By Jeff Ooi,
Permatang Pasir folks deserve basic dignity.
How could BN disrespect the voters by fielding a fraudulent lawyer disbarred by the Advocates and Solicitors Displinary Board of the Bar Council to be their potential elected representative in this 8th by-election since March 2008?
Yesterday, the Malaysian Bar Council confirmed that Rohaizat Othman, BN's candidate for the Permatang Pasir by-election, was found guilty of misconduct and had already been struck off the rolls on March 7 last year.
It has also been revealed that Rohaizat had failed to refund some RM161,000.00 to his client after a property transaction was aborted. A complaint was lodged with the Bar Council, and he was struck off the list after investigations.
Lousy alibis
However, alibis defied facts, and two lies don't tell a truth.
There was, in fact, glaring inconsistency in the alibis put up by BN leaders up till the eve of nomination day.
August 16, Penang Umno chief Ahmad Zahid Hamidi had claimed that it was Rohaizat’s partner who had taken off with the client’s money.
August 18, Bar Council secretary George Varughese clarified that the finding of misconduct was personal to Rohaizat as the disciplinary board would not hold a lawyer liable for the actions of his partners.
Read Varughese's statement in full the Bar Council official website.
Earlier, Bar Council chairman Ragunath Kesavan had confirmed that Rohaizat was guilty and bore personal liability under the Legal Profession Act.
All these official statements from the Bar Council merely mean that it's Rohaizat the syariah lawyer -- not his partners or the legal firm he worked for -- had been fingered as the fraudulent party in the cheating case.
Integrity above all, candidate must be encumbrance-free
Umno, the party to which Rohaizat belongs, must display basic moral guardianship by withdrawing from the by-election because Permatang Pasir folks deserve basic due respect that they must be honoured with at least a clean candidate.
Furthermore, Bar Council also stated that said Rohaizat had tried to seek redemption by appealing to the High Court against the decision of the disciplinary board, and the appeal was dismissed by the High Court last Wednesday, August 12, 2009.
And counting backwards, the High Court judgment came just 5 days before nomination for the Permatang Pasir by-election. This shows Umno's blatant disregard for the voters' right to an honest YB as their elected rep when it had five full days to pick a more honest, untainted candidate!
By Malaysian convention, a candidate must be encumbrance-free at the time of nomination. Umno had ignored that to its own peril.
If Umno didn't withdraw Rohaizat from the by-election, Permatang Pasir voters should punish it by giving PAS a trouncing, humiliating majority. I am confident of this.
Let Umno lick the wounds by punishing the leaders who had succumbed to the wants of the Jalil faction in Permatang Pauh, blundered and made a wrong choice candidate.
It was Ahmad Zaid and Muhyiddin Yassin who shot themselves in the head. They have to pay the price for their mistakes in fielding a court-proven dishonest person as the candidate, and not do it at the expense of the Permatang Pasir voters.
To the electorate of Permatang Pasir, their late state assemblyman Datuk Hamdan was a clean man throughout his tenure.
We should keep it that way for the legislative of Penang. It's afterall my family's home state.
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