Negate Not The Hard Work

No clear punitive action is taken against the guilty in any AG’s report. For this, the CID can play an important role.

HAVE you ever worn a flak jacket? In January 1964 when I was flying navigator in an Auster spotter plane over the Tawau-Tarakan border drawing Indonesian fire and radioing their positions back to our “artie”, I did wish I had one on. But, thank God, the Indonesian fire was feeble and a flak jacket was unnecessary.

A couple of weeks or so ago, I was under fire, again a feeble one, from a coterie of three government MPs because of my Aug 12 column The fence that eats the rice which alluded to what a very senior ACA officer had told me about police corruption.

These MPs, including one self-proclaimed “good Muslim”, obviously did not read my Aug 12 column and my Utusan Malaysia Sept 3 reply to one Baharuddin Idris with any understanding, or else they wouldn’t have opened their traps the way they did.

But, never mind, they gave a number of my friends a good laugh over how awash they were.

The “good Muslim” alluded to my position in Genting Berhad as proof of corruption and lack of integrity and revealed his ignorance that Genting is a large conglomerate with interests spanning diverse non-gambling activities such as an oil field and four power stations in China, two power stations in India and one in Sepang. It has struck gas in Irian Jaya and the Natunas in Indonesia. It’s prospecting for oil and gas in Morocco.

Diversified interests

It has large plantations in Malaysia and Indonesia, a housing development complete with a golf course and a hotel in Kedah; the list is long.

Muslims in the Genting Group are engaged only in its many non-casino businesses. The revenue in 2006 from these non-casino operations alone totalled RM3.2bil – nothing derisive by any standard!

So you see, my friends, how difficult is the fight against entrenched corruption? You sometimes get flayed even by government supporters! The fight has always been fraught with the danger of malefice. In one of my early columns on corruption, I wrote how a police clerk in Klang suggested in the mid-1970s that I should be shot for being a pain in the neck to the corrupt. Tun Abdul Razak, Tun Hussein Onn and I were branded as closet communists by followers of a powerful politician awaiting corruption charges in the mid-1970s – despite the irony of it.

A top judge reportedly told a group of friends in Mecca that the whole thing was a Jewish conspiracy to get rid of a forceful Malay leader and that I had lent myself to it because I was a member of the “Free Mason” movement. And to think that I didn’t even know I was!

Our three MPs can do better by joining in the fight against corruption, for it is the right thing to do. For these MPs, it would also be falling in line with their party leader, the Prime Minister, who has again reiterated that he wanted the police force to be cleansed of wrongdoings and that he would continue the fight against corruption. Or are they not with him here?

Our relative freedom of expression means that it would be wrong for me to make an unjustified statement and, if I have done so, I will apologise unreservedly. That is also the right thing to do but, as it stands, I have no reason to disbelieve my source of that information on the police – a top ACA officer. We’ll wait and see.

But, have you noticed that since my column of Aug 12, there have been no public altercations between the IGP and the Deputy Minister of Internal Security? Coincidence perhaps, but this is as should be since they are the same Minister’s right-hand men.

And Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz suddenly announced that the Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC) – still draft, mind you – was ready for feedback from several NGOs and he could see the Bill coming before Parliament at the end of the current session. Coincidence again, maybe, but we can wait awhile to see how closely it will hew to the effectiveness envisaged by the Royal Commission.

My house was burgled on Sept 5. I lost a DVD player, three speakers, some DVD discs and a bunch of keys. But I wasn’t really crestfallen because the moment I rang up the police to report, patrol cars, the investigation officer, the dog and forensic teams and several high-ranking officers swarmed my house. They were certainly on the ball. Three beautiful fingerprints were lifted, hopefully not my maid’s. Even the IGP contacted me. I felt nostalgic for my old PDRM.

At first, the heavy police presence worried my neighbours who thought that I was being arrested for being a pain-in-the-neck critic! When they got the true picture, relief and envy followed that the police had shown me so much concern. To all the officers concerned, thank you for your confidence-building response!

Poor Nurin Jazlin – after being kidnapped for 28 days she was found killed in an unspeakable way by a sexual pervert in PJS 1/48. How the little one must have suffered from pain and fright, not comprehending why her life could change so quickly, so horribly!

I have said before that there are predators out there in the guise of men, and we tempt the fates if we are so cavalier about our children and grandchildren’s safety. It’s not safe out there for unaccompanied children. That message should be driven home to all parents and teachers.

Monitoring immigrant workers

The lack of control over the legal (let alone the illegal) immigrant workers’ movements quite rightly worries some enforcement officials. We must realise that many of the males are deprived of normal opportunities for sexual gratification.

While not saying that one of them is the weirdo responsible for the latest child-murder, I do hope the Internal Security Ministry will find a way through this.

Fifteen years ago when there were many foreign construction workers in the Subang Jaya area, their employers consented to placing them in a camp supervised by several retired senior police officers who registered and controlled their egress and ingress. This can still be done and made mandatory after a proper study to ensure the workers’ comfort and to iron out potential problems. The workers can be transported to their places of work as is done, I believe, in Singapore.

The Nurin case brings to mind the case of five-year-old Nazrin @ Yin which had a happy ending. In my Sunday Star column of April 22 Finders not keepers, I wrote, “If we do not show such people (kidnappers) that their act of depriving a family of its member is a serious crime ? our streets will be even less safe in a short while.”

Another issue that gripped our attention recently is the annual litany of apparent malfeasance exposed by the Auditor-General’s Report.

Nothing resolved

I could feel the disgust of friends as they flayed the Government for allowing the apparent malpractices exposed in annual AG’s reports to go on year after year ostensibly without proper resolution. No clear punitive action was taken against the guilty following last year’s no-less-damning report. Tan Sri Ambrin Buang and his auditors have done well again but lack of enforcement and Cabinet follow-ups may again negate all the hard work.

The ACA DG has announced that his agency had commenced investigations and that we should see the results soon. Good for him. It’s about time our faith in the system is restored. If there are plausible reasons for some of the outlandish purchases, then we should be informed to dispel our bad perception of government’s governance.

But the CID also has a role if it wants to play it. If the allegations smack of criminal breach of trust, cheating or any of the penal code offences, it’s the department’s duty to investigate without waiting for a report to be lodged. Explanatory statements made to the auditors and the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee by ministry and departmental officers are admissible in evidence.

Wilful malfeasance must be adequately punished so that others will be sufficiently deterred. The AG’s report bears out the perception that in government spending, we sometimes do not get our money’s worth!

And if, as suggested by Datuk Shahrir Samad, it is not that the civil service has not improved but that “the new ways of implementing projects – the direct negotiations and turnkey method” are the culprits, then the rules must be tightened to restore the image of the public services.

AFTER-THOUGHT DENIAL?

Taib Refutes Corruption Allegations

KUCHING, May 14 (Bernama) -- Sarawak Chief Minister Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud today issued a statement to the state legislative assembly refuting all insinuations of corrupt practices against him and the state government stemming from an article carried by the "Japan Times" newspaper.

The March 29 report captioned "Wood Carriers Allegedly Hid 1.1 Billion Yen Income" had claimed that Japanese shipping companies paid the sum to a Hong Kong agent as kickbacks to unnamed Sarawak officials and "rebates as lubricant to facilitate their timber trade".

[Dewaniaga Sarawak (DNS), a company affiliated with the Malaysian state of Sarawak, instructed NFA members to pay so-called intermediation fees to the Hong Kong agent, Regent Star (RS). The Chief Minister's brother Onn bin Mahmud also sits on the board of CMS. Not only is Abdul Taib Mahmud Chief Minister, he's also the Resource Management and Planning Minister.]

In his Personal Statement issued under Standing Order 22, Taib said that neither he nor state government officials had been contacted by Japan Times for clarification or comment before such serious allegations were made."

I take this opportunity to categorically and completely refute all these allegations contained in Japan Times. They are absolutely false," he said.

The chief minister explained that the timber industry in Sarawak was regulated by two principal laws, namely the Forests Ordinance of Sarawak and Sarawak Timber Industry Development Corporation Ordinance 1973.

He said that no law or state government agencies regulated the shipment or transport of timber exported from Sarawak to overseas destinations.

"The sellers and buyers of Sarawak timber make their own arrangement for transportation of timber abroad," he added.

Taib said that after the Japan Times published the allegations without providing any proof, both print and electronic media in Malaysia reproduced them.

He also said that it was irresponsible for some political parties or politicians in this country to attempt to make political capital out of these allegations.

Taib said that legal proceedings would be filed immediately in Malaysia and Japan unless the offending newspapers and persons published unqualified retraction and apologies, and pay legal costs and damages.-- BERNAMA

Corruption allegations against Sarawak CM Taib Mahmud and freedom of speech in Malaysia

Japanese NGO joint letter to PM Badawi & ACA

April 27th 2007

Dato' Seri Abdullah bin Haji Ahmad Badawi
Prime Minister of Malaysia

CC: Director, Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA)

Subject: Corruption allegations against Sarawak CM Taib Mahmud and freedom of speech in Malaysia

Your Excellency,

We, the undersigned Japanese non-governmental organizations and citizen's groups, wish to express our profound concern regarding threats by the Sarawak Chief Minister Tan Sri Pehin Taib Mahmud to lodge a defamation suit against the Malaysiakini news service and leaders of Party Keadilan Rakyat Sarawak for raising allegations of his involvement in a RM 32 million kickback scheme reported by the Japan Times and other Japanese newspapers.

We understand that the corruption allegations raised against CM Taib Mahmud originated from a report in the Japan Times on Mar 29,, 2007 that nine Japanese shipping companies which transport lumber from Sarawak failed to report some 1.1 billion yen (approximately RM 32 million) in income paid as remuneration to Regent Star, a Hong Kong-based agent with connections to CM Taib Mahmud and his family, during a period of seven years through last March. According to the report, the Tokyo Regional Taxation Bureau determined that these payments were rebates, not legitimate expenses, and is likely to impose well over 400 million in back taxes and penalties against the shipping companies.

The Yomiuri Shimbun (in Japanese) also reported the above facts in an article on March 28th. Furthermore, the Asahi Shimbun English edition reported on March 28th that the Tokyo Regional Taxation Bureau had ordered Kansai Line Co. to pay 50 million yen in back taxes and penalties for falsely including so-called intermediation fees totaling 130 million yen paid to Regent Star over a seven year period until December 2005, in its cost of loading logs in ports in Sarawak, in an effort to hide the payments.

The Asahi Shimbun Japanese edition further reported on March 27th that shipping companies affiliated with the Nanyozai Freight Agreement (NFA) cartel are suspected to have paid more than US $25 million (approx. 2.5 billion yen) in intermediation fees to Regent Star in the ten years up to 2005. An anonymous industry source is quoted as admitting that "there was an understanding that these were payments to the Chief Minister's family" and in essence, kickbacks.

According to the article, the NFA admitted that it had in 1981 entered into an agreement with Dewaniaga Sarawak (DNS) on log exports to Japan, and had been instructed by DNS to pay intermediation fees to Regent Star in Hong Kong. The payments, which are said to have continued for 26 years since 1981, are said to have started at a rate of approximately US $1.50 per cubic meter of logs shipped, and to have increased over the years to the current rate of US $3.28, while the log shipments declined from a peak of 3.8 million m3 in 1990 to about 410,000 m3 in 2005. The report estimates that an average of one to four million dollars per year, totaling US $25,250,000 was paid to Regent Star between 1996 and 2005 alone. The article also mentions that an industry source alleged that DNS director Dato' Onn Bin Mahmud, brother of CM Taib Mahmud, sometimes participated in person in negotiations of the intermediation fees between Regent Star and the NFA.

From the above, it should be crystal clear that the allegations lodged against CM Taib Mahmud by Malaysiakini and Party Keadilan Rakyat Sarawak are not based on rumor or hearsay, but on information reported in a consistent manner by several leading Japanese newspapers. As organizations working in the Malaysian public interest, Malaysiakini and Party Keadilan have merely been exercising their freedom of expression and fulfilling their duty to raise concerns to the public and competent authorities regarding highly disturbing information meriting further investigation. In fact, it would have been dereliction of their public duty not to have done so.

If whistleblowers immediately face threats of litigation for defamation, how can citizens play an active role in eliminating corruption? Should not CM Taib Mahmud present a clear explanation rather than resort to such intimidation? And if he disagrees with the allegations in the reports, should he not question their sources in Japan and the Japanese tax authorities, rather than Malaysian citizens who are merely bringing them to the public attention?

In light of your pledge to make anti-corruption a top policy priority with "zero tolerance for corruption," we urge you to live up to your reputation by instructing the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) directly under your supervision to immediately commence a formal investigation into the allegations raised in these media reports, and to keep the public informed of developments thereof. Party Keadilan Rakyat Sarawak has already lodged two reports on this matter as of April 13th 2007, one with the Kuching Central Police Station and another with the Anti-Corruption Agency in Kuching, following your public statement advising that reports be lodged so that the ACA could take action. Japanese civil society will do its most to urge the Japanese tax authorities to cooperate with Malaysia in its investigation, so that the truth can be revealed and justice served.

Furthermore, we ask you to ensure that Malaysian citizens do not face undue pressure or malicious litigation in an attempt to suppress their freedom of speech when raising issues in the public interest. Certainly such transparency is crucial in upholding the honor and untarnished reputation of Malaysia in the international community.

Sincerely,

Sarawak Campaign Committee (SCC)
Friends of the Earth Japan (FOEJ)
Japan Tropical Forest Action Network (JATAN)
The Japan Citizens' Coalition for the UN International Decade of theWorld's Indigenous Peoples (INDEC)
Japan Network on Human Rights in Malaysia
Pacific Asia Resource Center (PARC)
Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands Forest Protection Group in JapanY. Sakamoto, Global Environment Forum

DEWANIAGA SARAWAK SCANDAL

Wood carriers allegedly hid 1.1 billion yen income
Kyodo News

Nine Japanese shipping companies that transport lumber from Sarawak, Malaysia, allegedly failed to report some 1.1 billion yen of income in total during a period of up to seven years through last March, sources said Wednesday, alleging the money constituted kickbacks to Sarawak officials via a Hong Kong agent.

Such tax irregularities have occurred as the Tokyo Regional Taxation Bureau determined the companies' remuneration payments to Regent Star, a Hong Kong agent, which has a connection with Chief Minister of Sarawak Taib Mahmud and his family, were rebates, not legitimate expenses, the sources said.

Although the Hong Kong agency did very little in the way of substantive work, the shipping companies are believed to have used rebates as a lubricant to facilitate their lumber trade, the sources added.

Lumber export is controlled by the Sarawak state government on grounds of forest resources protection.

Rejecting the tax authorities' conclusion, the shipping firms claim the transactions with Regent Star have been legitimate and deny wrongdoing.

The companies accused of the alleged tax evasion include Mitsui O.S.K. Kinkai Ltd. and NYK-Hinode Line Ltd. belonging to the Nanyozai Freight Agreement (NFA), a cartel formed in 1962 to avoid excessive competition in import of lumber from Southeast Asia. The 12-member group is exempt from the Antimonopoly Law.

The shipping firms will likely be slapped with well over 400 million yen in back taxes along with heavy penalties, the sources added.

According to NFA and other sources, the Japanese cartel concluded an agreement in 1981 with Malaysia's Dewaniaga Sarawak regarding lumber transport. Dewaniaga is a state-affiliated concern in charge of lumber export control and is headed by the Sarawak chief minister's younger brother.

Dewaniaga Sarawak (DNS), a company affiliated with the Malaysian state of Sarawak, instructed NFA members to pay so-called intermediation fees to the Hong Kong agent, Regent Star (RS). DNS is headed by Onn bin Mahmud, a brother of Sarawak Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud. The Chief Minister's brother Onn bin Mahmud also sits on the board of CMS. Not only is Abdul Taib Mahmud Chief Minister, he's also the Resource Management and Planning Minister. That means he's also the Forestry Minister.

The Japan Times: Thursday, March 29, 2007
(C) All rights reserved

MOHD. NAJIB TUN RAZAK IN TROUBLE: A series of Messy Scandles

Malaysia’s Deputy Premier Najib in Trouble?
Asia Sentinel, March 30, 2007

Pressure mounts in Kuala Lumpur to put the brakes on a scandal-tainted Malay politico.

Speculation is increasing in Malaysia that of one of the country ‘s elite politicians, Deputy Prime Minister Mohd Najib Tun Abdul Razak, is in serious trouble due to a series of messy scandals.

There is considerable speculation that Najib, the son of Malaysia’s second prime minister, will be forced to step down from national politics. One rumour has him becoming chief minister of his native Pahang state, although the exit route for most discredited or politically suspect figures in Malaysia is a diplomatic or other posting overseas, according to sources contacted by Asia Sentinel. In any case, on March 13, he became sufficiently concerned that he called a press conference in his Pekan constituency to deny rumours that Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi was considering dumping him in favour of Muhyidin Yassin, currently Minister of Agriculture and Aagro-based Industries and a Badawi ally.

Najib in better times

Najib is said to be fighting back on a several fronts, making the rounds of the old bulls of the United Malays National Organization(UMNO), Malaysia’s biggest political party, in an effort to save his career. In January, Najib reportedly flew to London to attempt to meet with Tun Mahathir Mohamad, the octogenarian former prime minister who still carries considerable clout inside UMNO, in an attempt to shore up his support. Mahathir reportedly declined to see him.

In particular Najib has been wounded by speculation of his involvement, however peripheral, in the murder of Altantuya Shaariibuu, the 28 year-old Mongolian beauty whose body was found in a patch of jungle outside a Kuala Lumpur on October 20. Two policemen from an elite Special Operations Force whose ultimate boss was Najib were arrested for the crime. Altantuya disappeared after attempting to confront Abdul Razak Baginda, the head of a think tank closely tied to Najib, over support for her 18-month-old son. Razak Baginda is also facing charges for conspiring in the murder.

Originally, a third member of the force – a 22-year-old woman lance corporal – was also arrested. She was never named in news stories by Malaysia’s government-friendly press and was released a week later without being charged. There is widespread speculation in Malaysia that she is the aide-de-camp and bodyguard to Najib’s wife, Rosmah Mansor.

Razak Baginda is scheduled to go on trial in June. The case leaves open the question of how two – and possibly three ‑ elite police officers became involved with a political analyst who has no formal government authority. The top leadership of UMNO, the dominant force in the ruling national coalition, have been tiptoeing gingerly around the case ever since the arrests in November.

Razak Baginda, originally scheduled to go on trial in March 2008, had his trial date moved up by months in an unusual move. That has raised additional questions in political circles over whether the move was engineered by Prime Minister Ahmad Abdullah Badawi or individuals close to him because there is evidence that would tie Najib to the case.

Kuala Lumpur’s energetic blogs are buzzing with rumors that prosecutors have a letter indicating that Najib asked Malaysia’s Immigration Department to issue the doomed Altantuya a visa, and that at one point Najib, Razak Baginda and Altantuya were said to have gone overseas from Malaysia together, although others point out that visitors from Russia, China, Mongolia and from lots of other countries can get visas very easily to visit Malaysia.

In addition to questions over the murder case, Najib is also under fire for the 2002 purchase by the Malaysian Ministry of Defense of three submarines that cost the treasury RM$4.5 billion (US$1.3 billion) for which a company controlled by Abdul Razak Baginda was paid a commission of RM510 million (US$147.3 million) in a sale that included no competitive tenders. Although Najib was cleared in an investigation at the time of the purchase, his position has been weakened enough by the Altantuya scandal that opposition politicians, particularly onetime Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, have again begun to assail him over it. On the Al-Jazeera television network, Anwar Thursday also questioned commissions paid over the purchase of 18 Russian Sukhoi-30 jet fighters in 2003 when Najib was defence minister.

"There are complicities over the huge and massive commissions accrued by the government involving the Defence Ministry, Defence Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak," said Anwar during the interview.Najib said he wouldn't respond to Anwar's charges. But, he told reporters recently, "Don't listen to the stories on the internet...they are all a myth. We should not react hastily, we must stick to principles and the truth...what is important is that we understand and know who will help us."

Driving Najib from national politics would be difficult. In addition to the cachet he enjoys from being his father’s son, as deputy party president he has strong ties among UMNO leaders in a career that goes back to 1978 as a functionary in the very strong UMNO Youth wing. The party’s nearly 200 division chiefs are key to his political wellbeing, and reports are that he has been wooing them assiduously, arranging in some cases for overseas junkets.

And, as UMNO goes, so goes Malaysian politics. Despite its endemic corruption and the pervasive sense of rot at the top, it appears highly unlikely that any outside political force could even dent it. Anwar Ibrahim, who was jailed on charges of sexual abuse that were widely perceived as spurious, has been leading a reform party movement, making speeches across the country about party corruption and in particular Najib’s connection to it.

But few believe Anwar has any chance to take down UMNO. The odds are instead that if Najib were to be sent packing, it would be at the behest of UMNO leaders who have decided he is too hot to handle, not by the country’s full electorate.