NFC and Shahrizat: A new political dilemma for Najib and Umno

What is now the RM250 million NFC debacle was once part of a grand plan by the people in the Agriculture ministry to make Malaysia self-sufficient in food, which was a good and feasible plan and could have been very successful. But unfortunately, it was hijacked by UMNO and turned into a money-making scheme for its elite leaders.

The same goes with the New Economic Policy and whatever that the nation's planners have so far come up with for the government to implement so as to benefit the country. All have either been hijacked by UMNO or passed on to its BN partners. It is for the reason that while the UMO led government loudly proclaims 'progress', what the citizens really feel is 'regress'.

With self-sufficiency in food, Malaysia would be able to save billions in the long term and even be a net food exporter. If the NEP had been implemented properly and diligently, the goals would have been achieved by now and the policy abolished. Malaysia could have been a success story for the rest of the world to emulate.

Unfortunately, UMNO spoiled everything. How? Well, they meddled, shortchanged, cheated, siphoned out and stole everything that they could put their hands on. It is not for nothing that UMNO is described as a pirate ship. So those thieves in Somali, watch out - UMNO Mari!

Classic case of an UMNO money-making scheme

The NFC mess is a classic case of an UMNO  money-making scheme moving at its slickest - until of course internal infighting made the rival factions in UMNO turn against and spill the beans on each other. From the UMNO president, deputy president all the way down to the top guns in the youth and Wanita wings, they all willingly supported Shahrizat Jalil - the Women's minister and head of the Women's wing - as her family dug a huge hole for themselves with the National Feedlot Centre cattle breeding project.

So it is not surprising that Shahrizat got very angry when her UMNO colleagues later turned their backs on her and her family. After betraying her, they forced her and her family to step out and take on the full blame. Remember, someone leaked out those secret details to the PKR, some in UMNO even say it was someone from Prime Minister Najib Razak's camp but in the end he had to beat a hasty retreat because the scandal got completely out of hand.

Then as if to show their gratitude, the duplicitous UMNO elite rushed out to publicly thank her for her 'sacrifice' and her magnanimous spirit in accepting responsibility and not tarring them in the process!

But if Shahrizat is smart, she should repent sincerely and fully. She should also blow the whistle on the other elite for their thievery. After all, she has gone on several Umrahs (trips to Mecca) in the past few stressful months alone and she should know very well that corruption is illegal and a sin in the eyes of God and Islam.

Tried to fight back

For a while, Shahrizat tried to fight back. Her famous giveaway comment that 'which BN leader has no problem' was meant to keep the wolves and fickle friends at bay. But in the end, it was just too much for the UMNO elite to handle. Loyalty has never been a quality they are known for anyway. It has always been money that was their common denominator. And when Najib, who is also the UMNO president, found his own 'transactions' in NFC being exposed, that's when he finally started to move in on Shahrizat.

Being a trained lawyer, the Women's minister must have made sure that the paper trail did not lead to her and her name is not in any of the documents. But the paper trail against her husband and three children is just too great for the usual UMNO runaround tricks to work here - not with the 13th general election looming and Najib facing the risk of another public tarring if his Kazakhstan connections in the NFC are exposed.

Remember, Najib has pitched to the UMNO warlords that BN can only win based on his popularity alone because the individual components like MCA, Gerakan, MIC and UMNO itself have all lost their credibility with the people. This is why he must protect himself at all costs - so as to protect them! That the UMNO-BN can fall for it and agree is a sign of how desperate the once-mighty coalition has become!

Crocodile pit

One may wonder, why Salleh Ismail, the NFC chief and Shahrizat's husband, did not engage a real full-fledged professional team to manage the project. Critics point out that such a move would have defeated their purpose. Managing the project by himself, helped by his own family, made the stealing easier.

The NFC at the end of the day was just another UMNO money-making vehicle. Stealing is the main agenda as with other projects launched by UMNO including Proton, Malaysian Airlines, Port Klang Free Zone, Tenaga, Telekom, the Independent Power Producers and so on. For the past 5 decades, stealing has become what UMNO does best. It has become a well-honed art, with the UMNO elite also assuming a new skill -  shielding, deflecting and protecting their colleagues who slipped up.

But for those who could not be saved - like the Shahrizats - these ruthless businessmen had no compunction in mercilessly withdrawing their support. Sucj is life in a crocodiles pit.

Najib's hand in NFC flushed out

It is not surprising that Najib has said very little on the NFC case as the last bit of spicy NFC news involved the purchase of a RM1.7million luxury apartment in Kazakhstan. His daughter married into a powerful political family there and he is believed to have sanction a memorandum of understanding between NFC and a Kazakh party when he visited the nation on an official trip in June last year.

Firstly, such a deal is illegal as the NFC is not authorized to invest overseas. Second, why did Najib, who is also the Finance minister close an eye? Did he or his Kazakh friends get something out of it? No doubt, whatever 'goodie' he may have picked up in Kazakhstan would pale in comparison with the commission that he is accused of corruptly getting from the Scorpene submarines bought in 2002, but Najib is facing the battle of his life.

Najib knows he has to win GE-13 and does not need any more negative publicity. On the contrary, he needs to make himself out to be a hero and this is what he is now trying to fool Malaysians into thinking. That he is a corruption fighter, while poor Shahrizat is to be pitied and forgiven.

Yes, Shahrizat faces seeing her husband and children being jailed. To the tender-hearted in UMNO, many of whom are rural housewives, this may be enough to make them take off their aprons and march to the ballot boxes and vote for the BN. But will it also fool the urban and educated members in UMNO? Certainly, the ruse won't cut it with the other Malaysians.

New political dilemma - UMNO's inability to tackle corruption

So, for now, Najib reckons he has done enough to save UMNO and to pacify voters. He hopes that such a move will also take the wind out from the sails of PKR and its strategy director, Rafizi Ramli, who has been at the forefront of the barrage of revelations made against the Shahrizats.

But here, Najib may have got it wrong. Whether Salleh is found guilty and jailed or not is by now secondary. The most important thing as far as Malaysians are concerned, is how Najib and the government cleans up the NFC mess.

The manner in which the Shahrizats bought condos and a supermarket in Singapore and their sale of a Singapore-incorporated firm has blown the whistle on how the UMNO elite have been siphoning national money overseas. Malaysians are now hungry for more juicy tidbits. They want to know how it was done and what will Najib do to make sure that the money is recovered.

This of course puts Najib in a new political dilemma. If he begins to clean up the government and UMNO, he can expect to face immediate resistance from other factions including from Mahathir Mohamad, the former premier who ruled Malaysia and UMNO for 22 years. Given that Najib has his own huge 'baggage' to carry, this is one task that he could never achieve - and that is to weed out corruption. In fact, no UMNO leader could, even if he had no baggage at all.

Those who have baggage in UMNO outnumber those who are clean and they will make sure that all attempts to 'reform' Malaysia are frustrated. This is the situation and this is why when former premier Abdullah Badawi was asked what were the main issues facing Malayia in a recent Bloomberg interview, Badawi only dared to mention race and religion.

Weapon of Mass Destruction

So, no - neither UMNO or Najib is safe yet. Shahrizat is a good scapegoat but not a big enough scapegoat to absorb all of the UMNO-BN's misdeeds. Furthermore, the backlash from the Shahrizats and the other UMNO factions to Najib's latest handling of the NFC - charging Salleh for CBT - have yet to be seen.

Malaysia's Cowgate debacle remains the “weapon of mass destruction” for the PKR and Pakatan Rakyat to use to defeat the corrupt UMNO-BN in GE-13.

Malaysia Chronicle