The MAS Saga: victims continue to fall

Hafarizam’s claim that RPK’s allegations was mala fide and was aimed at dragging him and Zaki “into scandal and disrepute” is laughable. In the first place, Zaki is infamous for his playboy ways and has never had the credibility to become the Chief Justice. This was the man UMNO appointed as Chief Justice despite after he admitted in the Shariah Court that he married illegally in a bicycle shop in Perlis in order to get a Thai marriage certificate, which he later burned when the woman he married sought to enforce her rights as his second wife.

NO HOLDS BARRED

Bukit Aman Deep Throat

In 2006, Malaysia Today started the series on the MAS story about how the national airline company, a company with a cash reserve of RM600 million in the bank, was pushed to the point of bankruptcy with RM8.8 billion in liabilities. MAS was bailed out by the Widespread Asset Unbundling (WAU) rescue scheme using taxpayers' money. Malaysia Today exposed that MAS’s former Chairman, Tan Sri Tajudin Ramli, could plunder MAS at will because it was all part of UMNO’s bigger plans at filling its political coffers and enriching its powerful members, especially its former Treasurer, Tun Daim Zainuddin.

That this was all part of UMNO’s plans was revealed in several affidavits filed by Tajudin Ramli in his court papers against MAS and supported by recent court testimonies of other UMNO cronies such as Dato Seri Rahman Maidin who once helmed MRCB and Tan Sri Halim Saad of Renong in other cases that came up for trial over the past year.

The UMNO modus operandi is still continuing, as can be seen from the NFC RM250,000 million Scandal involving Shahrizat Jalil’s family and the Kinrara-Damansara Expressway (Kidex) RM2.2 billion project involving the ex-Chief Justice and UMNO’s Legal Advisor. In the NFC scandal, the MACC dragged its feet and passed the buck to the police by saying that the investigations did not fall under the ambit of the MACC Act. Suddenly, the MACC is curtailing its own powers when it comes to investigating UMNO big guns!

Not wanting to be made a whipping boy in this whole episode, the police have now passed the buck to AG Gani Patail to take action by disclosing that they have recommended to AG Gani Patail that Shahrizat’s husband and children be charged for CBT.   

In the Kidex matter, the RM2.2 billion project was awarded to Emrail Sdn Bhd and Zabima Engineering Sdn Bhd,both without any highway construction experience, but were awarded still because the players of these two companies are UMNO lawyer Hafarizam Harun and former Chief Justice Zaki Azmi. RPK revealed that is their reward for their efforts to ensure the ousting of the Pakatan Rakyat state government in Perak.

Hafarizam’s claim that RPK’s allegations was mala fide and was aimed at dragging him and Zaki “into scandal and disrepute” is laughable. In the first place, Zaki is infamous for his playboy ways and has never had the credibility to become the Chief Justice. This was the man UMNO appointed as Chief Justice despite after he admitted in the Shariah Court that he married illegally in a bicycle shop in Perlis in order to get a Thai marriage certificate, which he later burned when the woman he married sought to enforce her rights as his second wife.

So, what mala fide and ill-repute on RPK’s part is Hafarizam talking about?

Back to the MAS case, Malaysians would still remember the extent UMNO would go to cover up for Tajuddin in the MAS Scandal. In 2006, then MAS Managing Director Idris Jala accompanied Dato Ramli Yussuf, then the Director of Commercial Crimes Investigation Department (CCID), to brief then PM Abdullah Badawi about Tajudin’s misconducts. Ramli Yusuff even prepared a report recommending that Tajudin should be charged. For doing that, some months later, Ramli was discredited by the mainstream media as a corrupted cop.Ramli engaged Lawyer Rosli Dahlan to defend him.

What the public may not realise is that it was Rosli Dahlan, as the MAS external lawyer, who had exposed Tajuddin’s related third party contracts and has been fighting all the MAS cases against Tajuddin and his camouflaged third party companies. To erode Dato’ Ramli’s credibility for writing the report to Abdullah Badawi, they needed to first bring Rosli down. This they did by making the MACC brutally arrest and charge him just the day before Hari Raya of 2007. Then, on 1st November 2007, Dato Ramli was stripped off his rank as Commissioner of Police and charged for purportedly unauthorised use of a Police Cessna. The rest of Rosli’s and Ramli’s story were already reported previously by Malaysia Today.

So, only in Malaysia do the real crooks get off while the innocent whistle blowers get charged.   

As proof that all that Malaysia Today had reported in the MAS Story series since 2006 are the truth and nothing but the truth, five years later, on 8th August 2011, Minister Nazri Aziz issued his infamous letter directing MAS to sack Rosli’s firm and replace them with the UMNO lawyer Hafarizam. This was in order that all the shenanigans in the GLCs including in the MAS cases will not be discovered.

Last Tuesday, 21st February 2012, Tajuddin settled with Danaharta, Telekom Malaysia Bhd, Naluri Corporation, Celcom (M) Bhd, Atlan Holding Bhd and CIMB Group. The only GLC not settling yet is MAS. Sources say that it is because Rosli is still leading the MAS series of litigation despite his name not appearing in the case.

On the settlement, Transparency International Malaysia Chairperson, Paul Low, issued a statement that the case indicated blatant abuses of power and a lack of prudence in the managing of the country’s finances, resulting in losses of public funds. Low also warned that following the court settlement, Malaysia’s aspiration of having good governance has also come under scrutiny:

“His (Tajuddin’s) claim that the government (through the assurance given by the then Prime Minister and Minister of Finance) had indemnified him of any liability incurred in his purchase of the MAS shares from Bank Negara needed to be substantiated and disclosed by the institutions and the ministers concerned.

We are extremely concerned as to the lack of public disclosure of the reasons for what seems to be a ‘arbitrary write-off’ of the RM589 million loan owed by Tajuddin relating to his purchase of MAS shares,” Low told Malaysiakini.

Since CJ Zaki’s retirement, there is some independent streak in the Malaysian judiciary. So, later this week, all that Malaysia Today had reported about the MAS story since 2006 would unfold in court when the MAS cases come to trial before Justice Rosila Ayob. Let’s see if something happens to this Judge for “judicial indiscipline” for not following the Court of Appeal, which had already allowed Tajuddin’s request for adjournment in the MAS cases before that court.

To prevent the MAS trial from proceeding smoothly, early this year one of MAS key witnesses, Raja Azura Mahayudin, who prepared the audit report of Tajuddin’s related party contracts, was moved out of MAS. She has been rewarded with a position as CEO of the Peneraju Bumiputera Foundation Fund. That was how they bought Idris Jala’s silence by making him a Minister in charge of PEMANDU.

On the other hand, Shahari Sulaiman, the man who lodged an MACC report on 20th May 2009 against Tajuddin and others who covered up the case, was quietly removed from his position as Managing Director of MASKargo on some obscure allegations of corruptions. To discredit Shahari as a witness in the MAS cases, and to remind Shahari of what they did to Dato Ramli in 2007, the MACC ransacked Shahari’s house on 1st November 2011 in full view of his wife, children and neighbors.

Déjà Vu!

Then, in further repeat of what happened in 2007 to Dato Ramli and Rosli Dahlan, just last week, on 22nd February 2012, Shahari Sulaiman was hauled up by the MACC and subjected to a 13-hour interrogation grilling. To inflict maximum damage and fear, the MACC also gave notice that they will also grill Shahari’s wife, who has nothing to do with the husband’s business affairs.

Dato Ramli and Rosli may have been acquitted by independent-minded Sessions Court Judges, but AG Gani has pursued and is still pursuing appeals in the High Court, the Court of Appeal and the Federal Court against them. These appeals against Ramli and Rosli appear totally senseless when the country can see bigger abuses committed by UMNO goons and cronies not acted on by AG Gani Patail.   

Dates seem important in all these. This is the Water Dragon year. Apparently Dato Ramli was born on 29th February 1952, which was a Water Dragon year. So, Dato Ramli is not just a Water Dragon baby but also a leap year child, which makes him very special -- thus, explaining why all these “special” things happened to him. The Chinese believe that if one completes the five cycles of the Water Dragon year, once will go straight to heaven. I have this to say to Dato Ramli: having gone to the abyss of hell in the past five years, he deserves to now go to heaven.

Happy Birthday, Dato Ramli!