The Najib-Shahrizat soap drama: Upholding Umno corruption - resignation but no prosecution

So the word is out and from the lady herself. Women's minister Shahrizat Jalil's remark that it was up to Prime Minister Najib Razak to decide on the fate of her Senatorship when it expires next month says it all.

Pundits say this is the sappy Umno script that both leaders can be expected to follow, dripping with sentimentality and without any consideration for the rest of the country, which might prefer to live without the culture of corruption promulgated and exemplified best by Najib and Shahizat in the RM250million NFC cattle breeding debacle.

Obviously, Najib will not extend the Senatorship, which means Shahrizat will lose her Cabinet position. Najib will of course thank her for services and contribution to the country, but apologetically point out the public pressure and how he has no choice but to take into consideration the interest of their Umno party, with the 13th general election looming.

Shahrizat will then step aside 'gracefully', in a great show of 'obedience' to Najib, despite having fought like a tigress to negotiate exit terms for herself and family. Whether or not she gives up her Wanita chief post is probably still under negotiations, and at the very latest, she can expect to be ousted when Umno holds its party election later this year.

Typical soap drama to satisfy the gullible Umno members

The plus point of such a script is that it is firstly typically Umno. Secondly, it allows Najib to come off as the hero when actually, it was his camp which caused stink with its out-of-control-attack against Shahrizat just to replace her with FT Minister Raja Nong Chik as the contestant for the Lembah Pantai parliamentary seat in the GE-13.

For Shahrizat, she gets to 'save face'. She did not get to suffer the disgrace of being sacked and though she may be seething at Najib and Nong Chik for pulling the stunt against her, she would still have managed to wangle together an exit deal satisfactory to herself and family.

Notice, there is no mention of corruption charges or CBT prosecution. Najib already intimated as much when he said it was not incumbent on the Attorney General to prosecute despite police recommendation to charge Shahrizat's husband, Salleh Ismail, for criminal breach of trust. The Shahrizats were awarded the NFC project and given a RM250million government soft loan to develop it. But they have been accused of spending a large chunk of the loan on personal items like condominiums, a supermarket, expensive overseas holidays, million-ringgit discounts for family-controlled firms and so on.

"It will be the same old drama that we have seen before over and over again. Najib and Shahrizat will make themselves the hero and heroine when actually they are the ones who have disgraced Malaysia and Umno. Najib can get the mainstream media to print whatever he wants, which is why no one believes in these anymore. The bottom line is, Najib is standing up for corruption. He is endorsing corruption and the cheek of it is that he is hypocritical enough to apologize to the nation and ask Malaysians to give the BN a second chance. Then he pulls a stunt like this!" PKR MP for Batu Tian Chua told Malaysia Chronicle.

Subtle campaign to throw the blame at Mahathir

Indeed, Najib has much to apologize. His short tenure has been marked by an absence of achievement, a huge jump in corruption, racial and religious politicking. Of late, in order to save his own skin, he has waged a subtle campaign against former premier Mahathir Mohamad by airing all the bad deals coined by the latter, so as to make his own under-performance mild by comparison.

No doubt, the 86-year-old Mahathir has caused the most lasting harm to the country's socio-economic fabric but that would merely be because he ruled for 22 years, while Najib was appointed as PM only 3 years ago in 2009. Given the same length of stewardship, the chances of Najib ruining and destroying the country even faster is a given.

Even the mild-mannered Abdullah Badawi, who took over from Mahathir in 2003, could trigger a big jump in corruption although this has since been overshadowed by Najib. The reality is that Umno leaders such as Najib and Badawi, are in a rush to grab the most money they can lay their hands on before the economy bankrupts, as minister in the PM's department Idris Jala has predicted for 2019.

"Malaysians are not witnessing any improvements but only worsening conditions in the country. Malaysia has dropped further in the Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index (CPI) from 56th to 60th. The BN government still lacks the political will to tackle grand corruption and cases of abuse of power as can be seen in recent scandals such as the RM250 million National Feedlot Corporation project," DAP MP for PJ Utara Tony Pua said in a statement out on Tuesday.

"On top of that, Najib is perpetuating patronage and cronyism in its administration by awarding mega-projects and concessions without any competitive tenders to well-known associates of the BN Government. There is much for the BN to apologise for to all Malaysians, not just prior to 2008, but particularly for the past 3 wasted years. UMNO’s most unapologetic “apology” just before the upcoming elections will hence not change how the rakyat perceives BN, especially since the BN leaders are not even willing to recognize the faults in the system."

Some of the projects mooted by Najib and his circle of advisers include the 60-year RM7.1 billion West Coast Expressway project. The BN government has also in the past year awarded many mega-contracts to entities related to crony tycoon Syed Mokhtar Al-Bukhary - the RM7.55 billion contract to DRB Hicom to supply 257 armoured personnel carriers, the new 1,000 Megawatt coal-powered plant concession to Malakoff Bhd and the appointment of MMC-Gamuda as the Project Development Partner of the RM53 billion Klang Valley MRT project.

Abusing power in Malaysia, investing the money in Singapore

But it has been the NFC that has shocked the Malaysian public, who could believe the bare-faced lies told by Shahrizat's family in defiance of public outrage over their alleged abuse of power and criminal breach of trust.

The most recent was following the revelation by PKR's Rafizi Ramli, who exposed the Shahrizats' investment in a luxury supermarket at the new Rochester Mall in Singapore. The Shahrizats have channeled large amounts to Singapore, purchasing two plush condos at the hyper-expensive Marina Bay area nearby to the casino, investing in restaurants and the supermarket.

Salleh Ismail, the NFC chief, had the cheek to insist this was in line with his management's foresight and vision as there was more than plentiful beef to sell, why not to rich Singapore. Salleh was immediately denounced for the idiocy of his remarks. Firstly, the Auditor-General has pointed that among the weaknesses in the NFC project was its lack of livestock and that it was lagging behind set targets to breed enough cows to be able to supply 40% of Malaysia's own demand. Secondly, to seal Salleh's lie, it was further revealed that NFC did not even have any permit to export beef to Singapore.

"It is in this sort of lies that confirm the perception that Umno leaders are not only corrupt, but they are also stupid enough to think other people are more stupid than them. Don't think the Singaporeans do not know. They surf the Net. They know of the cows and condos minister whose family cannot explain the accusations that they are ripping off their own country and bringing the money over to Singapore," said Tian.

Indeed, foreigners are also looking at how Najib, the PM and Umno president, is handling the case. It is disappointing to see him upholding such free-for-all corruption, with the NFC a classroom example of how national funds can be leveraged to siphon investments over to Singapore.

In the decade to 2010, the prestigious New York-based Global Financial Integrity reported that over a trillion ringgit in illicit outflows were channeled to overseas accounts. Till now, Najib has refused to acknowledged this report and no action has been taken to probe the claim despite GFI offers to help trace the money trail.

Malaysia Chronicle