Share |

Saturday, 2 June 2012

I’ll shut up if they speak up

By Hari Ibrahim,

I inherited two things from my late father, who passed away in 2004.
One, from his estate, the other from witnessing, at age 15, his stern and uncompromising handling of a traffic cop who tried to  solicit a RM3 bribe.
My first mentioned inheritance was a pair of Baden Powell cuff links.
Boy scouts may be familiar with this.
The second is one of zero tolerance for any form of corruption.
At age 19, then in my 6th Form, I lodged my first report with the then Biro Pencegah Rasuah against 2 police officers who sought a bribe for an alleged traffic offence close to the Rex cinema whilst driving my sister’s VW Golf.
In my first year of legal practise, I stopped my car and asked a bank officer I was giving a lift to get out after he sought gratification for debt recovery work he proposed to have referred to our firm from his branch.
More BPR reports against a court bailiff, a legal officer in an insurance company and a recovery manager in a share broking firm, all of whom sought corrupt gratification.
I suspect it is a genetic thing, as all my siblings are similarly afflicted.
3 days ago, I sent the following sms to Anwar Ibrahim and Azmin Ali.
“Pls see RPK’s latest post. U must respond. silence is not an option”.
You must know which post of RPK’s I was referring to. For the avoidance of doubt, it was his “MACC deepthroat out of the closet” post.
No, I was not expecting a return sms from either Anwar or Azmin and I can confirm now that I did not  receive any.
What I expected was a clear and unequivocal response from both to the very serious allegations that is borne by that post, for the benefit of  every citizen to whom they proffer themselves as the leaders that we can look to to rehabilitate this nation after 50 years of corrupt UMNO / BN rule.
As against Azmin, the documents disclosed in that post an accumulation of wealth that could not be explained against his then income.
As for Anwar, the sting is in the suggestion that he may have interfered with due process in using his position then as deputy prime minister to procure the closure of this corruption investigation on his then private secretary.
The authenticity of those documents disclosed by RPK appear to have been confirmed by, first, the police report lodged by the MACC in respect of the disclosure of these documents and the more recent decision to re-open the investigation into this matter.
To date, as far as I know, Anwar has remained silent.
Too silent for my comfort given the revelation by the DG of BPR at the material time, Shafee Yahya, that he had then recommended to Anwar that disciplinary action be taken against Azmin.
That no such action was ever taken is borne out by Azmin’s response to this latest debacle.
“My focus is the election. I have (been) cleared, my conscience is cleared. They are not interested in the truth.” , he is reported by Malaysiakini to have said.
RPK’s follow up posting to Azmin’s claim to have been cleared suggests otherwise.
Azmin asserts that “his constituents need no explanation from him as they know him “too well”.
I am not one of his constituents.
I belong to that category that he and Anwar often refer to as the “BOSS”.
Yes, the people.
The rakyat.
We, the rakyat, are interested in the truth, Azmin.
The whole truth and nothing but the truth.
Azmin says he does not  have that amount of money.
I’d like to know if there was, then, some RM10 million sitting in his and / or his wife’s bank accounts and, if so, how they came by that money?
I’d like to know if  he and / or his wife then held shares in listed companies to the value of almost RM1 million and if so, how they came by the same?
If indeed both Azmin and his wife were worth that much then and this was not wealth amassed through corrupt practices, then maybe Azmin is indeed what this nation needs post UMNO and BN.
Yes, I’m down south in JB tomorrow to take a strong message to the people there.
Anything But UMNO.
But I agree with RPK on this.
It must also be Anything But Corruption.
As we work to get rid of  the rubbish presently occupying our Putrajaya, we are not prepared to blindly replace them with the same, bloody rubbish.
To Anwar and Azmin I say again : U must respond. silence is not an option.

No comments: