MACC to probe RM6,000-a-piece royal plates claim
(Harakah Daily) — A claim that RM6 million was spent on commemorative plaques for guests who attended the recent coronation of the Yang Di-Pertuan Agong at the newly completed one billion-ringgit National Palace in Jalan Duta has caught the attention of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission.
In a short posting on the Facebook page of former Perlis mufti Dr Mohd Asri Zainul Abidin, who first highlighted the complaint emailed to him, MACC said the Commission would be discussing the matter at its next meeting.
“The information will be brought to MACC’s information evaluation committee’s meeting before a decision is taken,” said MACC’s Record Management and Information Technology Division director Nor Azmi Karim.
Earlier, Asri highlighted an email he received alleging corrupt practices and kickbacks “which have become rampant among Federal government officers serving at the National Palace”.
It claimed that the door gifts for the Agong’s installation ceremony, a gold-embroidered decorative plaque presented to guests, had cost the government RM6,000 a piece.
According to the email, 1,000 such plaques had been exclusively ordered, bringing the total amount spent on the plates alone to RM6 million.
Saying the cost of royal dining plates purchased through public tender had cost RM240 a piece, the email claimed that souvenir plates for past installation ceremonies had been priced not more than RM300 a piece.
“Nowadays, these irresponsible officers hiked up the price of the installation plaques through the practice of kickback money,” it added, saying those working at the Palace should not consider the place as belonging to them and indulge in waste of public funds.
The revelation generated intense discussion among Malaysian netizens, many of whom linked such expenditure to recent calls for free tertiary education to citizens. BN leaders have cited lack of funds as a reason why it opposed any move to do away with the current practice of committing students to decades of repayment of their study loans under the National Higher Education Fund Corporation (PTPTN).
The installation ceremony of the 14th Yang Di-Pertuan Agong was held last Wednesday. Sultan Abdul Halim of Kedah assumed the Agong’s post for the second time, having served as the fifth Agong in 1970 at the age of 41. It was the first time the ceremony, held every five years, was held at the sprawling new National Palace complex which occupies the 97-hectare land in Jalan Duta, almost nine times more spacious than the former palace at Jalan Istana.
