Difference between people’s justice and witch hunt
Kua Kia Soong, SUARAM Adviser
Recently, in a rather novel attempt to unseat Najib, Dr Mahathir warned UMNO leaders that if BN were to lose the next general election, they can expect “payback time” should PR come into power. This of course elicited comments from Malaysians that the former Prime Minister would probably be the first in line for any retributive justice. It in turn led one or two PR leaders to appear magnanimous by declaring that there would be no witch hunts against these BN culprits should PR come to power.
The point surely is that the pursuit of people’s justice – whether it is finding the culprits responsible for the deaths of innocent victims or the squandering of tax payers’ monies – can never be described as a witch hunt. A “witch-hunt” is a term used to describe hype-up activities by governments to seek out and expose “perceived enemies”, often without proper judicial standards. The McCarthyist persecution of suspected communists in the United States in the fifties and the massacre of the left in Indonesia during the sixties are especially associated with such “witch hunts”.
Nothing is more offensive to our sense of justice than the continuing freedom of known criminals – murderers and financier fraudsters – who have managed to get away with impunity all these years. Both BN and PR must understand that the people expect justice and squandered tax payers’ monies to be returned. This does not depend on the so-called “magnanimity” of the government in power or through any “behind-the-scenes” settlements between the corrupt and the power brokers. Let us look at a few scores that have not yet been settled but certainly not forgotten:
1. The former Selangor Menteri Besar’s alleged corruption:
During the attempt to unseat the former MB of Selangor, the PR leaders showed the people a file which was supposed to contain allegations of misdemeanor and/or corruption involving the former MB. Since the former MB’s overthrow, this file has not been heard of since. It is certainly not a witch hunt to ask for justice to be done – to the former MB in order to clear his name and for Selangor taxpayers to retrieve any monies that have been fraudulently misappropriated as alleged by the PR leaders. The PR leaders must be reminded that the people have not forgotten.
2. The hidden hands behind the murder of Altantuya:
If PR should come to power, the people would expect the murder case of Altantuya to be re-opened in order that the “hidden hands” who ordered the murder of the Mongolian lass can be brought to justice and whether in fact RM500 million of taxpayers’ money was paid as commission for the Scorpene submarines purchase.
3. 1MDB scandal
1MDB was created as a vehicle for investment of state profits from the country’s oil and gas resources. But it has borrowed heavily from local banks to invest in power plants and questions surround the $14.5 billion in debts the fund has accumulated since its founding in 2009. The call for a Royal Commission of Inquiry into these dubious transactions is certainly not a witch hunt but an expected demand for accountability and justice by the people. The people expect heads to roll in this fiasco.
4. The Port Klang Free Zone scandal
This scandal involved huge cost overruns amounting to RM3.5 billion associated with the Port Klang Free Zone. The original cost of setting up the integrated free zone was supposed be RM1.845 billion but increased to RM4.6 billion when the project was completed four years later.
In 2007, the Malaysian Government gave a soft loan of $1 billion to Port Klang Free Zone. In 2008, Price Waterhouse Coopers was asked to conduct an audit in response to financial irregularities. These financial irregularities have not been properly accounted to Malaysian taxpayers and the people expect the ones responsible for these indiscretions to be brought to book. And this is certainly not a witch hunt!
5. The BMF scandal and the murder of Jalil Ibrahim
The BMF scandal was one of the earliest financial scandals that occurred during Dr. Mahathir’s rule. The Hong Kong-based Carrian Group became involved in a scandal with Bank Bumiputra Malaysia Berhad of Malaysia. Following allegations of accounting fraud, a murder of a bank auditor, and the suicide of the firm’s adviser, the Carrian Group collapsed in 1983, the largest bankruptcy in Hong Kong at the time. Bumiputra Malaysia Finance auditor Jalil Ibrahim was assigned to investigate dubious loans to the Carrian Group in Hong Kong. He was strangled to death in a Hong Kong hotel room in 1983 and his body dumped in undergrowth in a village. Like the Altantuya murder, the convicted killer did not appear to have a real motive. It is not a witch hunt to ask for Malaysian taxpayers’ monies to be properly accounted for and for the people in authority who were responsible for the dubious loans to Carrian to be brought to book.
The above are but a sampling of the many other financial scandals that have eaten billions of ringgit belonging to Malaysian taxpayers. The people demand justice, compensation and just punishment for all those who have been responsible for squandering our money. This is by no means a witch hunt!
