Ask Khir Toyo what a two-storey bungalow (without pool!) on prime Penang land cost
Umar Mukhtar
The selling price of the bungalow that Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng bought is not a unique case. In my lifetime, I can rattle off the fingers of my hands such deals where sellers found it convenient to sell off properties at a huge discount. Khir Toyo’s case was the first involving someone of the highest levels.
To prove corruption or abuse of power involves tedious work and the chain of causation to connect it with alleged insidious deals is so difficult. Good luck to MACC. Except when you want to put away someone like Anwar Ibrahim so bad that his simple ‘gempak’ comment was construed as instruction to obstruct justice. But we are past that now that someone has retired. Thank God. For LGE’s sake too.
But in LGE’s case, the public are left to wonder. Wonder about land reclamation projects, balding hilltops and the multi-billion ringgit proposed tunnel link to the mainland, plus now with disguised foreign financial transactions being common, to Hong Kong for example, the public don’t need more fodder for the teh tarik chats. But they are none the wiser in spite of repeated scams.
Why entertain such public speculations, you would say? When will it stop? You think becoming CM is easy, do you? It’s not just about being elected! Its about being that beacon of public service, that exemplary non-human disciplinary toughness against any temptation to betray who put their trust on you.
The oft-mentioned episode of an executive being promoted, transferred out leaving his wife and then his having an affair with a slut colleague who knows how to move up by the swing of her ass, is as common as the recurring haze.
That is a so human a weakness, that we don’t even want to talk about it. Let the sacrificing suffering wife make her own choice. She is only one person compared to a whole lot of a politician’s constituents. If the wife finds out, just send the slut overseas or something
A public person cannot avoid being maligned? Bullshit! The late Tun Ismail Ali, the founding Governor of Bank Negara would go out on a limb to know who the people tendering were, to check if he has any relationship like buyer-seller with them however small. If there is, he would declare before the evaluation started and if it was too substantive, he would ask to be recused from the deliberations.
And he is not alone like that. The late YM Raja Mohar, the government Economic Advisor and Malaysia Airlines Chairman; YM Raja Alias who led the building of FELDA to what it was yesterday; Rustam Hadi who built the management of Petronas without needing an advisor except a chairman who was also a good man like Azizan Zainal Abidin; Dr. Lim Chong Eu, the ex-CM of Penang; politicians like Tun Razak Hussein; Tun Dr. Ismail; Tun Hussein Onn and many many others were like that. Rarely do you hear of any allegations of hanky-panky even at the teh tarik stalls.
They led us by example thirty, forty years ago. Not some sneaky, sleazy, snaky stuff made popular by the man who coined the empty slogan of ‘Leadership by example’ in the last few decades. He set such a ‘good’ example that he is having nightmares that his student is giving him back his shit right now.
And what is LGE’s reaction to a scenario laid out in parliament for the benefit of the government and agencies like MACC? See him in his office! Who the hell does he think he is! And YB Theresa Kok running interference hysterically like YB Azalina Aziz when their alpha-male was attacked, make up for relief comedy on that hot day.
But the real tragedy is when the sycophants, the serfs, the idiotic fans of crooked politicians will rationalise and say that a couple of millions is nothing compared to say, 2.6 billion ringgit! No wonder these people are suffering fools. Corruption is corruption, no matter how small.
These corrupt bastards start small, especially when they are in charge of smaller things, like a state instead of Putrajaya. Except for Jho Lo who got his huge break early because he happened to be dealing with not so smart crooks in high places.
