Frog Tales: Ibrahim Ali turns NFC into Malaysia's Animal Farm!

If the NFC scandal, a blatant thieving of Malaysia’s public funds, could get any worse, it did with the entry of the whiny, loud presence of Ibrahim Ali, the soon-to-be ex-MP for Pasir Mas.

Ibrahim Ali, nicknamed 'Frog' for his party-hopping ways, along with 12 ‘NGOs’, was given a briefing by Salleh Ismail, the clearly less-than-intelligent  Chairman of the NFC and husband of Women's minister Shahrizat Jalil.

After the briefing, Ibrahim Ali called a press conference and dropped the bombshell that the Auditor-General  had agreed that the NFC was not, after all, in a ‘mess’. No, the AG had not done so publicly but in a private meeting with…..Salleh Ismail, according to…..Salleh Ismail! Based on this highly questionable piece of information, Ibrahim Ali now demands that the AG publicly says that the NFC is not in a mess.

Obviously the accused would have his version of the 'truth'

It is not clear why Ibrahim Ali chooses to believe Salleh Ismail, who, throughout the NFC scandal, has proven himself to be inept, dishonest, untruthful and willing to resort to dubious means to try and wriggle his way  out of his self-inflicted troubles.

Not satisfied with practically threatening the Auditor-General, Ibrahim Ali discloses that the whistleblower is a…gasp!....non-Malay. And he accuses the whistleblower of absconding with NFC funds in an attempt to attack his/her credibility.

Clearly, Salleh Ismail in his desperation, is hoping to turn the NFC issue into a racial one by engaging the dubious services of Ibrahim Ali. It will not work; thievery of public funds is a crime no matter who does it. As an aside, the whistleblower would be within his rights to sue Ibrahim Ali in court. Let us hope Ibrahim Ali doesn’t break down sobbing and crying  as he did when he was arrested under the ISA.

11 key Questions

No matter what tricks or artifices Salleh Ismail continues to come up with, he will be hard put to explain at least the following :

1. Why was 600,000 spent in ‘entertainment expenses’ when the NFC was a seller’s market. It was the shortage of beef that was the logic for the setting up of the NFC. Should the buyers interested in securing their supply lines not be paying for the said ‘entertainments’?

2. Who were the people being ‘entertained’? Please release all the names of those who were entertained, for what amount, where and what they ate and drank. If the entertainments consisted of activities, what were they?

3. Why would public monies be used to buy illiquid assets like condominiums in Malaysia and Singapore (to our knowledge) when the money would be required in the on-going NFC project? If Salleh Ismail wanted to invest excess funds, should it not have been in FDs, bonds and repos where he could quickly retrieve his funds?

4. How is it that the NFC had excess funds to invest in overpriced real-estate? Should the Agricultural Ministry  and the Treasury not have released the funds in tranches while carefully monitoring its use?

5. Were there no restrictive covenants in the agreement between the NFC and the Agriculture Ministry?

6. Why were the 20-something children of Salleh Ismail paid tens of thousands of ringgit to, apparently, do nothing? If they did perform some function, what was it? Was that function worth the salary of a C-level executive in a private company? Was this simply a way to transfer money from the public coffers into the wide-open purses of the Shahrizat family?

7. Why are there two versions of when the agreement was signed? When was it signed, if at all? Please release it!

8. What was Sharizat’s involvement in procuring this deal for Salleh Ismail, her husband? Did she at any point discuss it with Muhyiddin? Did she discuss it with Khairy Jamaluddin, who so curiously rushed to defend her when the issue first surfaced? Did she discuss it with any other official or government, at any time or in any way? Was she kept aware of the status of this project, by any individual, including her husband? If she denies all this and any other involvement, is she willing to submit to a lie-detector test? Is she willing to be cross-examined by a lawyer?

9. Why did Shahrizat resort to hysterical political drama and theatrics during the Wanita Umno meeting if she was, in fact, innocent?

10. Was Shahrizat not aware what her children were being paid exorbitant sums from NFC money? Did she not view this as pilfering of public monies? What did she do about it?

11. Does Shahrizat think it is acceptable to buy land and properties unrelated to the project at hand when entrusted with a public project? Did she report this misuse to anybody? If she did not, she is an accomplice, and must stop playing the innocent.

Criminal probe imperative

There is, of course, supposedly an audit going on at the NFC right now. We do not wish to speculate on the results. But it is clear that as a first step, every cent that went to the pockets of the Shahrizat family was public money misspent, and must be returned to the state.

And then must come a credible criminal probe, into all the players in this sordid NFC scandal.

Malaysia Chronicle