KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 30 — It takes a rare sort of nerve to move into a new job and immediately declare that you will solve the biggest problem that wasn't dealt with by your predecessor in the 22 years he was there. Rarer still, when you consider that the predecessor in question might possibly be the most powerful Malaysian who ever lived.
"This man's got chutzpah," we all thought as then-Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, as the prime minister, promised to tackle, pin down and disembowel corruption. As Tunku Abdul Aziz wrote earlier this year, "We were swept and overwhelmed by the euphoria of the moment, the dawn of a blessed new era and the end of a morally degrading and debilitating regime. Anyone after Mahathir Mohamad was a welcome change, and the country was happy to give him and the party he led the biggest ever electoral victory in the history of our country."
The year was 2003 and Malaysia had just dipped from No. 33 in the Global Corruption Perception Index (CPI) done by Transparency International to No. 37. No fear, Pak Lah is here!
And as we went about our business, we assumed he was doing the same... but we then went down to No. 39, two years later to No. 44... and then, A-HA, the Lingam tape surfaced! Here was a chance for Pak Lah to prove he was serious, and only four years after he had taken over!
And so he rolls up his sleeves, puts together a five-man royal commission of inquiry (RCI) to look into the video recorded in 2002 showing lawyer Datuk Kanalingam Vellupillai allegedly talking to former Chief Judge of Malaya Ahmad Fairuz Abdul Halim on the phone about getting the judge appointed as the top dog — Chief Justice of Malaysia. The lawyer also seemed to boast about having discussed judicial matters with Cabinet minister Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor and Berjaya tycoon Tan Sri Vincent Tan, one of then-Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad's closest business buddies.
This was big, big nVK Lingam was caught on video but he insists it wasn't him.
ews with Dr M, Tan, Tengku Adnan, another Chief Justice Tun Mohamed Eusoff Chin and Lingam all having to testify before the almighty commission. It gave us such wonderful entertainment such as Lingam's immortal, "Looks like me, talks like me, sounds like me, but it's not me."
Was this to signal a turning point in Malaysia's history? A wide-ranging clampdown on the wheelers and dealer and fixers of the Mahathir-era?
The RCI seemed to think so. It found that the phone call was between Lingam and Ahmad Fairuz, that judicial appointments were open to manipulation and specifically that Lingam, Tengku Adnan and Tan ensured the late Tan Sri Dr Abdul Malek Ahmad did not become Chief Judge of Malaya.
Abdullah's Cabinet agreed to make these findings public and ordered the Attorney-General to investigate the allegations. Finally, justice? Well, it seemed there was sufficient cause to invoke the Sedition, the Prevention of Corruption, the Legal Profession and the Official Secrets Acts against the main protagonists.
None of the above, however, has eventually been invoked with regards to the tape — the Sedition Act has instead been used to do things like haul DAP chairman Karpal Singh to court over his claim that royalty could be sued. Parliament was recently told that Lingam might have committed a "moral wrong" but that he had committed no criminal wrong.
And it was Abdullah himself who had told the House just before he retired that three out of four persons investigated with relation to the video had been cleared of any wrongdoing.
The last time I checked, we are now No. 56 on the CPI.
MI
30/12/09
"This man's got chutzpah," we all thought as then-Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, as the prime minister, promised to tackle, pin down and disembowel corruption. As Tunku Abdul Aziz wrote earlier this year, "We were swept and overwhelmed by the euphoria of the moment, the dawn of a blessed new era and the end of a morally degrading and debilitating regime. Anyone after Mahathir Mohamad was a welcome change, and the country was happy to give him and the party he led the biggest ever electoral victory in the history of our country."
The year was 2003 and Malaysia had just dipped from No. 33 in the Global Corruption Perception Index (CPI) done by Transparency International to No. 37. No fear, Pak Lah is here!
And as we went about our business, we assumed he was doing the same... but we then went down to No. 39, two years later to No. 44... and then, A-HA, the Lingam tape surfaced! Here was a chance for Pak Lah to prove he was serious, and only four years after he had taken over!
And so he rolls up his sleeves, puts together a five-man royal commission of inquiry (RCI) to look into the video recorded in 2002 showing lawyer Datuk Kanalingam Vellupillai allegedly talking to former Chief Judge of Malaya Ahmad Fairuz Abdul Halim on the phone about getting the judge appointed as the top dog — Chief Justice of Malaysia. The lawyer also seemed to boast about having discussed judicial matters with Cabinet minister Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor and Berjaya tycoon Tan Sri Vincent Tan, one of then-Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad's closest business buddies.
This was big, big nVK Lingam was caught on video but he insists it wasn't him.
ews with Dr M, Tan, Tengku Adnan, another Chief Justice Tun Mohamed Eusoff Chin and Lingam all having to testify before the almighty commission. It gave us such wonderful entertainment such as Lingam's immortal, "Looks like me, talks like me, sounds like me, but it's not me."
Was this to signal a turning point in Malaysia's history? A wide-ranging clampdown on the wheelers and dealer and fixers of the Mahathir-era?
The RCI seemed to think so. It found that the phone call was between Lingam and Ahmad Fairuz, that judicial appointments were open to manipulation and specifically that Lingam, Tengku Adnan and Tan ensured the late Tan Sri Dr Abdul Malek Ahmad did not become Chief Judge of Malaya.
Abdullah's Cabinet agreed to make these findings public and ordered the Attorney-General to investigate the allegations. Finally, justice? Well, it seemed there was sufficient cause to invoke the Sedition, the Prevention of Corruption, the Legal Profession and the Official Secrets Acts against the main protagonists.
None of the above, however, has eventually been invoked with regards to the tape — the Sedition Act has instead been used to do things like haul DAP chairman Karpal Singh to court over his claim that royalty could be sued. Parliament was recently told that Lingam might have committed a "moral wrong" but that he had committed no criminal wrong.
And it was Abdullah himself who had told the House just before he retired that three out of four persons investigated with relation to the video had been cleared of any wrongdoing.
The last time I checked, we are now No. 56 on the CPI.
MI
30/12/09
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