The NFC debacle is a perfect opportunity for PKR to 'slaughter' Shahrizat Abdul Jalil and guarantee that she does not contests in Lembah Pantai against incumbent Nurul Izzah Anwar.
PETALING JAYA: Majority of the political observers have dismissed the National Feedlot Centre (NFC) debacle as unlikely to mar Barisan Nasional’s popularity rating.
The opposition, they opined, has only targeted Women, Family Affairs and Community Development Minister Shahrizat Abdul Jalil.
The Auditor-General’s Report released last month had described the NFC project as a “mess”.
The report said production in 2010 was only 3,289 head of cattle or 41.1% of the target set.
In the ensuing series of attacks by PKR, the opposition party also revealed that taxpayers’ money allocated for the NFC was used to buy a luxury condominium in Bangsar costing almost RM10 million.
A PKR-linked NGO, Jingga 13, yesterday filed a report with the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) over the issue.
Game of perception
Political analyst professor James Chin of Monash University observed that the ruling coalition may emerge unscathed as PKR’s singular intent is to tarnish Shahrizat’s reputation enough to guarantee her defeat if she decides to re-contest her former Lembah Pantai seat.
The Lembah Pantai seat is currently held by PKR’s Nurul Izzah Anwar.
“This is all about perception…
“You can accuse anyone of corruption but in the end it’s about whether people believe it or not. And right now PKR is winning.
“But Shahrizat’s case is confined to women and Lembah Pantai, and it isn’t an issue that would anger Malaysians.
“No damage control can be done either because PKR is releasing bits and pieces to prolong the scandal long enough to destroy Shahrizat’s name,” he said.
Shahrizat won’t quit
Ong Kian Ming of UCSI agreed with Chin, saying that the repercussions of a scandal would only be felt by the individual politicians in urban areas and would not filter down to the rural pockets.
The other politician expected to suffer a tattered reputation is Agriculture and Agro-based Industries Minister Noh Omar, who defended Shahrizat and the project’s success.
“But it won’t do much in terms of national political implications.
“In the context of major scandals, this pales in comparison to the Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) issue and even that died down quite quickly.
“Barisan Nasional will just wait this out, and that’s its best strategy,” Ong said.
He also deemed it unlikely that Shahrizat will be suspended pending a probe on the issue as requested by Jingga 13. He also did not think that she would resign.
“From the standpoint of political reality, suspending a minister would be almost be an admission of guilt. It’s not going to happen,” he stated.
MACC must be transparent
Meanwhile, Transparency International Malaysia president, Paul Low, and the Asian Strategy and Leadership Institute (ASLI) director, Ramon Navaratnam, also echoed Ong’s stand.
Both said that a suspension or resignation would be too drastic but also emphasied the need for MACC to hasten its investigations.
“MACC is obliged to look into any report to verify whether it has merit or not,” Low stated.
“And regardless of who the person is, if he or she violates the law, a price has to be paid,” he added.
Branding the issue as “dubious and doubtful”, Ramon stressed that MACC should make its findings transparent to be fair to both the public and the accused.
Centre for Policy Initiatives director, Lim Teck Ghee, however, did not believe that the scandal would die a quiet death.
Lim pointed out that not only would the opposition be keen to capitalise on the case but it has also garnered a great deal of public interest and concern.
“It casts serious doubts on the claims of the BN that it is committed to clean governance and to the eradication of corruption if it does not set up a high level and independent panel to investigate the case.
“The impact from not responding will be worse for the BN as I don’t see it dying out even if the mainstream papers and media attempt to play it down.
“The important lesson from similar cases is that if the government attempts to play around with or conceal the facts, it will come back to haunt them.”
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