NFC: A Case of Greed, Corruption and Sheer Financial Imbecility

by  Nawawi Mohamad, Wong Choon Mei, Malaysia Chronicle

Since PKR leaders Rafizi Ramli and Zuraida Kamaruddin blew the lid off the RM250mil NFC debacle with their well-timed series of expose’ and revelations of greed, corruption and sheer financial imbecility, the scandal has morphed from being a mess into a quagmire for UMNO.

Make no mistake, the UMNO elite are watching this case a very wary eye because NFC is also the gateway to UMNO’s Pandora box. If not careful, it can provide arch rival Anwar Ibrahim’s Pakatan Rakyat coalition with a political weapon of mass destruction for the 13th general election.

But scream and shout it may, UMNO has no one to blame but itself, its own greed and its own infighting for this very critical situation. What a blunder of fireworks for a grand finale of destruction for UMNO!

Even Houdini or David Copperfield could never make NFC and the spectre of the Shahrizat clan, their cows, condos and Super-class Mercedes Benz disappear from the people’s minds! Sad to say, the two magicians could never make the whole RM250mil government soft loan reappear for the people either!

‘Safest’ solution

Firstly, the UMNO elite have not been able to resolve the debacle amicably as they have been able to with past cases. Why? Two main reasons – the 13th general election and UMNO’s own internal polls later this year. Yes, instead of compromising and helping to cover up for each other, different factions are using the NFC debacle as leverage to defeat each other.

The ‘final’ decision – for now that is – is to whitewash the debacle. In other words, let Shahrizat and family squirm away, while Raja Nong Chik (right)- blamed for instigating the scandal because he allegedly coveted Shahrizat’s Lembah Pantai parliamentary seat – may have to wait a while more to get his wish. This is deemed the ‘safest’ solution – again, for now that is!

The whitewash ordered by the UMNO elite is actually what Youth Chief Khairy Jamaluddin had initially planned – which is to deny all wrongdoing and to distance themselves from the debacle. Of course, they would lose credibility and the confidence of everyone. But for the disgraceful UMNO, this is not, and will not be the last time.

So regardless of how flimsy is the explanation, how obvious the lies they produce, Khairy and the NFC other stars including Prime Minister Najib Razak, DPM Muhyiddin Yassin, Agriculture Minister Noh Omar will just brazen it out – like the Shahrizats. Anyone who asks will be told that everything is alright and there is nothing to be concerned about.

Obviously, Shahrizat – the Wanita chief – too likes the ‘whitewash’ option. She had been alarmed when former premier Mahathir Mohamad told her to quit before she was chased out of the party. But of course, Khairy will win her everlasting gratitude for taking her side and trying to clarify and justify the alleged wrongdoings. Even so, will the latest plan work?

Salleh and Datuk Fix-it

Salleh Ismail, the NFC boss, had tried to keep cool and stay quiet for as long as he could. But when the luxury condos in Bangsar, followed by another one in Singapore – which worse still was registered to their personal names – started to splash all over the newspapers, he could not keep quiet anymore.

Shahrizat too tried to disassociate herself totally from the debacle, saying NFC was her family’s concern and nothing to do with her. But to no avail because even her own UMNO women said that would be impossible. Salleh is her husband and she is his wife, and there is bound to be lots of pillow talk shared between the two – like any normal couple.

Then the Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission raided the NFC offices, a tad too dramatically, prompting many to accuse the commission of helping to destroy rather than find evidence. As for the police, from initially saying it found no elements of “criminal breach of trust”, the cops U-turned and suddenly found there could be some basis for the Attorney General to prosecute after all.

The next Jack-in-Box to pop out was the unfortunate “Datuk Fix-it”. Initially, speculation was rife that Salleh had been arrested but it turned out to be another real ‘Datuk’, someone who mingles well with the high-and-mighty and does their dirty work for them. This “Datuk Fix-it” could be most fortunate if he plays his cards right.

In the NFC case, he was detained for trying to bribe several Police investigators, offering some RM1.7mil purportedly received from Salleh so as to get the officers onto his side. Of course, the Datuk Fix-it will not be a willing scapegoat for nothing. The Shahrizat-NFC debacle is so hot, many top people could get burnt easily.

RM250million went into NFCorp: How was the money spent?

Unfortunately, Datuk Fix-it was not able to resolve the next PKR bombshell on the credit cards spending binge by the Shahrizats, which amounted to some RM600,000 in 2009 alone. The Malaysian public went livid when they saw the news reports of Shahrizat’s twenty-something-year-old kids drawing huge 5-figure salaries and who were also given similar-sized monthly credit card limits to utilize.

Shahrizat had no choice to to take 3-weeks leave. But instead of cooling off, she roped in PERKASA chief Ibrahim Ali and several Malay NGOs to help defend her and win the sympathy of the Malays. Ibrahim Ali’s trademark racism immediately ruffled feathers when he insisted NFC was “in order” and the whole commotion was due to a disgruntled non-Malay staff who blew the whistle on the project.

Then in true UMNO prime-time drama style, Salleh dutifully telephoned home from Mecca, insisting that it was all a mistake! To Salleh, the Auditor-General audited only the books of the government-owned National Feedlot Centre in Gemas, which is a 2,000 acre ranch and not NFCorp, which is his family-controlled firm that was awarded the job of overseeing the NFC project. According to Salleh, the ranch is is managed by the government itself via the Ministry of Agriculture! But of course, this turned out to be inaccurate.

Apart from extending a most generous RM250 million soft loan, the only government help seen at the NFC in Gemas was the abattoir facility it provided. Additionally, Salleh is involved in both NFCorp and overseeing the state-owned NFC, which is headed by his son and controlled by two other siblings.

NFCorp was also granted a loan by the Badawi administration to run the NFC. So to simply point out the difference in NFCorp and NFC makes no sense at all. Whatever it is, public money in the form of the government loan may have been improperly used, and this must be investigated thoroughly without fear or favor.

Burning questions

Left with no other option, UMNO is now splitting hairs. Like Houdini and Copperfield, they have to yell ‘KAZAM’ to deflect public attention. But sorry to say, no one is blinking.

UMNO is now worse off than before. Its leaders, from Najib to Muhyiddin, to Mahathir to Khairy, are seen as crooks willing to condone corruption, willing even to ‘racialize’ corruption just to get UMNO off the NFC hook.

Salleh has shown himself to be incompetent from the start and he should resign to make way for a probe for negligence and CBT; for not being alert about the set-up and organizational structure of a project entrusted to him to manage; and lastly, for letting the debacle occur right under his own nose. No wonder the RM250 million loan is in a mess, with huge chunks spent on non-cattle related items.

How much is left, how was it spent, how much can be recouped? These are the burning questions but neither Najib nor the Shahrizats will be keen to provide the answers. It looks like NFC is turning more and more into a total disaster by the day. UMNO deputy president Muhyiddin Yassin who awarded the project to Salleh’s NFCorp must also be investigated as to why he selected such an inexperienced person to manage a RM250 million fund.

But the most important questions to ask are why is UMNO taking so long to solve the debacle; why is UMNO working so hard to distance itself from the fallout; and why is it trying to white wash the debacle even though it must know that such a move will leave a huge and ugly scar that can never heal or be hidden?

Even if a private auditor is appointed by the government to probe into NFC, the people will be suspicious, given that the terms and reference of the audit may be skewed to favor certain UMNO parties.

No easy way out – a lesson UMNO can never learn

Be that as it may, the most likely reason for the whitewash is that UMNO does not really have a solution to this debacle.There are just too many inter-connections and to severe some of these may create repercussions that could rock the elite. Yet, by trying to insist everything is fine is equivalent to leaving a time bomb behind and waiting for it to explode, taking UMNO down with it.

The only way to diffuse the political weapon of mass destruction that Khairy, Muhyiddin, Shahrizat, Najib and Nong Chik have built is actually to go in the direction that they are now turning away from.

To save UMNO, corruption must be punished and the perpetrators not allowed to escape. But given UMNO’s record, it is highly unlikely that it can ever bring itself to do this. What next then? Put it this way, whatever new shenanigan UMNO decides on, it will never work unless UMNO owns up.

Malaysia Chronicle