Don’t cry for me Argentina: Shahrizat resigns! — Sakmongkol AK47

MARCH 15 — The other night as I was surfing the Astro channels, I came upon an interview with a crying woman. She was crying because Shahrizat Abdul Jalil had announced she would resign her Cabinet post. The poor crying woman was also saying — if Shahrizat resigns, then Nik Aziz must also resign. I suppose she was alluding to the case involving Nik Aziz’s son in law. The SIL was cleared.

The woman need not worry. If it’s a case involving opposition politicians and those related to them in question, the government machinery will leave no stones unturned to get to the bottom of the case.

Let me share with you the thoughts of a frequent visitor to my blog. This person shows he is a concerned Malaysian, mindful of the future of our country. He comments under the penname of OneMalaysian.

Here is a woman, whose husband clearly got RM250 million in very soft loans from the government to rear cows to meet 40 per cent of beef demand, but who instead took that money, spent a little bit on the actual project, and used the rest to invest in properties in Kuala Lumpur and Singapore, and to pay astronomical and undeserved salaries to her family.

Her husband has no background in rearing cows or producing meat. So why give him RM250 million when FELDA actually has a subsidiary that does? Why does the government give RM250 million to a well-to-do Bumiputera family when there are thousands of Malays living in rural Malaysia who clearly deserve just such a loan?

It is obvious, therefore, that Salleh, the husband, would not have got the loan if not for his wife’s position in the Cabinet and in Umno. Did she have no knowledge that that loan was given to her husband? Do we believe that she did not lobby for it? If it is true that she had nothing to do with the NFC project, are we to assume that the Cabinet and Muhyiddin drew lots from a big hat containing about 10 million Malay names and out popped Salleh’s name. He was the lucky Malay who got the loan. It could well have been Ariff Sabri, but sorry, Sakmongkol.

This is outright abuse of power by those who gave her family the loan. It is corruption because she had abused her position in the Cabinet. It is morally wrong because RM250 million could have been used to help the poor Malays, who deserve such help more than Shahrizat and her wealthy family.

And now, listen to what the PM and DPM say when she finally “resigns”. It was a sacrifice! Give me a RM250 million soft loan that may never be repaid and I will resign from any position! “Magnanimous”, that’s the word Muhyiddin used to describe her resignation. Hah? You abuse RM250 million of public money, resign reluctantly, and that is magnanimous?

And look how weak and immoral the PM is. Cabinet members serve at his pleasure. And if they don’t resign when they should, he has absolute power to sack them. But Najib seems powerless. He has to wait for her senatorship to expire, and then leave, that is, at her pleasure, not his. We cannot have such a weak, powerless, immoral PM governing this country. It is not good for the ordinary Malays, and not good for anyone else, except the Shahrizats of Malaysia.

If this sad NFC episode does not shake the ordinary Malays out of their stupor and see their leaders as thieves and not their benefactors and protectors, then nothing else would.

Res ipsa loquitur? — sakmongkol.blogspot.com

* Sakmongkol AK47 is the nom de plume of Datuk Mohd Ariff Sabri Abdul Aziz. He was Pulau Manis assemblyman (2004-2008).