds in the Antarctic, or crisscross the Sahara with irrigation channels for little Tuareg children to swim in.

Or any other whimsical ideas that occur to you as you sit around in Bangsar cafes, twiddling your thumbs while wondering how to profit from your spouse’s political career.

You could also invest in real-estate, always a sure thing. Except in 2008, when some of the largest financial institutions in the world, including Lehman, would go broke betting that the real-estate market would stay up. It didn’t.

Good investment or Criminal Breach of Trust

Why would the Malaysian government give carte blanche to the NFC to draw down on public funds which would then be channeled to purposes other than that for which it was disbursed. Is it not criminal breach of trust to do this?

There is also the fact that RM800,000 was spent on travel for the ‘directors’ of NFC, who turn out to be Shahrizat’s children. Salleh Ismail announced that they did not fly First Class. Did they then fly Business Class with public funds? It is an outrage. Executives of MNCs with multi-billion dollar revenues fly Economy these days. There are of course, more abuses; ‘donations’ to Umno politicians and monies paid to Shahrizat Jalil being among them.

Instant cows!

Salleh Ismail also disputed the Auditor General’s report which dismissed the NFC project as a failure. Salleh admitted however, to buying cattle from Australia and then re-selling them. This is all the NFC appears to have done. The NFC feeds the cattle before they are sold. A curious way indeed to ‘develop’ the Malaysian cattle industry.

Along the way, Salleh compared cattle to palm trees, as if he was in a Lewis Carroll poem. He also offered to ‘produce’ 60,000 heads of cattle in 2015. By buying them from Australia, no doubt.

The cattle were shown on TV being held in crowded, muddy holding pens, looking uncomfortable and miserable. Clearly the veterinary services department should be investigating the NFC for possible Animal Cruelty to these poor beasts, as well as for cleanliness violations. As should the MACC be investigating the NFC for possible corruption.

In fact, it seems only a RCI will be able to clear up all the questions thrown up by this NFC scandal.

Why is no one taking responsibility

Again, we return to the question of oversight.

How is it that the Agriculture Ministry did nothing about all these scandalous going-ons at the NFC? How is it that the Finance Ministry was sleeping on its job and did not notice what was happening?

The Finance Minister is Najib Razak, also the Prime Minister. He is twice culpable. It is Najib, ultimately, who is responsible for this outrage perpetrated on the struggling Malaysian taxpayer.

As for Shahrizat Jalil, if she had any understanding of the notion of accountability or at all had any sense of honour, she would have resigned by now. She does not appear to, and will not. Whoever heard of a BN Minister who took responsibility and resigned?

Malaysia Chronicle