If not for the Strategic Director of PKR, Rafizi Ramli, and the whistleblowers within the NFC, none of the details of ministerial abuses of power would have been revealed.
Yesterday, the authorities sentenced Rafizi for his exposes. He said, “I was sentenced to a two-and-half years’ prison sentence. Together with the one-and-a-half years’ prison sentence in the OSA case, I am now looking at four years in prison.
“I was accused of disclosing confidential banking information on Shahrizat Jalil’s family members and a few companies owned by them.
“I have 13 court cases currently running, but this is the first case that started it all.
“It was also the first public scandal that I exposed: the infamous cow and condos story, which we all know by now. Much of the RM250 million public money meant for poor farmers were eventually used to buy expensive condominiums and finance other businesses.”
Cowgate?
Cowgate stands for the “National Feedlot Corporation (NFC) scandal”.
The NFC was controlled by the family of the former Minister for Women, Community and Family Development, Shahrizat Abdul Jalil.
Shahrizat’s husband and children had allegedly swindled RM250 million of taxpayers’s money and bought a string of luxury condominiums, a car, overseas holidays, pilgrimage trips and more.
Denying any knowledge of the NFC
Initially, Shahrizat claimed that she knew nothing about the NFC.
When asked if she was a casualty of the NFC scandal, she replied: “I want to say one thing very clearly, that I really have nothing to do with NFC.
“But as a responsible member of the government, I feel the right thing for me to do is for me to step down graciously,” she said.
Why step down if you are not guilty?
How come, she is stepping down, if she claims to have nothing to do with the NFC scandal? Isn’t this admission of guilt?
She also said that in her house, she did not know the activities which occupied her husband or children.
Only a blind, deaf and dumb spouse does not know what their other half gets up to. Also, most good mothers know what their children are doing.
The rakyat was furious as were the farmers who should have received the money to start their satellite ranches. They suffered whilst Shahrizat’s family spent their money.
A back-door minister
Shahrizat is a back door minister, who lost her seat in the 2008 election to the then newcomer Nurul Izzah Anwar.
Former PM Abdullah Badawi took pity on her and retained her in his cabinet as a special advisor.
When Najib became PM, he made Shahrizat a Senator the day before announcing that she was to become a minister.
Shahrizat’s term as senator expired on the 8th April 2012. Despite the expose, she stayed put until the end of her term.
The then DPM, Muhyiddin Yassin, had congratulated Shahrizat for making the bold and difficult decision for someone in her position and said, “This is a major sacrifice from someone who is leading a party (Umno) wing.”
Daft minister
How could Muhyiddin been so daft? She simply waited till her term expired, when she should resigned or been sacked.
Shahrizat denied involvement in the NFC scandal. She clung onto her position, until the Umno-Baru hierarchy decided to turn her into a sacrificial lamb, to save Umno-Baru, BN and the government.
Some BN politicians praised Shahrizat for relinquishing her ministerial post. They should do much soul-searching and clarify what Shahrizat’s “major sacrifice” was?
Shahrizat misunderstands the meaning of sacrifice
Will the rakyat see justice? Will the money and interest be returned?
Let’s show Shahrizat and Umno-Baru ministers what sacrifice is.
It is the children who have to give up their schooling to help their disabled mothers, or their single parent to take care of the other mouths in the family.
It is the women who had to give up their education to take care of their children who were born when they were raped by the loggers in the Baram area of Sarawak.
It is the grandmother who has to take care of her grandchildren, after her daughter and son-in-law died of HIV-Aids, because safe sex is not practised in many rural households.
It is the poor farmer who has to sell his daughter to help him pay for the seed and fertilizer to ensure his crops can grow.
It is the Orang Asli and Indigenous People who relinquished their ancestral heartlands and their way of life for the greed of most politicians, not just Taib Mahmud, the former Chief Minister of Sarawak.
Umno-Baru ministers don’t understand the meaning of “sacrifice”.
Two rules in Malaysia
Malaysia has two sets of rules; one for us and another for the privileged lot, like Shahrizat and her colleagues.
Can Shahrizat explain what happened to the RM250 million?
No wonder they sentenced Rafizi yesterday. They did that to frighten other people from becoming whistleblowers. They jailed Rafizi to warn you to keep quiet. They jailed him to stop him from contesting in GE-14
So will you keep quiet?
I won’t. How about you?
NB: Kick Shahrizat must have known about Rafizi’s jail term because she was hinting about contesting in GE-14 days earlier. Kick her out at GE-14.
Photo-montage Credit: Facebook friend
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