Lunch, lies and an audio tape

ARCHIVES 2009

By admin-s On May 28, 2009

By Shanon Shah (The Nut Graph)

REPORTERS have shared many an exasperated laugh over the clucking and cackling of chickens in independent candidate Aminah Abdullah's 13 May 2009 audio recording of an alleged attempt to bribe her. In the 47th minute of the recording, even Lim Eng Nam — the special assistant to Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR)'s Bukit Tambun assemblyperson Law Choo Kiang — is distracted by the chickens.

"You don't rear them for eating, right?" he can be heard asking. Aminah's husband, Mohd Rofi Osman, says, "They're pets — they have no meat on them anyway."

Barely into the one-hour mark, the first of many offers is made by Lim and Cheah, "You could withdraw from the (Penanti) by-election and say it's a gesture of goodwill to (Penang PKR chief) Datuk Zahrain (Mohamed Hashim)."

They then say that PKR candidate Dr Mansor Othman could counter offer Aminah with an invitation to rejoin the party.

Aminah retorts, "Do you think this will get past Zahrain? You know (PKR adviser Datuk Seri) Anwar Ibrahim is partial to him?"

And over the remaining couple of hours, Lim and Cheah suggest a combination of "packages" that could be offered to Aminah in accordance with varying scenarios. They discuss at length her options:

If she withdraws before nomination day on 23 May;

If she withdraws within three days after 23 May; or

If she contests and defeats Mansor.

In this sense, Aminah is truthful in saying she was offered the posts of Penang deputy chief minister 1, president of a local council, and reimbursement of her RM80,000 campaign expenses. Lim can be heard explicitly offering these options to Aminah and Rofi.

But at the same time, Cheah and Lim are also truthful in saying that they were talking as personal friends who have known each other for nearly a decade. In between plotting about politics, they joke, talk about Aminah's daughter's upcoming wedding, and as Cheah emphatically says to the press, "everything under the sun".

PKR's internal bickering

Nevertheless, after listening to the entire recording, what is also noteworthy is that the "bribing" is but one of many complex issues that have brought this, yet another PKR spat, to public attention.