Rafizi to expose new NFC scandal on Thursday

As promised, PKR strategy director Rafizi Ramli will expose a new scandal in the RM250 million NFC corruption debacle involving Umno minister Shahrizat Jalil on Thursday.

"We will continue to reveal the improprieties in the NFC," Rafizi toldMalaysia Chronicle. He had previously said there was enough scandals in the national cattle breeding project to last 2 whole years.

Rafizi will hold a press conference at the Parliament lobby at 12.30pm.

Impossible for her not to know

The National Feedlot Centre was awarded to Shahrizat's family to oversee in 2006. The project came with a RM250 million government soft loan, which PKR leaders have alleged has been siphoned away and leveraged on to obtain bank loans to buy personal assets such as luxury condominiums in Bangsar and Singapore.

Shahrizat is due to step down on April 8, when her Senator-ship expires but will continue as the head of the Umno women's wing or Wanita. Prime Minister Najib Razak has endorsed her decision, shielding her from public anger on the basis that there was not any evidence to incriminate her.

Yet as pundits point out, it was impossible for Shahrizat not to be aware of what was going on at the NFC, where her husband is the executive chairman and her 3 children are all directors. How could they have hidden from her assets such as the condos and a super-class Mercedes? How can she not be suspicious of their sudden new found wealth?

Let off the hook?

The family has also opened a large upmarket restaurant in Singapore's poshest mall as well as undertaken a supermarket lease. So far, only her husband Salleh Ismail has been charged for criminal breach of trust.

There is growing cynicism that the Shahrizats will be let off the hook or escape with the lightest penalty, given Umno and Najib's past endorsement of activities deemed to be corrupt.

Malaysia Chronicle