Exploiting the plight of Palestinians

 

 For decades, many Malaysians thought that no one would dare “touch” an organisation that was set up to help Muslims only.

They have been proven wrong, several times.

The CEO and chairperson of Aman Palestin are not the only Malays to use Islam and the Palestinian cause to justify their alleged misdeeds.

If you recall, in May 2018, the MACC conducted raids on three locations linked to the erstwhile head of Tabung Haji, Abdul Azeez Abdul Rahim.

They searched the homes of the Baling MP in Subang Jaya, Selangor and Baling, Kedah, and his office in Jalan Tun Razak in Kuala Lumpur.

When grilled about the RM500,000 found in his Baling residence, Azeez claimed that it was to fund a mission to Gaza, Palestine. How convenient!

Abdul Azeez Abdul Rahim

Fraudsters and politicians are aware that it is extremely easy to exploit the generosity of the Malaysian public.

All they need do is mention “Gaza Palestine” and pockets will be emptied in a flash. Similarly, politicians addressing a typical Malay audience often refer to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as this is a guaranteed Muslim vote winner.

Even teachers and Education Ministry officials have been known to bend over backwards to demonstrate that they are committed to the Palestinian struggle.

Without thinking about the consequences, both teachers and schoolchildren will don keffiyehs and hold mock running battles whilst brandishing replica guns.

For them, it’s all fun and games; “Destroy Israel. Jihad. Shoot. Kill”. They fail to appreciate that for the Palestinians, it is about survival…life or death.

However, show the rakyat a map of the world and ask them to pinpoint the Gaza strip, and many would not have a clue.

Tell them about the Balfour Treaty and their eyes will glaze over. Are they aware that the conflict began as a dispute over land, not religion?

Poor Palestinians! The Israeli Defense Force has bombed their homes and air strikes have unleashed hellfire on the Gaza Strip.

Hamas, a militant group, is bent on the destruction of Israel as it seeks to establish a Palestinian state governed by syariah law.

Then, we have opportunistic and greedy Malaysians in the form of Aman Palestin’s executive chairperson Abdullah Zaik Abdul Rahman and its CEO, Awang Suffian Awang Piut.

They probably claim to defend the Palestinian cause and wish to be considered heroes for helping the war-torn people in the Gaza Strip. They are also the directors of Syarikat Samudra Champa.

In the end, they were exposed as alleged fraudsters and conmen, who used both the Palestinians and Malaysians to further their own interests, inflate their bank balances and expand their property portfolio.

So, why were they able to allegedly exploit our generosity and defraud Malaysians? The answer is that it is easy to do so in Malaysia.

Just mention Islam or that you are defending Muslims, be it in Malaysia or Muslims living 7,000 miles away and the gullible Malays will believe you.

Power of indoctrination

That’s the power of decades worth of brainwashing, or Islamic indoctrination.

Malays tend to do things in the name of religion. Water can only be drunk if it possesses a halal-certified logo.

Hot dogs must be renamed because some Muslims cannot tolerate the haram “unclean” dog even though it is just in name. The halal trade is worth billions of ringgits in Malaysia and worldwide.

Some irresponsible cosmeticians will include Quranic phrases on the label of their cosmetics, under ingredients, and gullible Malays consider this an endorsement by divine right. Some cosmeticians have become wealthy overnight from this trick.

Few Malays dare to question anything, issue or product, which is linked to Islam, Islam and even Gaza Palestine.

As for Aman Palestin, both Abdullah Zaik and Awang Suffian were “jointly charged with deceiving the company's board of trustees out of RM5.75 million, from RM39.15 million transferred to their own company’s account that acted as agents for purchases of 131kg of gold”.

How did they manage to deceive the trustees? How many trustees are there?

Aman Palestin executive chairperson Abdullah Zaik Abdul Rahman

Abdullah Zaik and Awang Suffian had marked up the real price of gold to be purchased by their own company on behalf of Aman Palestin. Why gold? Were the trustees not curious about this?

When an NGO solicits funds, it has to use the money as it was intended, for example, funds solicited specifically for food, clothing or medical supplies, must only be used for these items.

Instead, the duo had purchased multi-million-ringgit worth of properties, several plots of land and a Toyota Vellfire for Samudra.

Are Aman Palestin’s accounts audited? Did none of the trustees enquire about the money trail, especially when Abdullah Zaik said that they did not trust the Palestinian Embassy but claimed that Malaysians wanted them to disburse aid and cash directly to the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank?

In 2009, Aman Palestin set up its own office in Gaza. Should MACC’s investigations go back to this date?

Abdullah Zaik failed to justify his reasons for not using the Palestinian Embassy. How did the Gaza office receive local funds? Why was it necessary for Aman Palestin to have 41 bank accounts?

So many questions, very few answers.

What did the board of trustees do all this while? Are they taking “gaji buta” (paid for nothing)? Why did it take a MACC operation to uncover the truth? - Mkini

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MARIAM MOKHTAR is a defender of the truth, the admiral-general of the Green Bean Army, and the president of the Perak Liberation Organisation (PLO). Blog, Twitter.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.