OCT 7 — Datuk Seri Najib Razak gave the following justification for fielding Tan Sri Mohd Isa Samad as Umno’s candidate in Bagan Pinang: “The offence committed by Isa was merely a technical offence and it was not an offence under the law.” The statement was made in front of Malaysian students in France.
Pity the Prime Minister. Obviously he has committed a very grave error by making such a statement. I wonder what law he was referring to? Was he making a new law?
Instead of saying that it was not an offence under the law, Najib should have said that it was not an offence under his administration. If he says that, at least the people know he is honest.
Legally speaking money politics is a criminal offence, whether it takes place inside or outside any political parties. No dichotomy may be drawn between these two. Money politics is corruption and corruption is money politics. They are two sides of the same coin. In order to determine whether any particular act is corruption or not, the law looks at the substance and not the form. The essence of corruption is giving something for an unduly favour. Such an essence is present in money politics.
Be that as it may, Najib’s statement that the offence committed by Isa was not an offence under the law is completely wrong. The statement represents a very desperate excuse in order to justify the unjustifiable.
Just because Isa has not been prosecuted by MACC does not mean he is clean of an offence of corruption. Corrupt practice is a criminal offence. Being a criminal offence, it, unlike a civil claim, is not subject to any limitation period. No time bar for the prosecution of a criminal offender. Even if a crime took place 20 years ago the culprit may still be charged in court, provided of course the prosecution still has the credible evidence.
Translated into Isa’s fiasco, he may at any time be subject to criminal prosecution for the offence he committed few years ago. Isa has not been prosecuted not due to a scarcity of evidence implicating him. He has not been charged in court because we have an inefficient and incompetent MACC whenever it involves BN leaders.
When Isa was convicted by Umno’s disciplinary board, it presupposed that the latter had very strong evidence against Isa. If MACC is very concerned about stamping out corruption in Bolehland, it surely faces no difficulties in getting all the necessary evidence from Umno’s disciplinary board for the purpose of prosecuting Isa in court.
The law gives very wide powers for the MACC to do that, if it has the political will to do the same. MACC is statutorily empowered under the existing law to summon all the members of Umno’s disciplinary board in order to obtain all the necessary evidence. Umno’s disciplinary board, on the other hand, is duty bound to cooperate with the MACC. Thus the MACC may call, among others, Tan Sri Zaki Azmi, the present Chief Justice who was at the material time one of the members of Umno’s disciplinary board.
Najib’s statement shows that BN is no doubt practising double standards. It is rather weird that four years ago Najib, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein and other Umno leaders overwhelmingly supported the findings of Umno’s disciplinary board in convicting Isa as a corrupt leader. Isa was then barred from contesting in the party’s election as he was seen by Umno as a smeared politician. Thus Isa had to be ousted from the party’s leadership at all cost.
Yet this time around the same filthy politician is all of a sudden seen as a clean leader. The same Umno politicians who deplored Isa have now, without any guilty conscience, offered him as the Umno candidate for the Bagan Pinang by election. Once again Umno is trying to insult the intelligence of the Bagan Pinang voters.
What message is Najib trying to send to the voters in Bagan Pinang ? Is he trying to send the following message: “We (Umno) don’t want a corrupt leader in our party but we don’t mind a corrupt leader to represent Bagan Pinang voters as they are people outside our party.”
If such a message is sent by Najib to the voters in Bagan Pinang , we (PAS) are really thankful to Najib. Such a message, with God’s help, will contribute to our victory in Bagan Pinang, insya’Allah.
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