Pairin’s RCI follow-up remains a ‘mystery’

The PBS President’s “non-existent” committee on the RCI Report purportedly had a meeting with Home Minister Zahid Hamidi but he (Pairin) was not present.

PETALING JAYA: The Opposition believes that Deputy Sabah Chief Minister Joseph Pairin Kitingan “was not present” when both the Permanent Committee and “Working Committee” on the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) Report reportedly had their “first informal meeting” during Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi’s recent visit to Sabah.

DAP elder statesman Lim Kit Siang bases this theory on reported comments made by Zahid on the sidelines of the purported joint meeting of the committees.

“When asked whether Pairin had accepted the appointment as chairman of the Working Committee, Zahid said the PBS President had ‘verbally agreed’ to the appointment,” pointed out Lim who is also DAP Parliamentary Leader and Gelang Patah MP. “The catch is that he (Zahid) had to check whether the appointment had been accepted by him officially.”

Zahid was implying that Pairin had already received an official letter of appointment.

The implication of Zahid’s answer was very clear, added Lim, “that Pairin was not present at the so-called ‘informal meeting’ of the Working Committee with Zahid”.

“If this was the case, how could the Working Committee, whose membership had not even been determined, have an ‘informal meeting’ and when even the chairman was absent? asked Lim.

“This is piling mystery upon mystery!”

Lim wonders why there should be such great mystery over a very simple and straightforward issue: the chairmanship of the Working Committee. “The last public statement by Pairin was on Dec. 3, the day the Report was made public in Kota Kinabalu by Chief Secretary Ali Hamsa and Attorney-General Abdul Gani Patail,” recalled Lim.

“Pairin complained then that he had yet to receive his appointment letter although it was nearly three weeks since Najib’s announcement of the Working Committee and his appointment.”

Zahid Hamidi, who together with Sabah Chief Minister Musa Aman is co-chair of the Permanent Committee on the Report, had visited Sabah in mid-Dec and announced the five terms of reference of the Working Committee.

But the question is whether Pairin has received his letter of appointment and whether he has accepted it, and if not, when will he receive the letter and accept it!

“Let’s have a clear-cut answer and accountability for the people of Sabah and Malaysia instead of all these ‘cloak-and-dagger’ mysteries!,” urged Lim.

Raison d’etre of Pairin’s and PBS’ political struggle for the past two decades.

Delving into the matter further, Lim conceded that it was a Catch 22 situation for Pairin.

“It would be the ultimate political humiliation for Pairin to accept the chairmanship unless he has the political will and courage to come up with a report that the evidence of 211 RCI witnesses and memorandum when weighed show there was a ‘Project I/C’ involving political masterminds,” argued Lim. “It’s an agony for Pairin, accepting the chairmanship, unless he is prepared to publicly dissociate himself from the Home Minister’s claim that there was no ‘Project I/C’.”

There’s a way out for Pairin, offers Lim.

He can accept the chairmanship on condition that the 6,000 pages missing from the Report is made available to him.

Pairin must have the political will and courage to be bold as chairman of the Working Committee on the RCI Report, stressed Lim, and thereby “reaffirm the raison d’etre of his and PBS political struggle for the past two decades.”