The NFC tale continues — Fikri Osman

Just when you think it’s safe to read what is happening in Malaysia, you get a spin of the National Feedlot Centre (NFC) saga.

In her defamation suit against several PKR leaders, Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil had her day in court yesterday to give her side of the story.

And what a tale it was, or a yarn as the case may be.

But the facts are simple when it comes to the NFC. Taxpayers lost RM250 million and public funds were used for the purchase of condominiums and whatever else.

Some Umno leaders might have defended her family’s use of public funds but it remains indefensible. And troubling that they can’t differentiate right from wrong.

But what is amazing is that after all the information in public domain that began with the Auditor-General’s Report last year, Shahrizat still stuck to her own narrative of events.

She argued that Datuk Bung Mokhtar Radin, Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz and Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad had called for her head because they were influenced by the opposition.

Really, Datuk Seri, really?

By this line of thinking, did Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak ask her to step down because he too was influenced by the opposition?

Maybe it’s true that politicians live in their own cocoon or are blinkered to think everything is hunky-dory and whatever they do is good for the rakyat.

But the NFC wasn’t good for the rakyat in the end. And it isn’t because the PKR leaders brought it up. The Auditor-General blew the whistle on your family, as simple as that, not the opposition.

You can believe your story but there are Malaysians out there who know the difference and can spot the travesty of the NFC saga.

If might have taken him some time, but I commend Najib for taking action on this embarrassing episode for his government.

* Fikri Osman reads The Malaysian Insider.