http://dapmalaysia.org
|
Abdullah should set best practices in good governance and a new culture of zero tolerance for corruption by immediately sacking or at least suspending Isa Samad as Federal Territories Minister who was found guilty of corruption and money politics by UMNO Disciplinary Board and handle Isa’s case to ACA and the Attorney-General for prosecution Media Statement by Lim Kit Siang (Ipoh, Saturday): The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi should set best practices in good governance and a new culture of zero tolerance for corruption by immediately sacking or at least suspending Tan Sri Mohd Isa Samad as Federal Territories Minister who was found guilty of corruption and money politics by UMNO Disciplinary Board and handle Isa’s case to the Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) and the Attorney-General for prosecution. Isa, UMNO’s first vice president who created the shocking upset in the UMNO party elections last September by polling the most number of votes despite been written off in the race, faced nine charges, seven on corruption and vote-buying, one for misuse of his powers as the Federal Territories Minister and one for holding campaign gatherings prohibited under the UMNO code of ethics. The UMNO Disciplinary Board yesterday suspended Isa from UMNO for six years with immediate effect. Under the first charge, Abdullah should have removed Isa for misuse of his powers as Federal Territories Minister without having to wait for the finding from the UMNO Disciplinary Board as it comes directly under his prerogative and responsibility as Prime Minister. The first charge against Isa was that he “misused his powers as Federal Territories Minister by organizing a gathering with delegates from the Telok Kemang division to the 2004 UMNO General Assembly on or about early September about 5 pm at his office at the Kuala Lumpur City Hall with the intention of securing votes or support in the election”. The seven charges against Isa for money politics and vote-buying are clearly corruption offences under the Prevention of Corruption Act 1997, and the ACA and the Attorney-General should end their inaction and arrest and prosecute Isa for corruption without any further delay. The seven corruption charges of money politics and vote-buying which the UMNO Disciplinary Board had preferred against Isa are:
UMNO leaders, like the Information Minister Datuk Paduka Abdul Kadir Sheikh Fadzir, who had described the UMNO party election on September 23 last year for UMNO Vice President and UMNO Supreme Council as “the worst case of money politics in the 34 years he had held national-level positions in the party”, has now been fully vindicated. Only last week, former Deputy Prime Minister and UMNO Deputy President, Tun Ghafar Baba, lamented in an interview that money politics involved in UMNO elections for a Supreme Council position was not merely RM1,000 or RM2,000, nor RM1 million or RM2 million, but from RM10 million to RM50 million! (Sin Chew 19.6.05) Ghafar did not mention the astronomical sums expended for the UMNO Vice President stake. If the Isa case is only the first of a major clean-up of UMNO money politics and corruption, which is a prerequisite for the success of any nation-wide campaign to eradicate corruption and establish a national integrity system with zero tolerance for corruption, then Abdullah would go down in Malaysian history as the Prime Minister who has stemmed the tide against corruption which had seen Malaysia falling 16 places in nine years in the Transparency International Corruption Perception Index from 23rd ranking in 1995 to 39th ranking in 2004, as well as laying firm foundations for a national integrity system. (25/06/2005)
* |