EPISODE 29: The hidden betrayals

 

So, Ong Tee Keat and Lee Hwa Beng are not as innocent as they pretend to be. Ong Tee Keat and Lee Hwa Bang are being portrayed as angels while the real devils are supposed to be the ex-leaders of MCA. And Umno is helping to cover up their misdeeds because the money that they scammed from the PKFZ project was supposed to have gone to help MCA in financing the general elections.

THE CORRIDORS OF POWER

Raja Petra Kamarudin

In Malaysia, things are not always what they appear to be. What you see is notwhat you get, contrary to what Flip Wilson a.k.a. ‘Geraldine’ used to say. And if you do not know who Flip Wilson is, then you must have been born after the 1960s. Those of us born before Merdeka would know whom I am talking about. 

Readers will recall that EPISODE 25: The invisible web (of deceit) - part 1 andEPISODE 26: The invisible web (of deceit) - part 2 (read HERE and HERE) was about things not always being what they appear to be. Those two episodes showed how Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad was demonised as being reckless for the various grandiose infrastructure projects which his successor, Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, had to shelve because the country had no more money to spend due to the way the nation’s coffer was squandered by Dr Mahathir.

The mastermind of all these smear campaigns against Dr Mahathir was none other than the man who once headed the NST group, Dato Kalimullah Hassan, the man Dr Mahathir called ‘Hindu God, Muslim priest’. When Dr Mahathir first mentioned the name ‘Hindu God, Muslim priest’, even those in the ex-Prime Minister’s close circle did not know whom he was referring to. It took many days for them to finally figure out whom Dr Mahathir meant. 

In an interview later, Kalimullah said he felt very hurt and his family was extremely sad that he had been besmirched in that matter. Anyway, is not Malaysian politics about besmirching one another rather than about discussing matters such as good governance? So what else is new? Malaysian politicians make a living besmirching one another. And those are the people we want to vote into office? Pleeeeezzzzz!

Abdullah Badawi also scrapped the national petroleum and sugar subsidies because the country was said to be on the brink of bankruptcy. This thing about the country going bankrupt is not what I say but what Idris Jala had said when he first became Minister-in-Charge of Pemandu. Idris Jala had graduated from being the Managing Director of MAS to being a Minister in Abdullah Badawi’s cabinet. In doing so, he affected a coup d’etaton Koh Tsu Koon who until then had headed Pemandu.

Yes, that lembik Gerakan ex-Chief Minister who lost the PM’s home state of Penang to DAP’s Lim Guan Eng was still given a minister’s post because Abdullah Badawi was fond of him. Koh Tsu Koon gave a new meaning to the term running dog. And are not all Chinese in Barisan Nasional running dogs of the Umno Malays? So,siapa lebih pandai, Melayu or Cina?

Idris Jala is an amazing man. He is supposed to be a turn-around expert. I don’t think anyone can dispute that by just looking at his achievements. Idris Jala was Managing Director of the national airlines and the man who accused Tajudin Ramli of causing MAS to suffer losses of RM8 billion. Since Tajudin was the creation of Dr Mahathir, Dr Mahathir was again blamed for these losses (READ EPISODE 6: How Malaysia Today ‘lied’ three years ago HERE). 

It was Idris Jala who urged the head of the CCID, Dato Ramli Yusuff, to make a presentation to Abdullah Badawi with a recommendation to prosecute Tajudin. However, instead of taking action against Tajudin, Abdullah Badawi and the Attorney General, Gani Patail, closed the MAS case. This was because Tajudin had threatened to reveal that Abdullah Badawi’s brother, Ibrahim Badawi, had also benefitted from the MAS Catering contracts.

To end all investigations into the MAS scandal, the AG decided to charge Dato Ramli and the MAS lawyer, Rosli Dahlan, instead. That resulted in the MAS case getting classified as NFA (no further action). In the next episode, we will reveal more regarding AG Gani Patail, the courts, and the government’s continuing cover-ups of the Tajudin Ramli-MAS scandal. So stay tuned. We have not finished with that issue. There is more to come.

Idris Jala then did a U-turn as if nothing had happened and was instantly promoted into Abdullah Badawi’s Cabinet as Minister for economic and other recoveries -- the NKRAs. One of the first few things Idris Jala said was that the country was headed for bankruptcy and then he provided the many reasons as to why Abdullah Badawi needed to scrap the various projects that Dr Mahathir had given to his crony -- that self proclaimed Arab who is actually a Mamak, the rice-trader Syed Mokhtar Al Bukhary. In Episode 26, Malaysia Today revealed that these projects were rebranded as Private Finance Initiatives (PFI), when in fact they were not, just in order to hike up the project costs so that Abdullah Badawi’s family and cronies can make some money.

Having said that the country was on the brink of bankruptcy during Abdullah Badawi’s time, it is amazing how now, under Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak, Idris Jala turns around and says that the country’s economy is peachy-rosy and honky-dory so that Najib can squander so much in so short a time as the GE13 approaches. This native from the highlands of Bario truly deserves to be called ‘the turn-around expert’. 

Now, before I digress too far, as I usually do, you will wonder why I started by saying that things are not always what they appear to be and why the title of this episode is The Hidden Betrayals. I have always said that we will attack those who try to make themselves look like goody-two-shoes, both sides of the political divide, when in reality they are the scumbags and slime-balls that the public have yet to discover. Malaysia Today focuses on the untold stories and the shenanigans by those who walk in the corridors of power. So let us talk about that. 

 

I would like to refer to Datuk Lee Hwa Beng who recently launched his "tell-all" book 'PKFZ: A Nation's Trust Betrayed' where the former Port Klang Authority (PKA) chairman chronicled the nation's supposedly biggest financial scandal -- the RM12.5 billion Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) fiasco. The book was launched by Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat, the former Transport Minister who had appointed Lee as the PKA chairman in 2008 to oversee the unravelling of the scandal.

Lee Hwa Beng and Ong Tee Kiat are trying to portray themselves as heroes of the nation while others are portrayed as crooks and scoundrels. Basically, Lee Hwa Beng and Ong Tee Keat are disenchanted politicians. They both need a new political lifeline. It is rumoured that they are attempting to cross over to DAP in the hope that they will be rewarded in the event the Barisan Nasional government falls come GE13.

In Malaysia, when you need to reinvent yourself, all you need to do is to distance yourself from the old corrupted regime and be seen as crusaders of truth, justice, good governance, civil liberties, democracy, anti-corruption, anti-abuse of power, etc. To do that, you just have to run down your former party, sensationalise the abuses that will excite the public, and presto, you become sinless from all your past deeds just like a Born Again Christian.

That’s an old script that politicians recycle over and over again. Anwar Ibrahim did that. Now you see the bow-tied Mamak, Kadir Sheikh Fadzir, doing that successfully as well -- so much so that he can even take centre-stage with Mat Sabu in various ceramah. If PAS, PKR or DAP fall for that cheap trick, then they only have themselves to blame when these people later turn around and become turncoats. Examples are aplenty -- Datuk Seri Zahrin Hashim, Zulkifli Noordin, Hasan Ali, Ibrahim Ali, Ezam Mohd Nor, Ruslan Kassim, and many, many more. Do we not learn from all these mistakes?

Anyway, back to Lee Hwa Beng’s book. Lee has given the impression that all the evils were done before his time as PKA Chairman. Lee also gave the impression that all these were also before Ong Tee Keat’s time as Transport Minister and that Ong had no involvement whatsoever in the matter. Lee then ran down the Kuala Dimensi Sdn Bhd (KDSB) CEO and Bintulu MP, Datuk Seri Tiong King Sing, as if he had no involvement with Tiong or KDSB in fixing the project cost.

But Lee Hwa Beng is telling a lie. It is just like one of Ali Baba’s 40 thieves calling All Baba a thief. They are all thieves.

Malaysia Today will now reveal the truth because Malaysia Today knows better. Malaysia Today has eyes and ears everywhere. Malaysia Today has access to the darkest secrets of the known scumbags and slime-balls of society and those who portray themselves as saints. Malaysia Today will now show you the letter dated 10 May 2008 that Ong Tee Keat as Transport Minister sent to then Prime Minister Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi (see letter below).

Paragraph 2 of that letter states that the project costing was done by a quantity surveyor appointed by the government itself -- QS4 Consortium. Paragraph 3(i) of that letter clearly shows that PKA considered the project costing as reasonable and acceptable. Paragraphs 4 and 6 emphasised that PKA considers KDSB’s requests as valid and recommends that the Prime Minister accept all of KDSB’s costing proposals.

In a second letter dated 14 May 2008, the TKSU of the Prime Minister accepts Ong’s proposals (see letter below).

The author of the letter was clearly Ong Tee Keat. The PKA Chairman was Lee Hwa Beng. So, why did Lee so blatantly lie in his book that neither he nor Ong had anything to do with KDSB?

Malaysia Today will tell you why.

Look at the two letters again. All government letters normally have a file or project reference. The Prime Minister’s letter dated 14 May 2008 has a reference. Now look at Ong Tee Keat’s letter dated 10 May 2008. Do you see any file reference to the subject matter? None!

Ong Tee Keat and Lee Hwa Beng have conveniently made this letter disappear from the file without trace, just like how Altantuya Shaariibuu’s immigration records disappeared. They dared to so boldly do this because, to their mind, there is no way of tracing this letter. That is why Lee Hwa Beng dared to lie in his book. But Lee forgets that Malaysia Today has archives that go much deeper and much farther than the National Archives of Malaysia.

So, to all you political haves-been and aspiring politicians, don’t throw stones if you live in a glass house. Don’t malign others if you have skeletons in your own closet. Malaysia Today is here to reveal the truth and to level the playing field for all!

So, Ong Tee Keat and Lee Hwa Beng are not as innocent as they pretend to be. Ong Tee Keat and Lee Hwa Bang are being portrayed as angels while the real devils are supposed to be the ex-leaders of MCA. And Umno is helping to cover up their misdeeds because the money that they scammed from the PKFZ project was supposed to have gone to help MCA in financing the general elections.

The deal is simple: Umno will take some projects, MCA will take some projects, MIC will take some projects, Gerakan will take some projects, and so on. And the money they make from these projects will help finance the elections. But in reality, the money very seldom goes to the political parties they are supposed to go to. Instead, they go into the pockets of certain people. And because everyone is guilty of the same crime, they need to cover each other’s back. 

Hence, MCA did not really get the money from the PKFZ deal. Instead, the money went into the pockets of the MCA leaders. And, since so many people are involved, they are not able to spill the beans. They have to cover up these misdeeds because revealing it would mean that many would fall, including those whistle-blowers who sing like a canary.

 

The novelty here is: when one Barisan Nasional leader points his of her finger at another Barisan Nasional leader, he or she is not wrong. The crime really did happen. The only point is, those pointing their fingers at others themselves have dirty fingers.

As I said, this is not just an MCA dilemma. It happens in Umno, MIC, Gerakan and all the other members of Barisan Nasional as well. Take the Lynas and NFC issues, the two latest ‘hot issues’, as examples. Najib is nursing a huge migraine regarding these issues. With Bersih, Lynas and the NFC combined, Najib may not be able to call for the next general election in June after all. It may have to be delayed till the end of this year or maybe even early next year if he can’t resolve all these issues. 

But we shall talk about the Lynas and NFC issues in the next episode. There is more than meets the eye regarding these two issues as well. And in the next episode Malaysia Today will reveal the untold story and the behind the scenes goings-on about those who walk in the corridors of power. So stay tuned for more. Yes, there is more than meets the eye regarding the Lynas and NFC issues.