Najib yang mengagihkan dana tersebut menggunakan akaun bank peribadinya dan Nasharuddin sebagai penerima wang, adalah dua pihak yang harus segera menjelaskan perkara itu dengan jujur dan ikhlas kepada rakyat.
Ikut logik, tidak mungkin Najib menyalurkan wang tersebut kepada Nasharuddin atas kedudukannya sebagai individu semata-mata kerana kepentingannya terlalu kecil untuk diwajarkan bagi menerima wang daripada seorang Perdana Menteri.
Jika pun pemberian wang itu atas nama individu, kenapa Nasharudin jadi pilihan dan adakah sesiapa yang lain turut diberikan wang juga oleh Najib?
Paling mungkin dan dapat diterima akal atas kedudukannnya sebagai bekas pemimpin nombor dua Pas serta diketahui umum mempunyai hubungan rapat dengan beberapa pemimpin Pas, Nasharuddin boleh jadi sekadar perantaraan saja.
Dalam hal ini, Najib paling tinggi dari segi tanggungjawab moral untuk memberi penjelasan kepada rakyat tentang tujuan sebenar wang itu diberikan kepada Nasharudin.
Apakah ia benar-benar untuk Nasharudin, bagi tujuan apa atau ia untuk disalurkan kepada pemimpin tertentu Pas sebagaimana yang didakwa oleh Rafizi? Baca seterusnya...
Graft In The Civil Service...
Lately, reports of corruption have been hitting the headlines of the national dailies, radio and television stations. Online news portals have been busy as well, churning out stories of government servants being nabbed by the nation’s graft buster, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission or MACC.
Are these an indication that corruption in high places and involving politicians and senior civil servants is on the mend? Or are they being stage-managed to divert people’s attention from the mother of all corruption scandals, the 1MDB fiasco. The burning question on everyone’s lips is whether the dubious financial entity ever existed?
The notoriety of the scandal, which began in 2015, has earned a detailed entry in Wikipedia, a free online encyclopaedias managed by volunteers around the world. The popularity of Wikipedia has reached an all-time high, as prominent personalities such as President Donald Trump are using it as a guide and a reference other than the omnipotent WikiLeaks.
Besides two major cases, one involving a Johor state executive councillor and the other the Sabah state water department, which resulted in the confiscation of over RM100 million in cash, the rest are minor in comparison.
Thirteen enforcement officers in Selangor, a fire chief in Kedah and 12 immigration officers from Sarawak were nabbed. Four policemen were also caught for soliciting protection money from errant lorry drivers and ketum leave traders. Two were arrested in Kulim, one in Raub and the other in Penang. Their rank ranged from Inspector to corporal.
It is always the case of the small fry getting tangled in the dragnet while the shark, the crocodile and the whale easily swim away returning with a vengeance another day.
A recent survey by MACC revealed that half of Malaysian civil servants found guilty of graft are under the age of 40. The reason, according to Deputy Chief Commissioner (Prevention) Datuk Shamshun Baharin, is today’s demanding lifestyle and the high cost of living, especially in cities such as Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Johor Bahru and Kota Kinabalu. Surprisingly, Ipoh is spared.
Between 2014 and 2016 of the 2329 people apprehended for graft, 1267 were aged 40 and below. Out of that number, 635 or 50 per cent were civil servants.
I had, on a number of occasions, witnessed the dealings with my own eyes and marvelled how sleek the perpetrators had been, bordering on the incredulous at times. There is always the giver and the taker, as no corrupt deal can happen without one giving and the other taking. That is how things work regardless of one’s position and standing. I guess the higher up the social ladder the more sophisticated the process will be. The level of sophistication, however, is contingent upon one’s stature and status. Just look at the 1MDB farce, it is simply mind-boggling.
On returning from a two-year course in Bandung, Indonesia, I was posted to the Army Logistics Division of the Ministry of Defence, Kuala Lumpur. This was in I986. I was a couple of years shy of 40, within the age limit defined by the Deputy Commissioner of MACC. Although incidences of corruption in the military were few then (I don’t know now), the Logistics Division was the place to be if you were looking for some fun and illicit money. Opportunities for corruption were aplenty and all you need to do was to avail yourself.
I was responsible for drafting specifications for hand-held weapons, armoured and soft-skin vehicles and general equipment that the army planned to acquire. We would source for pamphlets and brochures of such items and work on the ideal specifications required for their use in the army. We were highly sought after by arms and equipment manufacturers and their local agents and were accosted everywhere we went, in the ministry and in town.
The things they promised and gave us were unbelievable – dinner at fancy restaurants, golf at upscale clubs, expensive gifts and if a deal was coming through, expense-paid trips to Bangkok or Jakarta or Bali. A trip to London was dangled in front of me once. It was simply too tempting.
This was in the 1980s, the situation now can be much worse and more enticing, perhaps. If your resolve is weak and you are easily swayed by money and material things, you will go down the slippery road in double-quick time.
I remained resolute and never gave in however tempting the offers were. But I could not say the same of a friend whose office was next to mine. His phone would ring like one at a stock exchange. After joining us barely a year he got a brand new Honda Accord and had his house in Taman Melawati rebuilt and refurbished.
Unfortunately, he met an untimely death years later succumbing to a heart attack while playing on the links of an exclusive golf club in Jakarta. Could it be karma? Or perhaps, time had finally caught up with him. - Fathol Zaman Bukhari.Ipoh Echo
I first sniffed out 1MDB in 2010. I told the rats years ago - leave the sinking ship. It is still stinking. Only very few listened.
You bear the consequences. - ostb
Nashrudin Mat Isa has long been associated as a key figure in the attempts by UMNO to take over PAS, which is politically vital to Najib as he fights haemorrhaging support for his government.
Rafizi has said that he was informed about the payments by a former MACC top official, who was investigating the matter. They were among a string of hand outs made by the Prime Minister from money taken from the 1MDB subsidiary SRC International, which had in turn borrowed the cash from the KWAP civil service pension fund (supposedly for investments in profitable development enterprises)
Much of this stolen pension money was handed out to UMNO linked organisations to assist them in their election battles in the 2013 election. There appears to have been no accountability, meaning that the recipients could have used the illegal cash however they liked. Other money was spent on private luxuries by Najib and Rosmah for themselves.
The disgraceful practice had caused the original Attorney General to draw up a charge sheet against the Prime Minister, who had him replaced at gunpoint in July 2015. The new AG Apandi at first declared the case closed and the PM ‘cleared’, saying this was because Najib had assured him he had not realised where the money entering his accounts had come from.
Recently, however, Apandi has corrected that in fact the case had not been closed, but that he hopes it will be shortly. Senior officials of the Anti-Corruption Commission have formally complained and appealed against the decision by Apandi not to follow their recommendation to open a criminal prosecution on the thefts from SRC.
Most of these officials are now being retired and it is from this source that Rafizi Ramli has now said he received information that Nashrudin Mat Isa was one of the people to receive wads of cash from Najib, cementing a widespread view that UMNO is seeking to bribe senior figures in the party in order to take control of its agenda and break up the opposition before the next election.
PAS President Hadi Awang is regarded as one of those in the pro-UMNO faction of the party, who has been seeking support for his divisive Sharia law bills from Najib.- f/bk
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