Candidate-vetting: A ploy backfires

Instead of bluffing the rakyat time and again, Najib should have cleaned up his act. Now he has trapped himself with his call to get candidates vetted.

COMMENT

Tricks and measures of all types are being used by the Barisan Nasional ruling front to dissuade the rakyat from supporting the opposition in the coming 13th general election.

The latest ploy is getting the scandalised MACC to vet BN candidates contesting in the coming GE, devised by none other than BN chief and prime minister Najib Tun Razak.

Clearly a desperate political gimmick to woo voters into BN’s fold, Najib said the move was to ensure the candidates selected were ‘clean’.

But then DAP’s Gobind Singh Deo is not buying Najib’s reasoning, not until and unless the premier too, undergoes a similar screening at the hands of MACC.

Gobind, the Puchong MP believes that it is only proper that Najib who would stand as a candidate leads by example.

“Najib should lead by example and call for an open investigation and respond to the recent allegations made by Deepak Jaikishan. He should also pledge to give his full cooperation.

“The prime minister should not practise double standard. If his call applies to all candidates, it must apply to him as well,” Gobind had said in a statement.

As far as Gobind is concerned, the premier had trapped himself by the call to get candidate vetted.

“Will he voluntarily call for an open inquiry? Will he lead in showing that he is serious about cleaner candidates and a better party image for BN in the next election?” asked Gobind.

“Should the prime minister fail to practise what he preaches, then his call for cleaner candidates and a party with a better image is nothing but yet another political gimmick,” the lawyer said.

Too much at stake

Gobind knows he is asking Najib to do the impossible but then it is the right thing to do, to be accountable for whatever call the premier makes in the name of a clean and transparent government.

The question is will Najib undergo the same vetting process? Going by his many accounts of corruption, cronyism and nepotism, the rakyat knows he does not have the guts to to do so.

That being the case, there is little the people can expect of a leader who will go to any extent to hide his own misgivings. Najib should know better than to insult the intelligence of the rakyat.

If the MACC’s vetting of candidates is the prime minister’s way of appeasing the people into believing that BN plays by the rule, he again is mistaken.

For the over five decades that BN has been ruling the country, the image both the party and administration has acquired is nothing to be proud of.

The millions in corruption attributed to Najib aside, his current serving ministers too have not failed to malign their respective reputations by accepting kickbacks in more ways than one.

Indeed if Najib is serious about tackling graft within BN, he should have take corrupt politicians like Sarawak’s chief minister Taib Mahmud to task.

A BN scam

It is obvious that Najib’s candidate-vetting idea is a scam out to trick the rakyat into trusting BN.

Had it not been a sham, the premier’s battle against corruption would have been consistent which is not so with Najib.

He was tongue-tied when Shahrizat Abdul Jalil was implicated in the embezzlement of the RM250 million government loan meant for the cattle rearing project.

Likewise, he was ‘at loss for words’ when his aide and that of deputy PM Muhyiddin Yassin’s were ‘bought’ over by a businessman to get contracts from the BN government and its agencies.

Then there was deputy finance minister, Awang Adek Hussin, who had been receiving ‘contributions’ which he claimed were for the people of Bachok where he is the Umno division chief – the problem was that the funds were being channelled into Awang’s private account.

Najib is also indifferent as to how a burger-seller-turned politician could so quickly save up to buy a Rolls Royce, as was the case with Zamil Ibrahim, the former Kita Kedah chief.

Is the premier cool about this because Zamil is BN’s de facto ‘broker’ indulging in MP-buying activities to ensure the party wins the 13th general election?

Let us not forget timber tycoon Michael Chia’s RM40 million ‘contribution’ to Sabah Umno or the fact that Najib squandered US$26,000 for a banquet to celebrate his 58th birthday last year or that he dabbled in ‘dealings’ with carpet seller Deepak Jaikishan.

The list can go on. The point is, instead of bluffing the rakyat time and again, the prime minister should have cleaned up his act and made the effort to weed out the existing corrupted politicians.

But then why would Najib bother when he is part of the gang i.e. one of the bad boys?

Jeswan Kaur is a freelance writer and a FMT columnist.