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Malaysia's hottest, most scandalous video expose ever! Steamier than sodomy!
Behold! Revealed for all to see - Selangor's Menteri Besar Abdul Khalid Ibrahim... working at his desk for 15 minutes.
I'm having trouble finding a better term for my reaction than the one so commonly used on the Internet: Facepalm.
In trying to topple Pakatan and Khalid in Selangor, BN sympathisers encountered a strange creature they have clearly never accounted before: a clean politician.
Being clean is not the same as being perfect. Khalid - like any living human being - may not be perfect, but I daresay all available evidence suggests that he is clean.
This has all his detractors scratching their heads in confusion. Surely Khalid must have taken a bribe at some point? Or had some sort of affair somewhere along the road?
Yet, all that they have been able to come up with is a painfully boring, 15-minute video of him working at his desk.
This should not come as a surprise to a student of self-made millionaires. Look at the likes of Warren Buffett or Bill Gates (Tony Pua might perhaps serve as a closer-to-home example).
These are not men given to the extravagances of, say Silvio Berlusconi or John F Kennedy - men who displayed behaviour not uncommon in those whose lives have been defined by a lifelong involvement in politics. These are men who made their fortunes by believing in the value of diligence, dedication and freedom from distraction.
Desperate doubt-casting
I can imagine the consternation faced by political operatives tasked with bringing Khalid down.
These guys have a very limited repertoire and the implausibility of their intended victim's guilt appears not to prevent them from falling back on the only tools they know how to use: sex and corruption.
In Khalid's case, RPK - the ‘celebrated' web savant who revealed the video - casually drops the name of a woman member of Khalid's staff in an attempt to paint the possibility of some sort of relationship.
Screen captures from a video may suggest the existence of a video; but a video of a man working at his desk does not suggest the existence of a video of him in some compromising position. In the absence of any hard evidence, this is merely a lame attempt to cast aspersions and doubt.
Flailing financial fictions
Chua Tee Yong takes the same approach. He thinks that if he puts out some names and numbers, maybe he can introduce doubt on the cleanliness of Khalid's administration.
I hope Chua knows that with regard to Talam, he is wandering into the lion's den.
Over the years, I have watched people try to accuse Khalid and his government of various corporate improprieties. Each and every time Khalid has proceeded to trounce his critics using nothing but hard evidence and irrefutable logic.
Khalid is a man who takes pride in knowing how to get the best value for money. This ability led both to his own personal fortune as well as the stellar improvements in Selangor's financial situation.
How else can one increase spending on welfare programmes in the state while simultaneously multiplying Selangor's financial reserves almost five-fold from RM 400 milllion in 2008 to a staggering RM 1.9 billion in 2012?
I pity the fool who would try and use vague accusations of financial wrongdoing against a man so well known for being obsessed about accounting for every sen his government spends. Somebody's about to get schooled.
The state government's decision to sue reflects an absolute conviction that every aspect of the Talam Corporation Bhd deal was above board. I imagine Khalid is just waiting to have his day in court.
Ignoring insinuations, improving indefatigably
I am optimistic that at the end of the day, the truth will prevail - even in the face of efforts by unscrupulous men to desperately throw shit around in vain hopes that something will stick.
The end game of these men is simple: it doesn't matter if the accusations and insinuations aren't true. Reasonable doubt is a more than acceptable result.
The final objective, after all, is to distract and destabilise.
Chua's weak Talam story conveniently comes at a time when hard proof surfaces that Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak misused his power and influence to award a RM1 billion contract for the Ampang LRT extension to George Kent - a company with no experience in building rail lines, that failed the evaluation by both government departments and external consultants, and whose biggest contract prior to this was only worth RM 40 million.
That's a scandal of cowgate proportions.
And as for this ridiculous video?
RPK accused Selangor of being too riddled with infighting to govern properly. This is hardly an accurate evaluation of the current situation. Rather, it is the end goal of people who make such insinuations, a futile attempt at a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Khalid's opponents have mistaken his refusal to be dragged into the mud as a weakness - he refuses because he is too busy concentrating on how to make the lives of the people in Selangor better.
Indeed, the video of the menteri besar showed exactly what he does. Even as he faces all sorts of chaos and attacks from within and without, Khalid keeps working, quietly and diligently.
Behold! Revealed for all to see - Selangor's Menteri Besar Abdul Khalid Ibrahim... working at his desk for 15 minutes.
I'm having trouble finding a better term for my reaction than the one so commonly used on the Internet: Facepalm.
![NONE](http://1-ps.googleusercontent.com/x/www.malaysiakini.com/mk-cdn.mkini.net/495/330x220x1b7062f541749ad922d722e93241a000.jpg.pagespeed.ic.bJS9JSMXSv.jpg)
Being clean is not the same as being perfect. Khalid - like any living human being - may not be perfect, but I daresay all available evidence suggests that he is clean.
This has all his detractors scratching their heads in confusion. Surely Khalid must have taken a bribe at some point? Or had some sort of affair somewhere along the road?
Yet, all that they have been able to come up with is a painfully boring, 15-minute video of him working at his desk.
This should not come as a surprise to a student of self-made millionaires. Look at the likes of Warren Buffett or Bill Gates (Tony Pua might perhaps serve as a closer-to-home example).
These are not men given to the extravagances of, say Silvio Berlusconi or John F Kennedy - men who displayed behaviour not uncommon in those whose lives have been defined by a lifelong involvement in politics. These are men who made their fortunes by believing in the value of diligence, dedication and freedom from distraction.
Desperate doubt-casting
I can imagine the consternation faced by political operatives tasked with bringing Khalid down.
These guys have a very limited repertoire and the implausibility of their intended victim's guilt appears not to prevent them from falling back on the only tools they know how to use: sex and corruption.
In Khalid's case, RPK - the ‘celebrated' web savant who revealed the video - casually drops the name of a woman member of Khalid's staff in an attempt to paint the possibility of some sort of relationship.
Screen captures from a video may suggest the existence of a video; but a video of a man working at his desk does not suggest the existence of a video of him in some compromising position. In the absence of any hard evidence, this is merely a lame attempt to cast aspersions and doubt.
Flailing financial fictions
Chua Tee Yong takes the same approach. He thinks that if he puts out some names and numbers, maybe he can introduce doubt on the cleanliness of Khalid's administration.
![NONE](http://1-ps.googleusercontent.com/x/www.malaysiakini.com/mk-cdn.mkini.net/367/200x291x527968adefcb4273267362c682446547.jpg.pagespeed.ic.dsELvXFe7j.jpg)
Over the years, I have watched people try to accuse Khalid and his government of various corporate improprieties. Each and every time Khalid has proceeded to trounce his critics using nothing but hard evidence and irrefutable logic.
Khalid is a man who takes pride in knowing how to get the best value for money. This ability led both to his own personal fortune as well as the stellar improvements in Selangor's financial situation.
How else can one increase spending on welfare programmes in the state while simultaneously multiplying Selangor's financial reserves almost five-fold from RM 400 milllion in 2008 to a staggering RM 1.9 billion in 2012?
I pity the fool who would try and use vague accusations of financial wrongdoing against a man so well known for being obsessed about accounting for every sen his government spends. Somebody's about to get schooled.
The state government's decision to sue reflects an absolute conviction that every aspect of the Talam Corporation Bhd deal was above board. I imagine Khalid is just waiting to have his day in court.
Ignoring insinuations, improving indefatigably
I am optimistic that at the end of the day, the truth will prevail - even in the face of efforts by unscrupulous men to desperately throw shit around in vain hopes that something will stick.
The end game of these men is simple: it doesn't matter if the accusations and insinuations aren't true. Reasonable doubt is a more than acceptable result.
The final objective, after all, is to distract and destabilise.
Chua's weak Talam story conveniently comes at a time when hard proof surfaces that Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak misused his power and influence to award a RM1 billion contract for the Ampang LRT extension to George Kent - a company with no experience in building rail lines, that failed the evaluation by both government departments and external consultants, and whose biggest contract prior to this was only worth RM 40 million.
That's a scandal of cowgate proportions.
And as for this ridiculous video?
RPK accused Selangor of being too riddled with infighting to govern properly. This is hardly an accurate evaluation of the current situation. Rather, it is the end goal of people who make such insinuations, a futile attempt at a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Khalid's opponents have mistaken his refusal to be dragged into the mud as a weakness - he refuses because he is too busy concentrating on how to make the lives of the people in Selangor better.
Indeed, the video of the menteri besar showed exactly what he does. Even as he faces all sorts of chaos and attacks from within and without, Khalid keeps working, quietly and diligently.
NATHANIEL TAN works as a consultant to the Selangor state government.
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