Christian bashing and now even corruption is being 'racialized': Najib must clarify stand

Prominent Malaysians and opposition leaders slammed Prime Minister Najib Razak for back-pedalling on reforms. and in particular for "racializing"corruption after Perkasa suggested that Umno minister Shahrizat Jalil and her family were innocent of the graft allegations in the RM250mil NFC debacle due to the fact that the whistle-blower was a non-Malay with an axe to grind.

"Race should not come into play. I am appalled that Najib has allowed Ibrahim Ali and gang to come into the picture. Unless and until, Najib issues a strong statement, he cannot expect Malaysians not to believe he was not involved. The best is for the PM to clarify the government's official stand on corruption and to condemn Ibrahim Ali and gang for allegedly trying to intimidate the Auditor-General," Ramon Navaratnam, past chairman of the MACC committee of Prevention and Public Consultation, told Malaysia Chronicle.

Corruption only for the non-Malays?

Ramon, a former top civil servant, was referring to news reports over the weekend that Ibrahim Ali, the president of Umno-linked rights group Perkasa, had demanded that the Auditor changed his opinion stated in the 2010 report that the NFC was "in a mess" to the NFC "was in order".

Ibrahim further alleged that the Auditor had privately agreed to do so, prompting public outcry over such bare-faced attempts from Umno leaders to escape punishment and being probed for alleged abuse of power and misappropriation of public funds.

“It turns out before this Datuk Salleh had two non-Malay employees. They handled RM150,000 in cash every day. One of these employees siphoned off the money,” Ibrahim told reporters over the weekend, as if that exonerated the Shahrizats' alleged corruption as well as the alleged negligence of deputy prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin, former premier Abdullah Badawi and even Najib himself in awarding the project so carelessly.

The National Feed Lot Centre of NFC is a government-owned project set up to raise the supply of beef in the country. The project was awarded to a firm owned by Shahrizat's family.

"NFCorp is a privately held company with the government issued a single preference share in consideration of the loan granted to NFCorp whereas the NFC is a centre that comes under the direct purview of the Ministry of Agriculture and Agro-Based Industry," said a statement issued on behalf of NFCorp on Wednesday.

If so, then all the more reason for the MACC to immediately and thoroughly probe NFCorp without fear or favor since the RM250 million soft loan was disbursed to its account. How can corruption be extinguished just because the whistle-blowers were non-Malay? Or that it was NFCorp which was in a mess and not the project NFC, since its is NFCorp that controls NFC.

To his credit, NFCorp executive director Izmir Salleh acknowledged the MACC probe. "At this point several reports have already been lodged and numerous statements have also been given to the police together with NFCorp’s books and documents in the on-going investigations. They are all in the hands of the relevant authorities whose investigations have yet to be concluded," said Izmir.

Christian-bashing again

Perkasa was founded by Ibrahim Ali, the Pasir Mas MP and its patron is none other than the authoritarian Mahathir Mohamad, known for his corruption-tainted and racist policies. A day after Ibrahim Ali shocked the nation with his call to the Auditor to clarify that NFC was "in order" and not "in a mess", the movement's seretary-general stirred another hornet's nest with anti-Christian comments.

“The faith of Islam, of Muslims is under siege in Selangor... Perkasa is concerned of a more aggressive Christianisation attempt, especially with Khalid [Ibrahim] in charge of the exco portfolio for Islam,”he was reported saying in an obvious bid to rally the Malays in Selangor to vote against the Pakatan Rakyat state government.

The uncouth comments have sparked calls from Christian groups, civil society and Pakatan leaders to call on Najib to clarify his stand.

It is also amusing that that when Perkasa was busy bashing down the Christian community, Najib was Penang where he grandly insisted that BN practised the principle of "sense of belonging and togetherness".

"Ibrahim Ali UMNOs bullfrog croaking anti Christian sentiments again. As usual Najib does not hear does not act," PKR vice president Chua Jui Meng said in an immediate response on his Twitter.

"It was only 2 years ago when Malaysia suffered the worst cases of arson and attempted arsons on churches throughout Malaysia and the freedom provided to Perkasa and its ilk to do its worst will not lead to any peaceful outcome.i Najib, as the Prime Minister of the country, and a self-proclaimed “Voice of Moderation” has failed to even once admonish Perkasa, the UMNO members involved or the party’s mouth-piece Utusan Malaysia for promoting racial hatred and stirring religious intolerance and extremism," DAP MP for PJ Utara Tony Pua said.

"On the contrary, Najib has more than once, made policy U-turns to placate Ibrahim Ali, the Perkasa supremo.Without sincerity and political will from the top leadership, Perkasa has the tacit approval to do its worse in the light of the upcoming general elections to sow fear into the hearts of the Malay-Muslim community in order to protect the vote bank for UMNO.The game that UMNO and Perkasa are playing, regardless of the outcome of the next general election, is a highly dangerous one which may forever tarnish Malaysia’s reputation as a moderate country. It will leave Najib in history as the Prime Minister who failed moderation."