Monday, March 28, 2011

NEVER BELIEVE A RUMOUR UNTIL IF IS OFFICIALLY DENIED

Never believe a rumour until it is officially denied. You know what they say about a sleazy or delicious sounding rumour: believe it only after the person or persons linked to it puts up a strenuously official denial. It’s an old dictum of politics that has been confirmed and re-confirmed many times over. The names of previous rumour models are many: DP Vijendran, Chua Soi Lek, Anwar Ibrahim rings a bell.

Usually, rumours made in Malaysia centre on the usual corruption and sex scandal. Sex scandals involving government leaders and officials are dished out every time there is an alignment of the planets, or if the powers-that-be want someone out even if that someone stubbornly and desperately clings to power.

However, corruption involving senior leaders of opposition parties is rarer than the Asian tsunami but when it comes, it is inundating and intoxicating, more so after they have received a taste of real power. Finally the DAP leaders understand now how their BN counterparts feel when they get accused with all kinds of treacherous allegations.

Check out the overflow of outrage after Ean Yong Hian Wah was fingered again in the inquiry for making false claims of investing in development for the people, but in actuality, reaping the funds for himself or his cohorts, all covertly from the Selangor Government.

The assemblyman for Sri Kembangan was all bluster and fury when denying the charges, repeated by MACC investigation unit head Hairul Ilham Hamzah when he was replying to questions posed by the RCI examiners.

That a DAP branch received an illegal cut from payments for state government projects in the Seri Kembangan constituency in 2008 is now difficult to prove because the true testimony that would nail Ean Yong died with Teoh Beng Hock, so much so that the MACC is unable to proceed with charging the DAP assemblyman, a situation reminiscent of movies of gangsters trying to protect their assets by eliminating evidence and witnesses.

The situation is intriguing: who stands to gain more from Teoh’s death? Not the MACC, now vilified by the DAP for what is essentially a cover up of the DAP’s corrupt deeds. It is fortuitously convenient, isn’t it, Teoh’s death?

The DAP’s complicity is more apparent after the father-son lawyer duo of Karpal Singh and Gobind Singh Deo kicked an unnecessary but almighty fuss - biased Attorney-General’s chambers, conflict of interest from a sitting judge who heads the RCI that tried to mask the DAP’s liability but instead enhanced their corrupt nature more glaringly.

The Singhs’ derailment plot failed because RCI chairman Tan Sri James Foong is not only tough and forthright but also shrewdly saw through the smokescreen.

He is still a candidate for Most Neutral Fellow of The Year who, like all of us except the frightened DAP leaders, is determine to find out just how exactly Teoh died.

Already three forensic scientists have established how Teoh did indeed die - from jumping out of a building, a suicide arising from immense guilt and shame of unwittingly exposing his DAP superiors with the evidence of fake invoices he kept inside his laptop.

Once Teoh realised the magnitude of his evidence and the fact that he spilled the beans more than he relished, he simply refused to go home even after the long hours of questioning by the MACC. Teoh even requested that he be given a resting place in MACC’s office, which the MACC obliged as simple courtesy, unaware of its deadly consequence.

Here’s a logical twist to Teoh’s behaviour. If he was abused as to what the DAP would like us to believe, then Teoh would have naturally fled the MACC office to the sanctuary of his DAP peers and then conduct the perfect photo opportunity for Opposition-friendly media, websites and blogs by lodging a police report from strength in numbers.

Besides, Teoh was getting married the next day. Why would he remain in the MACC’s office when he could be in the comfort of his fiancĂ©? What was he so fearful of?

MP for Wangsa Maju Wee Choo Keong had steadfastly pointed out that the suicide established by three qualified forensic scientists was already a common knowledge between fearful DAP leaders. But if the truth was out, there goes the DAP neighbourhood and bang goes the dream of re-conquering Selangor in the next general election, scheduled for a slot maybe by mid-next year.

With suicide a likely verdict in the RCI, the bigger question would be is, how high does the DAP conspiracy go? Right now, all suspicion is on Ean Yong but he can’t be operating solo for a caper that extends to the millions. Someone else too within the Selangor DAP wants their cut.

Since only Teoh knew for sure, based on the documents he possessed, it will be the MACC’s responsibility to divulge them in the next few weeks. The DAP, whether they realised it or not, forced the MACC’s hand - the more the DAP tries to flash the spotlight of liability on the MACC, the more the DAP is exposed.

If the MACC has proof, then the law enforcement agency should charge the guilty in the court of law, ranted Teresa Kok, the Selangor DAP chief but that was what the MACC was about to do when Teoh met with his unfortunate death, fortunate though for the people who want him “silenced”.

Since a case for corruption is difficult without Teoh’s material testimony, the next best thing for the MACC was to divulge the information they secured from Teoh to the RCI and in the final analysis, the court of public opinion.

The DAP should be familiar with this - they have shamelessly seized on it every time they plot against their rivals in the Barisan Nasional. Now, they are painfully consuming huge doses of their own bad medicine.

The weeks to come before the RCI wraps up its proceedings will be crucial. What is up next will depend on how badly the DAP screams and shouts and how much they would insist on covering up with denials and distractions.

Ultimately, the DAP might try this desperate ploy - put the blame entirely on Teoh when the evidence is mounting and let a dead man take the rap. - PJ Moorthy - Malaysia Instinct

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