Release date: 28-02-08
Abdullah Badawi said yesterday:
“Judge BN by its track record”
In the 2004 General Elections (GE) campaign, Datuk Seri Abdullah Badawi (Badawi) had pledged that fighting corruption was his first priority if he were to win the GE. The nation gave him a landslide victory.
Fighting Corruption
Soon after Badawi took office of the Prime Minister (PM), after Kasitah Adam was charged for corruption involving RM3.5 million, Badawi announced that it was one down and there were 18 more big “sharks” to go. The nation backed Badawi all the way with his call to fight corruption.
Four years passed by, and while Badawi was still having his “honeymoon,” most of these 18 big “sharks” were still swimming in Parliament until it was dissolved on 24-02-08. Malaysians laughed at the bribery charge of RM3.5 million against a minister as in the case of Kasitah Adam because it is an open secret that bribery at high places involves a few hundred million Ringgit.
How can one fight against corruption when the Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) itself is corrupt. During the Royal Commission of Inquiry, Dato V K Lingam’s secretary, Ms Jeyanthi, said that an ACA officer had told her that the ACA had to close the investigation because the case involved powerful people in the BN administration and she was paid RM3,000-00 to keep ‘quiet.’ If the ACA was also involved in such corrupt activities, then Badawi’s record for fighting corruption was just another misleading and meaningless public statement that he had been known to make.
In fact, it is an open secret in Malaysian society that BN has inculcated a culture that generally if the rakyat want to get things done fast then they had to pay bribes for quick delivery. When one is stopped by the traffic police, one is expected to pay bribes otherwise one will be issued with a summons and face inconveniences. CORRUPTION HAS BECOME A WAY OF LIFE UNDER THE BADAWI’S ADMINISTRATION. IT HAS GONE FROM BAD TO WORST.
Launching of National Plans
Badawi had launched the 9th Malaysian Plan some two years ago with massive publicities in our controlled mass media. Until this very day, there has been no public debate on the 9th Malaysian Plan nor has it been put into action. It was a total failure for Badawi, as the ex-PM, for treating the 9th Malaysian Plan, a serious national agenda, as a joke and another of his publicity stunt.
I call upon Badawi to produce his record on fighting corruption since 2004 and how many of the plans and/or projects that he had announced had been implemented.
Wee Choo Keong
