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| The deputy premier reveals that the Cabinet did not make a decision on whether the embattled minister should quit. |
SHAH ALAM: There is no Cabinet decision on the fate of embattled minister Shahrizat Abdul Jalil, said Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin today.
The women’s affair, community and children development minister is facing growing calls to quit over the RM250 million National Feedlot Centre (NFC) scandal.
“No, no,” Muhyiddin told reporters when asked if the Cabinet had decided if the Umno Wanita chief should resign or be removed.
Salleh, Shahrizat and their children are accused of misappropriating taxpayers’ money for private use including the purchase of several luxury properties and land worth RM27 million.
The cattle breeding project first came under attack when the 2010 Auditor-General report described the enterprise as a “mess”.
Since then, opposition party PKR has made several exposes related to the scandal.
NFC was said to have purchased two multi-million luxury condominium units in upmarket Bangsar and the alleged use of project funds to finance Shahrizat as well as her family’s personal expenses and trips abroad.
PKR also alleged that there was a transfer of resources to unrelated companies in Singapore, as well as the purchase of a Mercedes-Benz CLS350 for RM534,622 and two plots of land in Putrajaya’s Precinct 10 for RM3,363,507.
Last Tuesday, PKR leaders made another allegation – that RM10 million was siphoned for the purchase of luxury a condominium unit in Singapore under Shahrizat’s name.
‘Liability for Umno’
The minister said she has the full backing of Umno leaders and members as reflected in the support shown at the party’s general assembly early this month.
However, the persistent call for her resignation made by the party’s senior leaders, including influential former president Dr Mahathir Mohamad has landed her in a spot.
The calls for her to quit suggests a growing undercurrent against Shahrizat, who some leaders have openly described as a liability to Umno’s election preparation.
Shahrizat said she will not be cowed into resigning, arguing that as a veteran politician, she has enough experience to deal with the debacle.
However, the Umno leader said she will let Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak decide her fate.
Last Friday, the prime minister said that he will disclose the next course of action soon but stopped short of giving the details.
With 31 yrs of abuse of power, mutli-billion $ plunder and over 10 years of the same by his Uncle before him, the Sarawak CM must be arrested now. His morality, integrity; legitimacy & right to lead are ZERO.
ReplyDeleteUMNO is equally corrupt. Nothing will be done, unless Arab Spring type pressures are mounted beginning with:
Blockade of all logging & oil palm accesses.
Blockade of all CMS & related’s access & movements.
Work stoppage. Sit-ins in offices, transport hubs & airports.
If the police intimidates.....Good! That’s the beginning of the end of Sarawak’s great tragedy & BN’s stranglehold in Malaysia.
$150 billion of black money a year disappeared from Malaysia, that’s RM 400 million a day.
ReplyDeleteReports: According to the Washington-based financial watchdog Global Financial Integrity (GFI), in 2009 alone RM 150 billion (US$47 billion) in illicit money was illegally siphoned out of Malaysia.
The latest GFI report, ‘Illicit Financial Flows from Developing Countries Over the Decade Ending 2009', is penned by economists Sarah Freitas and Dev Kar, who is a former senior economist at the International Monetary Fund. They stressed that these illicit outflows are basically "unrecorded capital leakages through… illicit transfers of the proceeds of bribery, theft, kickbacks and tax evasion." In other words, it refers to corruption money or black money that is obtained illegally and worse, not even re-circulated into our economy.
All the Tuns, Tansris, Datos, Datuks…, well done!