Azmin’s convoluted stinkers

ULTIMATE LOYALIST: Azmin can turn whistleblower to all of Anwar’s secrets and wealth

In a nutshell, the NST was told by highly-placed sources that Azmin was investigated for, among others, assets allegedly amassed with wife, Shamsidar, including houses and cars totalling almost RM1.5 million, shares valued at hundreds of thousands of ringgit, and almost RM10 million in cash and cheques that went in and out of both their accounts that had been certified by the banks concerned.

If it’s not internal political horseplay within the Parti Keadilan Rakyat of which he is the deputy president, it is his role as receptacle to a nifty sleight of hand that led to the cordon breach in an ugly street demonstration.

If it’s not allegations of sexual dalliance captured by a spy camera that went viral, it is the dysfunctional family feud with his mother and sister entrapping him. And all these inside the last five months.

Any mortal trapped inside the eye of any of these psychological hurricanes would have been crushed many times over, but Azmin seems resolute and tough despite the soft physique, confronting all hostilities unconvincingly in some, but with head on tenacity, nevertheless.

Now comes the latest, a Category 5-like hurricane, where Azmin and his wife, Shamsidar Taharin, stand accused by Raja Petra Kamarudin (RPK) of illegally amassing fabulous wealth that betrayed their modest means, courtesy of their devotedly long patronage to disgraced ex-deputy prime minister and Umno deputy president, the PKR supremo and Opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

RPK, through a series of A4 documents displayed as images on his news portal, Malaysia Today, quoted a former MACC officer as saying that the then Anti-Corruption Agency had buried Azmin’s corruption file when Azmin could have been prosecuted.

Then ACA director-general Datuk Shafee Yahaya stated in an exclusive interview with the New Straits Times that he recommended to Anwar that disciplinary action be taken against (Azmin), following a 1995-97 probe into alleged corruption.

In a nutshell, the NST was told by highly-placed sources that Azmin was investigated for, among others, assets allegedly amassed with wife, Shamsidar, including houses and cars totalling almost RM1.5 million, shares valued at hundreds of thousands of ringgit, and almost RM10 million in cash and cheques that went in and out of both their accounts that had been certified by the banks concerned.

What is discomfiting, at least to Anwar and Azmin, is that the typical indignant reactions by opposition colleagues when their PKR bosses get assailed, has been somewhat muted.

Instead of dismissing RPK’s imputations of corruption head on, some are calling Azmin and Anwar to come clean and be measured by the same broom that is being swiped to clear graft.

Intriguingly, the voices that had chimed for Anwar and, to a certain extent, Azmin, the so-called intimate backers and supporters, already have a history of desertion in sensationalistic ceremonies.

But not Azmin, who is sticking by Anwar like stubborn sticky glue — absolutely nothing will break that steely bond, from the time he was Anwar’s confidential secretary in the halcyon 1990s in the higher offices of the Federal Government to Anwar’s torrid moments, from the sodomy trials to brutal political assaults from all sides.

Azmin is, undoubtedly in the eyes of supporters and detractors, the ultimate loyalist: so quintessential is he to Anwar’s scheming that without this man, Anwar’s travails could have flamed out ignominiously a long time ago.

In Azmin, Anwar was gifted the ideal right-hand man — the executioner of his policies and plans, the keeper of all of Anwar’s secrets and wealth, the man who knows where all the bodies are buried and skeletons are hidden.

Azmin’s political career blossomed under the tutelage of Anwar, first as his confidential secretary and suggested by that career title, possessing confidential knowledge of Anwar’s most intimate details.

In Azmin is where the highly sought paper trail ends. If the MACC is keen on resolving this conundrum, then they should train their investigations on Azmin, which means not just probes into his and his wife’s financial affairs (Shamsidar read finance in University of Minnesota), but also subpoenas on bank records and people associated to the duo, including the so-called benefactors and sponsors who provided the generous, if not dubious, largesse.

Azmin and Shamsidar should not be treated as hostiles, only because the evidence they can reveal is extremely valuable. But it would be difficult: Azmin will defend Anwar, even if it means sacrificing himself.

In this sense, the authorities could cut a deal and mollycoddle Azmin and Shamsidar as supreme whistle blowers.