Gambling on ignorance — The Malaysian Insider

Here are the basic facts. Malaysia has a casino, has issued gambling licences to numbers forecast operators (NFOs) and also licences for jackpot machines at various clubs. There are also turf clubs that offer betting.

Revenue from these gambling activities is put into the Consolidated Fund which is run by the Treasury.

Malaysia is also an Islamic state, according to the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition.

In 2008, Tan Sri Vincent tan, Ananda Krishnan and the people behind Magnum 4D made political donations to Umno politicians for Election 2008.

These Umno politicians gleefully accepted the money and dished it out to political workers and voters by way of wages and souvenirs.

Today these same politicians are trying to attack the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) Penang state government for allegedly using funds from horse racing to run its poverty alleviation programme that gives an annual RM100 to senior citizens in the state.

This hypocrisy is nauseating. These Umno politicians were quite happy to accept millions of ringgit of gambling money; quite happy to accept paid holidays to the Mediterranean, share allocations and yet preach about using such revenue for charity.

It began with Penang Umno information chief Datuk Seri Reezal Merican Naina Merican urging Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng to explain the claim made in blog Pisau.net, which alleged that the annual payments of RM100 to senior citizens and RM1,000 to their beneficiaries were being funded through gaming revenue.

Reezal also claimed the rumours had caused discomfort among some of the recipients of the money, especially those who were Muslims.

Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin has joined in the fray yesterday, saying that Muslims would not want to be associated should gambling money were used for the programmes.

“We want an answer from Lim. If the money is from a forbidden source, Muslims will have no part in it,” he told reporters in Pagoh.

Fine words from BN leaders. But the facts challenge their aspersions cast on the Penang government.

Penang Religious Affairs committee chairman Abdul Malik Abul Kassim claimed that the allegation, made in the blog and by Umno Youth, was “imaginary”, not based on facts and made with bad intentions.

The funds, he said, were a direct result of the state administration’s frugality and adherence to the principals of competency, accountability and transparency (CAT), which allowed the state to set aside RM20 million for the welfare programme.

“From that allocation, we have spent as much as RM10.7 million and we still have an additional amount of RM9.3 million to continue with the programme for the senior citizens in the state.

“It has been explained clearly that the compassionate monies were not from gambling sources. They came from revenue made from our collection of assessments and other means — not from gambling.

“The state government also does not have the power to approve gambling licences. Only the federal government has the power to do so,” Malik said.

Perhaps the BN and Malaysians also need a reminder on who has been sponsoring our sportsmen and sportswomen all these years, not state asset manager Khazanah Nasional Berhad or UEM but the likes of Berjaya Sports Toto and Magnum 4D.

Magnum 4D backed Alex Yoong in his three Formula One races in 2001 for the Minardi team, debuting at the Italian GP, making him the first Malaysian F1 driver.

To add insult to injury, the Finance Ministry raised the pool betting duty for NFO operators from 6 per cent to 8 per cent effective June 2010 (betting duties are based on gross sale proceeds after deducting gaming tax of 8 per cent).

The increased revenue funds the government of Malaysia and helps to pay the wages of the country’s civil service. And members of Cabinet.

It is best for the BN government to remember that when accusing political foes of doing the same. It shouldn’t gamble on the ignorance of the people.

courtesy of Malaysian Insider