Don’t Be Pot Calling Kettle Black, Kadir

Abdul Rahman Idus Shah, The Malaysian Insight

I refer to A. Kadir Jasin’s piece PM riding on Covid-19 pandemic and the economy.

It baffles me that a former top editor who had witnessed some of the most momentous events in the country’s history can get his facts so utterly wrong, his mind muddled by politics.

First, he accused Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin of postponing the Dewan Rakyat sitting from March 9 to May 18 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. A rookie journalist doing a simple research would be able to find out that the decision to postpone was made by Speaker Mohamad Ariff Md Yusof on March 4.

It had nothing to do with Covid-19. In fact, on March 3, there were only three confirmed Covid-19 cases. It was almost two weeks later, on March 16, that the prime minister announced a movement-control order (MCO) would be imposed starting March 18.

How Kadir can link the postponement of the Dewan Rakyat to Covid-19 remains a mystery almost on the same plane as the missing MH370.

He also accused the prime minister of removing appointees from the previous government in government-linked companies (GLCs), agencies and bodies and appointing backbenchers for political expediency.

Sorry, Kadir, do you mean to say that the previous Pakatan Harapan government had allowed only true-blue technocrats to run these entities, free of political interference?

A lawyer with zero track record in graft-busting was made to helm the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission. For all intents and purposes, Latheefa Koya was a human rights activist and a PKR member, and strong supporter of Azmin Ali to boot.

In office, Latheefa was more interested in playing secretly recorded phone conversations with the ex-PM and going after the likes of Bung Moktar Radin than rolling out institutional changes to curb graft.

A man known for publicly spewing expletives that would make even sailors blush was also made CEO of the Malaysia-China Business Council. Dr Hew Kuan Yau only quit after a comic-book controversy. Despite having resigned from DAP earlier, he was still a regular fixture in the party’s ceramah circuit.

The list goes on and on, from PTPTN (Bersatu leader Wan Saiful Wan Jan), to Sustainable Energy Development Authority chairman (Ipoh Timor MP Wong Kah Woh) to National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (Lanang MP Alice Lau) to the Malaysian Pepper Board (Julau MP Larry Sng).

There are too many to enumerate. But lest Kadir insist on taking the moral high horse, it’s a global practice to appoint associates into positions of power. It’s practised in developed nations like the US. In fact, in Singapore – a country PH supporters often look up to – the prime minister’s wife, Ho Ching, heads Temasek Holdings.

Kadir had also criticised Muhyiddin for admitting “all and sundry” into Bersatu without consulting the party’s supreme council.

I wonder if Dr Mahathir Mohamad sought the advice of each and every party leader when he took in ex-BN lawmakers like Mustapa Mohamed, Hamzah Zainuddin, Shahbudin Yahya and Mas Ermieyati Samsudin, just to cite a few.

In fact, Kadir should know that Dr Mahathir is known to make unpopular unilateral decisions like Bersatu’s entry into Sabah.

And let’s not go into Dr Mahathir’s first tenure as prime minister.