More scandals, more dirt, more lies

Besides the Bersih 3.0 uproar, the country is kept busy with other disturbing news.

COMMENT

Looks like there is no dearth of “news” post-Bersih 3.0. The entire April 28 sit-in protest pandemonium aside, the pro-Umno blogs are now busy with a different “project”, a smear campaign at the expense of PKR deputy president Azmin Ali.

On May 2, the Umno-owned Utusan Malaysia published several pictures showing a man resembling Azmin engaged in an illicit sexual act with an unknown woman.

The pictures, taken from websites www.papagomo.com and www.amwaraidc.com, showed the man cuddling the woman on a sofa and in the toilet.

Azmin has denied the allegations, saying a similar modus operandi was used to smear Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim against him.

“Recently, Umno supporters accused me of insulting the royalty and I was also accused of inciting the crowd during the Bersih 3.0 to riot.

“But when all that failed, they started accusing me of being involved in a sex scandal in an attempt to tarnish my image before the general election,” said Azmin, the Gombak MP.

Last year, the nation was abuzz when a “Datuk Trio” showed a video to several journalists, which allegedly had Anwar engaging in illicit sex with a Chinese prostitute in an unknown hotel.

Anwar had since denied the allegation that the man in the video was him.

EC deputy cries slander

Meanwhile, Election Commission (EC) deputy chairman Wan Ahmad Wan Omar is crying foul, refuting claims that he is an Umno member.

He said the allegation was a lie and slander aimed at tarnishing his name and integrity as EC second-in-command and also the image of the EC, which he says has never been partial.

PKR secretary-general Saifuddin Nasution Ismail in a press statement had alleged that Wan Ahmad was a member of Kubang Bunggor Umno branch in Pasir Mas, Kelantan.

What is both puzzling and worrying is that Wan Ahmad on April 27 had confirmed that he “could have been” an Umno member; but post-Bersih 3.0 is claiming otherwise, saying the individual referred to by Saifuddin was an Umno member who shared the same name as him.

Why the change in tune, Wan Ahmad?

By the way, the EC which is supposed to be independent and answerable to Parliament is financed by the Prime Minister’s Department.

So many lies post-Bersih 3.0
Also in the dock is Astro, the only satellite channel to be licensed by the Barisan Nasioanl government and which has been taken to task by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) for snipping off 30 seconds of its two-minute news clip on the Bersih 3.0 protest.

Not just BBC, even Al-Jazeera’s account of the April 28 rally had been “tampered” with by Astro.

In BBC’s case, the clip was produced by senior BBC journalist Emily Buchanan and gave a detailed run-down on the rally.

It was learnt that Astro allegedly broadcasted a doctored version removing three separate sequences, one of which showed a policeman allegedly firing at demonstrators.

The other two sequence were interviews with demonstrators who gave first-hand accounts of why they took to the streets demanding for clean and fair elections.

BBC in a statement dated April 30 said: “The broadcast of anti-government protests in Malaysia was apparently edited before it was re-broadcast on Malaysian satellite television, with sequences removed from the original BBC version.

“The BBC is making urgent enquiries to the Malaysian operator, Astro, to establish the facts. We strongly condemn any blocking of the trusted news that we broadcast around the world including via distribution partners.”

Astro, however, has yet to respond to BBC.

Much hanky-panky at work

Finally, after much guessing game, the proposed US$364 million (RM1.1 billion) share swap between Malaysia Airlines and its rival Air Asia will become a thing of the past.

The deal, formulated by Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak and inked last August, was for both carriers to compete effectively against rivals like Tiger Airways and Singapore Airlines once the Southeast Asian open-sky policy comes into effect in 2015.

The plan, however, was opposed by the 20,000-strong MAS union which was worried that the partnership mirrored a takeover by AirAsia, its founder Tony Fernandes and his notorious brand of aggressive cost-cutting.

Under the deal, Tune Air, controlled by Fernandes and his deputy Kamarudin Meranun, would hold a 20.5% stake in MAS and two board seats. In exchange, state investment arm Khazanah Nasional, the majority shareholder in MAS, would have a 10% stake in AirAsia.

But a mere six months after signing the deal, MAS reported its worst-ever loss of RM2.5 billion (US$820 million) for 2011, shocking analysts who had expected the restructuring to limit losses.

It was revealed that CIMB, headed by Najib’s brother Nazir, who is the bank’s group chief executive officer, was the adviser for both companies. Like he did in the controversial Scorpene submarines deal, was Najib here too expecting a cut or commission for having masterminded a disastrous deal?

Is there any wonder then why the rakyat of this country is fed up with all the hanky-panky taking place?

Jeswan Kaur is a freelance writer and a FMT columnist.