Something stinks: Umno lawyers, RM2.2bil highway and not a squeak yet from Najib

A RM2.2 billion highway contract was recently awarded to companies linked to Umno lawyer Hafarizam Harun and the wife of former Chief Justice Zaki Azmi. Was the awarding of the lucrative contract to Kinrara-Damansara Expressway (Kidex) to Emrail Sdn Bhd and Zabima Engineering Sdn Bhd conducted via an open tender process?

News of the deal also sparked speculation that Zaki and Hafarizam, two key figures in the Perak constitutional crisis of 2009, were awarded the highway contract as a gift for helping Barisan Nasional (BN) topple Pakatan Rakyat in the northern state. Hafarizam is a director in both firms while Zaki’s wife, Toh Puan Nik Sazlina Mohd Zain, is a director in Emrail.

Not the first and neither will it be the last

Sad to say, such dubious practice is not without precedence in Malaysian politics.

For example, former prime minister, Mahathir Mohamed gave the Westport project in Port Klang to an advertising executive named Gnanalingam via a company called Semakin Ajaib Sdn Bhd. Carbon granule-making company, Europlus, was awarded the RM7.07 billion West Coast Expressway (WCE) after a renegotiation process that make things even more favourable to Europlus. What else is new in UMNO-BN?

The NFC scandal is still fresh in our minds, with new allegations emerging that during a probe by the Public Accounts Committee into the cattle-farming scandal, it was Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, who chaired committee that awarded the RM250 million National Feedlot Centre  project to Agroscience Sdn Bhd, a company owned by Umno minister Shahrizat Jalil’s husband. PAC chairman Azmi Khalid’s apparent reluctance to reveal the committee’s findings seems to indicate that he is “under pressure” to protect his BN bosses and ultimately every high-level UMNO leader involved in the project.

Najib must explain why

And while the case against cows is still given the run-around by the MACC, Najib still finds time to dish out goodies to his UMNO cronies. It is not so much a question of doing business, but rather the ethics of doing business - UMNO style. Does it seem right to award contract work to entities that have ties to two very controversial figures? The fact that it involves a lawyer and a former Chief Justice brings the whole law fraternity into disrepute. Questions are raised if there are now clear signs of collaboration between Zaki and Hafarizam in the days after the 2008 general election?

Najib should be made to explain why the pair was granted the RM2.2 billion road construction project and also come clean as to the roles of both lawyers in the Perak crisis. Indeed, it is vital that the UMNO lawyer and the former Chief Justice clear the air so as to return a measure of credibility to the legal fraternity. In most developed countries, judges and especially chief justices keep an arms length from lawyers because they don’t want to be accused of bias or bringing the judiciary into disrepute. The stricter judges do not even socialize with lawyers.

Judiciary and big-time business

Yet in Malaysia, lawyers and chief justices think nothing of entering into business partnerships together and securing government projects to the tune of billions of ringgit. And to further add salt to the conspiracy is the fact that Zaki was a former UMNO lawyer turned Chief Justice and Hafarizam was the UMNO lawyer on duty during the Perak crisis. This shows the extent of UMNO’s involvement in the massive corruption of the Malaysian judiciary. Not only is UMNO awarding public funded projects to those who have served their interests but UMNO is also propagating the further corruption of civil institutions that are supposed to act independently of the executive, and who have sworn to protect the public.

Is it now the idea of UMNO to continue awarding projects to those within their elite circle so as to prepare for an impending loss at GE13? This way, even in losing, UMNO gets the consolation of cleaning out the public coffers and leaving the new establishment with a bad headache.

Malaysia Chronicle