First Lady Of AGC Goes On A Rampage

It appears that Faridah Begum is going all out to protect TMI and to punish those who are challenging TMI. Considering her name is listed as the shareholder and director of TMI, while her brother is the chief editor, it makes sense she would be very protective towards that news portal. After all, if TMI falls then she and her brother would fall as well and then an investigation might also be launched into the more than two dozen other companies she and her proxy are involved in. 

THE CORRIDORS OF POWER

Raja Petra Kamarudin

The First Lady of the Attorney-General’s Chamber (AGC), Faridah Begum K A Abdul Kader, is on a rampage. And she has asked the AGC to launch a witch-hunt on Azwanddin Hamzah, the President of Jaringan Melayu Malaysia (JMM).

On 14th December 2017, JMM asked the authorities to conduct a thorough investigation into the finances of news portal The Malaysian Insight (TMI). Azwanddin claimed there were irregularities in how TMI received its funding. (READ MORE HERE: JMM alleges financial irregularities in TMI).

This was what NST reported:

Azwanddin said the authorities should look into a possible multi-million ringgit corruption and links of foreign funds to TMI. At the same press conference, he showed Companies Commission of Malaysia (CCM) documents linking Puan Sri Faridah Begum Abdul Kader as a director of Inside Media Sdn Bhd, the holding company for TMI. Faridah is, reportedly, the sister of TMI chief executive officer Jahabar Sadiq, and wife of Attorney-General Tan Sri Mohamed Apandi Ali.

The following day, JMM lodged a report with the MACC asking them to investigate the dodgy finances of TMI where RM3 million in cash was alleged to have been transferred into Jahabar Sadiq’s bank account. (READ: Jahabar Sadiq and the mystery of his funder).

Even Ho Kay Tat wants to know where Jahabar and TMI are getting their millions from

In a letter to The Straits Times Singapore, Ho Kay Tat, the publisher of The Edge Media Group that owned The Malaysian Insider before shutting it down in March 2016, said, “I hope Mr Jahabar has now found better financiers than us for The Malaysian Insight. He has said that his financial sources are private equity, businessmen and loans. For transparency and in the public interest, Mr Jahabar should provide their names and not let the matter be shrouded in mystery.”

So, the question of where Jahabar and TMI are getting their RM50 million financing from is a matter of interest to many people, the ex-owner and funders of The Malaysian Insider included.

Azwanddin and JMM have lodged reports with the MACC, Bank Negara and the police regarding TMI’s dodgy finances

Further to the 15th December 2017 report to the MACC, on 18th January 2018, Azwanddin and JMM also made a report to Bank Negara Malaysia and, on 4th February 2018, a police report was lodged at the Dang Wangi Police Station regarding the same matter.

Two days ago, the police contacted JMM to inform them that they are now under investigation for various alleged crimes on the instructions of the AGC. The investigation on Azwanddin will go back almost 20 years ago to the time when he participated in the anti-Mahathir demonstrations of 1998-1999.

The irony of this whole thing is all those involved and/or arrested in the 1998-1999 anti-Mahathir demonstrations have already been tried in court and the various judges have thrown most of those cases out. From the thousands arrested and tried in court, most have had their cases discharged while those who pleaded guilty were fined and paid their fines.

The First Lady of the AGC, Faridah, and her brother, Jahabar, are behind TMI so they cannot afford for the RM50 million funding to become an issue 

Now the AGC wants to reopen all those old files, all which have already been settled in court, and probe Azwanddin for his crime of participating in the anti-Mahathir demonstrations of 1998-1999, plus whatever other ‘crimes’ since then they can dig up, such as the 20th March 2012 protest, the 16th August 2016 protest, and so on.

It appears that Faridah Begum is going all out to protect TMI and to punish those who are challenging TMI. Considering her name is listed as the shareholder and director of TMI, while her brother is the chief editor, it makes sense she would be very protective towards that news portal. After all, if TMI falls then she and her brother would fall as well and then an investigation might also be launched into the more than two dozen other companies she and her proxy are involved in.

The AGC has asked the police to investigate Azwanddin’s participation in this 1999 anti-Mahathir demonstration

It would be very entertaining to watch the AGC dig up the old defunct cases such as the anti-Mahathir demonstrations of 1998-1999 and charge Azwanddin for illegal assembly. This will demonstrate to the world who is really running the AGC and prove that Azwanddin is being punished for challenging Faridah’s company, The Malaysian Insight.

The million-dollar question now would be: where do we go from here? Do we allow the First Lady of the Attorney-General’s Chamber to treat the AGC like her personal fiefdom and use it to punish all those who are challenging The Malaysian Insight?