Umno Women's chief Shahrizat Jalil defended her family over the RM250 million National Feedlot Centre debacle, reserving her venom for her counterpart in Parti Keadilan Rakyat, Zuraida Kamaruddin who is also the Ampang MP.
“I am ashamed that there is a Malaysian woman like the Wanita PKR chief. This is a political agenda by the Opposition to weaken Wanita Umno. But we are not that easily destroyed," Shahrizat told reporters on Wednesday.
Her sarcasm did not go down well with PKR leaders, who shot right back.
"Why must she be so sexist and go for Zuraida's throat? Is Zuraida the only PKR leader who spoke up about NFC? What about Rafizi (Ramli, the startegy direcor). "Don't tell she is afraid to criticize men," PKR vice president Tian Chua told Malaysia Chronicle.
Where are the details?
Pundits also pointed out that Shahrizat had failed to give a proper and full accounting of the allegations raised against her, merely denying wrong-doing which they said was insufficient.
On Tuesday, PKR had revealed documentary evidence showing that the government had fully disbursed a RM250 million soft loan to NFC, a national project to raise beef production in the country.
Pointing to their evidence of mismanagement, they accused Prime Minister Najib Razak and Agriculture Minister Noh Omar of trying to cover up Umno's well-known practice of awarding contract to families and friends.
The NFC was given to a firm controlled by Shahrizat's husband, Mohamad Salleh Ismail, and children, Izran and Izmir. PKR leaders accused them of having siphoned out more than RM84 million to family-controlled firms.
"For the financial year ended December 31, 2009... NLMC owed NFC as much as RM81,222,448.93 even though NLMC’s job is only to market meat,” Rafizi had told reporters at the Parliament lobby on Tuesday.
“This raises questions as to whether the RM250 million loan meant specifically for the development of the feedlot centre was siphoned off to other companies owned by Datuk Seri Shahrizat Jalil’s family."
"Coincidence"
The NLMC and RFC are firms that are majority owned by Shahrizat's family.
The Auditor-General’s Report released last month had also criticized the NFC project, pointing out that it was now “in a mess”. The report also said production in 2010 was only 3,289 head of cattle or 41.1 per cent of the target set.
But Shahrizat denied all the various accusations, saying her family “don’t deserve the things said by the Opposition because they work very hard.”
“The minister has answered at length and clearly. I am happy that the ministry will continue to monitor the success of this project,” said Shahrizat.
She was referring to Agriculture mnister Noh Omar, who had declared the NFC project a success and had met its targets “as the total number of cattle brought into the farm was 8,016 between 2008 and 2010.” This despite his comments directly contradicting the Auditor-General's.
Noh also refuted allegations of favoritism and cronysim, saying that it was merely a "coincidence" that Shahrizat's family landed the project, which did not go through an open public tender process.
Malaysia Chronicle
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