Shahrizat, like Caesar's wife, must be above suspicion

Shahrizat Abdul Jalil, the women, family and community development minister, is reported to return to work next week, after three weeks of holidays, purportedly intended to allow the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) and the police carry out investigations into her family-owned National Feedlot Centre.

The minister and her family are under investigation, the assets of the NFC are frozen and the Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yasin is leading a task force to find a solution to the cattle rearing project.

Meanwhile, during her holidays, Shahrizat filed a libel suit against PKR's Rafizi Ramli and Zuridah Kamaruddin for their allegations on the misuse of RM280 million government soft loan meant for the NFC, by Shahrizat's family.

The allegations that the family used the soft loan to purchase two luxurious condominiums raised questions on whether there has been abuse of public money .

That her husband and children are drawing huge salaries from NFC has also raised questions if the soft loan was for personal gains or to build a local industry to reduce Malaysia's dependency on meat imports.

During her holiday break , more issues related to the NFC matter were raised such as that Shahrizat's (left) husband was cheated of RM1.7 million in fraudulent consultancy news by a Datuk who is now facing charges.

Then the auditor-general, after three months's of silence issued a statement saying he had not called the NFC project a "mess " as had been repeatedly stated in the press.

To this Shahrizat's family responded through press statements in all media that they had been "vindicated".

Public demands on the rise

The family's responses to each fresh allegations raised even more questions. At the end of her three- week holiday, the question still remains , "Is Shahrizat like Caesar's wife above suspicion?"

Public opinion is not on Shahrizat's side. The public demands transparency, accountability , truthfulness and ethics from its political leaders.

For example, did Shahrizat in any way use her position to influence the award of the RM230 million public money to the NFC? The abuse of power to influence decisions related to public contracts is defined as corruption.

Wasn't Shahrizat aware that the soft loan to NFC was used topurchase luxury condominiums?

Did Shahrizat, in any way, "twist the arm" of the auditor-general to issue a statement that he had referred to the feedlot project as a mess?

These and many other questions on the accountability of public officials have put Shahrizat and her family under public scrutiny. The pain for Shahrizat, as a wife and mother is understandable.

But Shahrizat as a public official must place truth, ethics, social justice and public interest before personal/family interest.

Members of her own own party Umno, have called for her resignation as a cabinet minister.

On Feb 1, in the Malay Mail, Rafidah Azizah minced no words in calling for tainted leaders to leave the party and government ..." That's for everyone, whether it has got to do with cows or anything else".

In 2010, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's government was caught in a credibility crisis with a series of corruption scandals. The prime minister offered to appear before Parliament's public accounts committee (PAC) .

 Suspicion becoming political liability

"I sincerely believe that like Caesar's wife, the Prime Minister should be above suspicion and it is for this reason that I am prepared to appear before the PAC even though there is no precedent to that effect," Singh said addressing the plenary in Burari on the concluding day of the two-day Congress Party Conference on Dec 20, 2010.

It is crucial that family members or the associates of public figures must not even be suspected of wrongdoing.

To lead effectively, public figures and all associated with them must be of " absolutely impeccable conduct; totally beyond reproach; without even the implication of impropriety".

Recently on Jan 9, 2012, Philip Hildebrand resigned as chairman of the Swiss National Bank , less than a week after he denied any wrong doing in a scandal surrounding his wife's currency trades and rejected calls to step down.

He said: "I came to the conclusion that it's not possible to deliver a definite proof that my wife requested the currency transaction without my knowledge. Unfortunately, mistakes were made around this transaction", referring to the conflict of interest situation in his wife's sale of dollars to Swiss francs and making a profit of SFr75, 000.

Shahrizat, like Caesar's wife, must be above suspicion to sustain her position as a public figure and cabinet minister.

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JOSIE M FERNANDEZ is secretary general of Transparency International Malaysia.