Lies, damn lies and stupidity

ARCHIVES 2010

By admin-s On Nov 27, 2010

What really sickens me to the core of my being is that I know for a fact that someone in the party HQ knows that the letter is a forgery. It was created to cover up an initial honest mistake made by somebody when they said that Jenapala was sacked in February 2009.

By Jonson Chong

After my polite final appeal to the president of KEADILAN was ignored… No, actually, she told us that the central election committee would carry out thorough investigations and that all candidates should stop using the media to criticise the party. Although that did not sit well with me, I respected her wishes so much so that even when I withdrew from the contest for a vice presidential position, I did it quietly.

Indeed, I know some shrewder politicians ridicule me for not taking the opportunity to make a public statement. Well, the rationale for me is simple. I quit because I found the entire party election to be such a disappointment and it completely lacked credibility. And it gave me neither profit nor pleasure in making the party look worse than it already was. (For your information, I tried contacting the president directly before I wrote my open letter to her.)

Now, I share my true feelings not because I want to embarrass the party but because I sense the presence of foolish arrogance in the voice of the party’s secretary-general. And I simply cannot remain silent in the face of bold-faced lies because I know it will eventually bring the party to its knees. Yes, I am talking about his statements vis-a-vis the sacking of Jenapala.

Before I proceed, let me confess one thing. I am no fan of Jenapala’s. At one point in time, we were both deputy secretaries-general of the party and I came to realise that I did not like the way he expressed himself, which is probably due to the way he thought. Anyway, I digress.

Back to the current sec-gen of KEADILAN. He said that he welcomes the police to investigate the forgery of a letter sacking Jenapala, purportedly signed by the previous sec-gen. (For those who are unaware, I served as the deputy to the previous sec-gen.)

Apart from opening the doors of the party HQ and computer servers to the friendly PDRM, the current sec-gen also says that, “All we did was open our files and found the letter that Salehuddin signed… How am I supposed to know if his signature was forged.” Does he expect members, supporters and the public to just accept this lame explanation and conclude all is well in the party?

Please allow me to share how the previous sec-gen would have handled things if this matter cropped up, i.e. whether Jenapala was actually sacked from the party. One, he would have asked the membership officer to check Jenapala’s membership status. Two, he would have asked me to scrutinise the central leadership council meetings’ minutes for the relevant decision. And, three, he would have asked whether we issued a letter to inform Jenapala, if indeed such a decision was made.

For me, just the stupidity of how this Jenapala issue was handled is enough to tell me that the judgement of the people who are purportedly in charge of the party are seriously impaired.

But what really sickens me to the core of my being is that I know for a fact that someone in the party HQ knows that the letter is a forgery. It was created to cover up an initial honest mistake made by somebody when they said that Jenapala was sacked in February 2009.