By Rama Ramanathan | June 11, 2012
The Malaysian Insider
JUNE 11 — Tomorrow my wife and I leave Malaysia so that I can take up a short-term assignment abroad. As I said in my last post, we struggle over whether, as citizens, we are doing the right thing. We are after all Malaysians. We don't think of any other country as our home. Politicians in no other countries care about our votes.
After I paid a few hundred US dollars, India recognised me as a Person of Indian Origin (PIO) — this means I don't need a visa to enter India. But this is only in order to encourage me to transfer funds to India, which I have not done. I don't have voting rights in India. Why should I? I care more about Malaysia than I do about India!
I do have voting rights in Malaysia, and I am disappointed that the 13th general election in Malaysia will likely occur while I'm away. Fortunately, my member of Parliament is not Umno-BN, and it seems likely the seat will remain with the opposition even without the help of the votes of my wife and myself. But, with all the shenanigans the Election Commission and Umno-BN are practising, we can't be too sure.
The Malaysian Insider reported that Muhyiddin Yassin, the deputy prime minister, said the opposition is "skilful at spinning" and at using social media tools.
I wonder if other Malaysians share my sense of dismay every time I hear people speaking of the opposition. If Umno-BN, the ruling party, cares so much about getting votes, why doesn't it recognise that the opposition are also elected representatives? Why doesn't Umno-BN recognise that we, the people, have voted so many of the opposition into government because what Umno-BN considers "spin" we consider "fact".
The ruling coalition in Malaysia spins stories just as much as the opposition; it's well known that Umno-BN employs media consultants; they find "angles" to make bad stories sound good. That's understandable. What's "emphasizing" a point to one is spin to another. That's politics. You call it "spin" if you can't counter the facts. If you can counter the facts, you win credibility. That's politics. Politicians who resort to calling things "spin" are empty shells.
For instance, we are asked to believe that ex-Minister Shahrizat Abdul Jalil isn't in any way tainted by her husband and children being recipients of taxpayers' money as seed capital to start a business.
We might believe this if the National Feedlot Corporation (NFC) was a successful company. However, it's not. Like PKFZ, it's a disaster. Instead of investing the money in doing business involving cows, NFC invested the money in high-end apartments!
I have no trouble accepting that the spouses and children of ministers, etc. are just as entitled as others to get government awards, contracts, etc.
What I have trouble with is the lack of transparency in the award of contracts — which are often more like "gifts". In the case of the NFC, my beef is not that it's Shahrizat's family who were the benefactors. My beef is that I don't know why it was them. To get the cows off it' back, all Umno-BN has to do is tell us why NFC was created, how potential leaders were selected and why Shahrizat's kin (and not others) were granted the largesse.
Instead of doing that, the leaders of Umno-BN accuse the opposition of spin.
Curiously, we don't hear of others who were in the running for the award and were denied. Are others quiet because they've received benefits they want to keep quiet?
Also, if a listed corporation had awarded the "loan" using a similar process, would it have been considered okay by the shareholders?
Our Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) seems to think that according to current regulations, it's okay. What conclusions should we now draw about governance in our listed corporations? Let's not forget that a huge number of our listed corporations are government-linked. What's Umno-BN proposing to do to prevent similar abuses in the future? Nothing!
Muhyiddin speaks of spin. Why not speak of honesty. Why not speak of his own blunt honesty? Why not speak of the encouragement he gives people to vote for Umno-BN, when he says that if his candidate wins, those whose votes contributed to the win will be treated as anak emas, or "precious children", who get special treatment?
Why should anyone get special treatment? Answer: it's the Umno-BN culture. Thus NFC and PKFZ. That's not spin. That's honesty.
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