Just DO IT, not DUIT!

A good chunk of the legal work in MBPJ has been diverted to the firms of Sivarasa, Surendran and Derrick through the influence of Lateefa Koya and Derrick. After all, this is a PKR-controlled council. Is this not corruption, or at least a conflict of interest?
THE CORRIDORS OF POWER
Raja Petra Kamarudin
'We don't need to meet RPK. We have Internet'

RPK dakwa rasuah tapi tiada bukti

Come back and shed light on bribery claims, Selangor urges Raja Petra

The Selangor government wants me to come forward and reveal the conflicts of interest, abuses of power and transgressions in the state administration. I will do just that. In the meantime, while I gather some of the evidence to enable the state to get to the bottom of things, maybe they can start investigating these first two cases.

These cases do not need any evidence from me. The state has all the records and most likely they can quote the figures from the top of their heads. In one of the cases, if the state can cooperate with the MACC to ensure that the identity of the whistleblower is protected, I will try to convince that person to come forward to testify.

This whistleblower is a Chinese and a developer who depends on state approvals for his company’s projects. So, invariably, he is very concerned about his business being disrupted or sabotaged if his identity is revealed. Chinese business people somehow appear paranoid about being victimised by what they perceive as a ‘Malay’ administration.

The first case involves Azmin Ali’s brother-in-law, Johan Taharin. Johan approached one developer who has been having problems getting certain approvals since Pakatan Rakyat first came to power almost four years ago.

Now, I have known this developer personally for some number of years. In the past, he had always voted MCA. For the first time in 2008 he supported Pakatan Rakyat. He even organised talks in his house for me to speak to his neighbours, friends and family so that I can campaign and swing them over to Pakatan Rakyat. Some of this person’s friends even flew back from Australia, Canada and the US at his behest just to vote for Pakatan Rakyat.

This developer complained to me that Johan approached his firm and said that he (Johan) is aware that they (the developer) is facing problems getting approval from the state. Johan offered to help them overcome their problems, for a fee.

The developer asked Johan how can they be assured that they would get approval once they paid the money? Can they instead pay after the approval has been obtained rather than pay upfront? After all, they are talking about a few million here, not a small amount of money.

Johan told the developer that he is representing Azmin Ali and if required he can bring them to meet Azmin so that Azmin can personally give them his assurance. They replied they will think about it.

The developer then phoned me, cursing and swearing. “We voted Pakatan Rakyat because of you,” the developer said. “Before that we were MCA supporters. But because of you for the first time we all supported Pakatan Rakyat.”

“What’s the difference between Pakatan Rakyat and Barisan Nasional if they also ask for bribes?” the developer screamed.

The developer then asked me what he should do. “Should I pay the money?” he asked. “Can I get a guarantee that I will get my approval after I pay?”

I told the developer that we kicked out Barisan Nasional and replaced it with Pakatan Rakyat because we wanted to end corruption. If we now pay under-the-table money to Pakatan Rakyat, then why the hell did we bother to kick out Barisan Nasional? We might as well have just retained Barisan Nasional.

The developer did not pay the money and, of course, his project is now in tatters. But he swore he was going to campaign against Pakatan Rakyat in the coming general election.

Okay, that is the first case. If the MACC wants to talk to the developer let me know. Anyway, that person also reads Malaysia Today so he is probably aware of this already (and probably pissing in his pants by now).

Now, let us go to the next case, which, if not corruption, is certainly a conflict of interest.

This next case is regarding some scams involving the amount of legal work dished out by the legal department of MBPJ. This work is being given exclusively to a group of lawyers who are all PKR leaders.

This large amount of legal work to these chosen few has caused immense unhappiness amongst the other Pakatan Rakyat council members in MBPJ, who have chosen to remain silent for the sake of ‘party unity’. They feel that if they speak out that may jeopardise Pakatan Rakyat’s chances of retaining Selangor in the next general election.

The principle characters are lawyers Derrick Fernandez and Lateefa Koya, who are also both MBPJ councillors and PKR leaders, the Member of Parliament for Subang, R. Sivarasa, and the newly-minted Vice President of PKR, N. Surendran. Lateefa is also employed by Daim and Gamany, Sivara’s legal firm.

A good chunk of the legal work in MBPJ has been diverted to the firms of Sivarasa, Surendran and Derrick through the influence of Lateefa Koya and Derrick. After all, this is a PKR-controlled council. Is this not corruption, or at least a conflict of interest?

Anwar Ibrahim is fully aware of this but does nothing about it. And Anwar does not need me to provide any figures or documents because the accounts can be procured from the MBPJ.

MBPJ has to be transparent and reveal the exact amount of work given to these three firms and the total fees paid over the few years that Pakatan Rakyat has ruled Selangor.

Daim and Gamany has moved from their humble office in the ‘slum’ Masjid India area to a new swank office near MBPJ. Surendran, on the other hand, is no longer the poor lawyer he used to be. He used to travel around in a beaten-up Proton Saga begging for work. Now, he is chauffer-driven in an expensive continental car. Talk about rags to riches in the blink of an eye.

Surendran’s firm is called Edwin Lim Suren & Soh and Derrick’s is Derrick Fernandez and Co. Sivarasa is also on the board of Kumpulan Perangsang Selangor and is enjoying perks and director’s fees estimated in the tens of thousands a month, other than the spoils from his legal work.

Okay, as I said, let us start with these two cases while I gather the evidence for the other cases, which I will reveal in due course.

Why can’t the PKR people be more like Nik Aziz, the Kelantan MB? Do you know that Nik Aziz still lives in his old wooden house that does not even have a proper road leading to it? And when he does his prayers in the office, he switches off the lights because his prayers are his personal matter while the electricity is paid by the state government.

That is how I expect our elected leaders to conduct themselves.

And, yes, I still support Pakatan Rakyat and I urge you to do the same. But do we want to wait until Pakatan Rakyat becomes just like Barisan Nasional before we scream? We need them to clean up their act now. I suspect that the next general election will be held in March 2013. That means we have more than a year to set things right.

So, just do it! I said DO IT, not DUIT!