‘Shahrizat will be forced to quit’

Umno insiders claim that the minister has become a liability to both the party and its leaders. So there is only one option.

KUALA LUMPUR: Umno’s top leadership is working towards forcing its Wanita chief Shahrizat Abdul Jalil to resign over the RM250 million National Feedlot Centre (NFC) scandal and she will likely do so in the near future.

Insiders told FMT that many of the party’s top leadership including president and Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak felt that the fiasco could worsen if the senior minister refused to exit, dragging other leaders into the debacle and also dent Umno’s election preparation.

It is understood that the issue would likely be raised at the next supreme council meeting where some members expressed their intention to voice their discontent with the Wanita chief and ask her to make a “graceful departure”.

“There is no other way. She has to resign. Sacking her is not an option as it will make Najib and other ministers that are indirectly involved in the project look bad,” one party official said.

“Shahrizat will be forced to resign. They will make her do so and she has no other option but to follow,” the Umno insider added.

Those likely to be hurt by the project would be none other than Umno’s No2 itself, Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin and supreme council member Noh Omar who is the current agriculture and rural development minister.

The opposition had already demanded a royal commission of inquiry to investigate whether Muhyiddin, who was the agriculture minister at the time of project’s setting up, had played a role in approving the RM250 million government soft loan.

Noh on the other hand had gone all out to defend the project, which the auditor-general described as having “weaknesses”, but the series of exposes on the scandal by the opposition forced him to reconsider his stand.

“If she doesn’t quit, these leaders will get dragged down with her and they won’t let this happen. Not only will they be affected, Umno in general will be damaged,” said another party official.

Shahrizat had been repeatedly linked to NFCorp because of her husband’s role as the company’s chairman, and their children’s directorships in the same entity.

‘Quit calls – a planned effort’

The RM250 million publicly-funded cattle-raising scheme was first termed a “mess” in an article in English daily The Star after it made it into the pages of the Attorney-General’s 2010 Report for falling short of production targets.

The term was later repeated by various media organisations to describe NFCorp after PKR launched a series of exposes to show that the project’s funds had been allegedly abused.

PKR, led by strategic director Rafizi Ramli, had claimed that RM27 million was used for land and property purchases as well as expenses unrelated to cattle farming by Shahrizat and her family.

The exposes prompted several Umno and Barisan Nasional leaders, including influential former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad and former Wanita chief Rafidah Aziz, to call for Shahrizat’s resignation.

Just recently, Shahrizat’s deputy in Wanita Umno Kamilia Ibrahim had also told her boss to “do the right thing”, hinting at her resignation before she did more damage to the party.

MCA president Dr Chua Soi Lek had also hinted that the women, family and community development minister should “do what is best” for Umno and the ruling coalition while Gerakan deputy chief Chang Ko Youn was the most recent to join in the chorus demanding her resignation.

“These calls for Shahrizat to quit is not some random thing. It’s a planned effort to put pressure on her to step down. Do you see any Umno leaders defending Shahrizat? No.

“She’s become a liability to the party and more importantly to some leaders,” the Umno insider said.