GE14, Riot and the HREF’s car

What will you do if you want to sell your car? Logically, you would place an advertisement in the classifieds or look for a second-hand dealer. In either case, the car would be test-driven and taken for a spin down the road.

Whether an offer will be made is entirely the discretion of the buyer. When the terms are agreed, the necessary paperwork would be done.

But if you tell me that a potential buyer had used the car for two weeks, after which he returned it the owner, I would be insane or an idiot to believe this. But someone did give this explanation expecting that it would be swallowed hook, line and sinker.

At the town hall meeting of the Human Resource Development Fund (HRDF), I raised the question of the agency’s chief executive officer and its directors campaigning for former Human Resources Minister Richard Riot (photo above) in Serian in Sarawak.

“We did not use HRDF money for the campaigning,” thundered CM Vigneswaran, HRDF’s CEO.

What about the car?

“The (former) minister wanted to buy it and we sent it over. When the BN government lost, we brought it back,” he said.

Do you buy this explanation? After having used the car during the campaign period for two weeks, is it acceptable that the potential buyer offered to return the car?

Human Resources Minister M Kulasegaran (photo below) and the ministry’s secretary-general Dr Mohd Gazali Abas could only look at each other in disgust and anger, and perhaps astonished by the reply given.

Did the 500-odd stakeholders who attended the meeting buy Vigneswaran’s answer? The rejection was overwhelming and the voices from the crowd reflected their outrage.

The provision of the car may have been a small gesture by HRDF and its top brass to curry favour with the (former) minister on expectations that he would return to his former post.

Herein lays the Malaysian malaise where civil servants, being implementers of government policies, end up as “bag carriers” and being subservient to their political masters.

However, this endeavour to be in the good books of the minister backfired and HRDF footed the bill for transporting the car to and from Serian. Some answers were expected to be forthcoming but there were none.

This episode reflects how deeply government resources were used in the last election. It is also a reflection of how blatantly it was done without a care in the world. Rules were being broken - audaciously.

It is also a replication of the “do and be damned” attitude which has been prevalent in the civil service. Such brazen acts were hallmarks of the “little Napoleons” among some civil servants and heads of government agencies. They were “kingmakers” - feared no one and were untouchable.

Sparks fly

The town hall meeting also saw sparks fly over a number of other issues. Training providers vented their years of frustration on inequitableness, unfairness and injustice in the selection of trainers by the HRDF.

One of them even told the minister that there was an attempt to muzzle him. He told the stunned crowd that he had received a letter from HRDF lawyers ordering him to refrain from speaking and making disparaging remarks at the meeting. The minister could only shake his head in disbelief.

There were conflicts of interest in the past and no one bothered to correct them. There was a member of the HRDF board who doubled up as a training provider.

“Take it from me that if it is true, the board member will be removed by Monday,” the minister announced to thunderous applause.

There was a litany of other complaints ranging from being non-responsive and selective to non-transparent and opaque practices.

Kulasegaran said the ministry would set up an independent mechanism to look into the problems raised.

“Your anger and disappointment are heard. We will get the best people to manage it. There is no doubt about that. Action will be taken against any board member who may have abused their powers,” he told them.

The HRDF provides funds for companies to provide training and skills development of their employees through firms accredited as training providers. Employers contribute one percent of their monthly payroll towards this fund.

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R NADESWARAN has been following the activities of the HRDF for the past 10 years and has a dossier of its actions and inaction. Comments: citizen.nades22@gmail.com. -Mkini