Noose closes in on Shahrizats: Shamsubahrin to hand over h/p, bribery evidence to MACC

Shamsubahrin Ismail, one of the whistle blowers in the RM250mil NFC debacle involving Women's minister Shahrizat Jalil, will hand over evidence that may incriminate her husband for trying to bribe the police to hush up the corruption scandal.

According to his lawyer, N Surendran, Shamsubahrin will be on hand to submit the evidence including his hand-phone containing an SMS message wherein it is believed that Salleh Ismail, the NFC chief and Shahrizat's husband, had asked him to 'influence' the direction of a police probe.

"Shamsubahrin is now out of remand. He will be there. We will hand over concrete SMS evidence of attempt to bribe police in NFC case involving key figures in NFC. The mobile phone and other transcripts will also be handed over to the Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission in Putrajaya at 12noon today," Surendran told Malaysia Chronicle.

Police pick on the poor, protect the rich

Shamsubahrin had accused Salleh of being desperate to cover up the case, offering him RM1.76 million to bribe the police. Shamsubahrin has stated this accusation in a police report, of which Surendran has shown copies to the press.

Also known as "Datuk Fix-it", Shamsubahrin is well known in Umno circles for being a middle man. He turned to Surendran, exposing the SMS bribery and other incidents when Salleh allegedly tried to blame him for the NFC fiasco.

In typical Umno fashion, because Shahrizat is also the party's Women's chief, the police then arrested Shamsubahrin and charged him for trying to cheat Salleh over fraudulent consultancy fees. The court has fixed April 4 to 6, May 14 to 18, and May 21 to 25 as dates for the hearing.

Yet, despite the wealth of corruption evidence against Salleh and his children, who were awarded the National Feedlot Centre cattle breeding project, no move has been made to arrest any of them.

Even calls to Shahrizat to quit pending an investigation have been ignored by Prime Minister Najib Razak, who is also implicated in the case, along with his deputy Muhyiddin Yassin, former premier Abdullah Badawi and Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin.

"The rich and the powerful in NFC are protected but the ordinary Malaysian like Shasubahrin goes to jail. It is astonishing they won't act despite the SMS evidence. The authorities not only must take immediate action on this SMS bribery scandal but they must also explain their failure to take action todate," Surendran had protested.

Scandal has also exposed Najib's weak leadership

All eyes are now on whether Najib will finally move against Shahrizat and the NFC management - which comprises Salleh and his 3 children. The PM's previous assurance that NFC assets have been frozen has been found to be a lie.

The luxury condos and other items that the Shahrizats have been accused of buying with a RM250million government soft loan granted to develop the NFC project have also not been seized. Nor have the bank accounts of the family firms which received large sums directly from NFC been frozen.

Even so, the noose is closing in on the Shahrizats. The NFC debacle has deeply angered Malaysians who cannot believe the extravagant manner in which the family had spent public money, and were then defiant enough to insist they had 'the right'. Worse of all, in buttressing their claims, they cited flawed legal and regulatory terms, making a greater mockery of themselves.

The latest was Salleh's claim that his family was justified in buying super-luxury condos in Singapore, opening restaurants in the top-end shopping malls there as well as a huge supermarket in the soon-to-be-opened Rochester mall, where it is estimated will require at last RM40million a year to run.

According to Salleh, to shift NFC money out to Singapore was justified as there were 'so many tonnes of beef' to sell, so why not rich Singapore. However, the Auditor General had in his 2010 report pointed out that NFC was behind its cow-breeding target and Singapore has not even given NFC any permit to sell beef there.

Another expose' at 3pm

Pakatan leaders have pointed out that for the Shahrizats to legitimately afford all these acquisitions and 'investments', the family would need a combined total monthly income of at least RM500,000 which would far exceed Shahrizat's pay even including the overly-high salaries her husband and children paid themselves.

At 3pm on Wednesday, PKR strategy director Rafizi Ramli, vice president Nurul Izzah and Women's chief Zuraida Kamaruddin will hold a separate press conference where they have promised to reveal another improper asset acquisition.

Given the ever-increasing torrent of evidence against the Shahrizats, the damage done to Najib's fragile credibility has been severe. His delay and feet-dragging over the issue has only made the public more angry with his administration, which has from day one been accused of being 'all talk and no action'.

"If Najib doesn't act, it only proves that he is not at all serious about fighting corruption. This is about covering up corruption in Umno and the NFC is a classic case that will open up the eyes of the people as to what has been going on unchecked for decades to the extent that even with such information out in the open now, they dare to continue to resist punishment," Rafizi told Malaysia Chronicle.

Malaysia Chronicle