Ex-deputy minister laments twin conspiracies of silence

PKR disciplinary committee chairman Dr Tan Kee Kwong denounced the "two conspiracies of silence" presently besetting the government which he said were "unsustainable even in a debased democracy such as ours."

Tan (right), a former BN deputy minister who joined PKR three years ago, said Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak's "deafening silence in the face of grave allegations of criminal conduct and the mute response of Bank Negara's governor to the massive flight of capital from the country are fantastic and shocking, even if you allow that our democracy is deeply flawed and permissive."

Businessman Deepak Jaikishan has leveled grave allegations of possible criminal conduct against Najib in connection with the Altantuya Shaarribuu murder, whileMalaysiakini has reported that RM200 billion left the country in 2010 in illegal capital flows, a fact that ought to have the central bank chief either quaking or quitting, said Tan.

"Either separately, more so in combination, a mute response is not a sustainable option in these circumstances," said Tan who is expected to fielded in the Wangsa Maju constituency in Kuala Lumpur in the coming general election.

Tan is the son of Dr Tan Chee Khoon, a legendary figure in the annals of the Malaysian oppisiton whose name was a byword for integrity.

"Both the PM and the central bank governor have got to respond to these questions that impinge on their credibility and competence," opined the ex-deputy minister of land and cooperative development.

'Even a farce has a limit'

Tan said the term "Malaysia Boleh" which has become a coinage of ridicule cannot be dragged into use to explain the silence of the PM and the Bank Negara governor because "even a farce has a limit to what can be laid at its door."

"In managerial jargon, both the PM and the central bank chief are faced with implied offences that call for the sack. Either they react in a way that is plausible or they quit to honour the integrity of their offices," he added.

Tan said that when he was a deputy minister in the BN government between 1999 and 2004, his wife, after attending some social functions involving the spouses of cabinet ministers, would relate to him of how one would let drop the information that she had just returned from vacation at "her castle in England or a chateau in Germany."

"My wife wondered aloud to me about the source of the incomes that would have financed these property acquisitions by ministers' wives," he recalled.

"Now with reports over the past few years of illegal capital flows out of the country reaching the astounding figure of RM200 billion in 2010 alone, we can conjecture where these outflows went to," he asserted.