Thursday, May 11, 2006

Is the Law only applicable to the lower echolon of the society ?

What happened in the Malayasian Parliament recently was something we Malaysians should be ashamed of. This so called MP for Jasin lately had been vocal on government servants actions especially of the Royal Customs and Excise Department .We all thought he was sincere in his comments .It came out to be that he had a hidden agenda against the Department . We also thought he was a sincere hardworking MP but far from that he is a person who should not be trusted . It seems that apart from being an MP he was also doing business as a forwarding agent for the import of smuggled timber logs from indonesia .( Indonesia bans the export of timber ) .When the Customs took action against his company for contravening the Customs Act , he approached the Customs officers and told them to close one eye on the case . When the Customs Department refused to kowtow to his request he lambasted the Customs Department in Parliment for being ineffective and etc. ( It is now revealed that his company ,Binyu Sof Enterprise was caught 14 times for the same offence and each time was compounded by the Customs ) .It so happened , his episodes with the Customs came to the knowledge of reporters from the the New Straits Times and it was published as a hot topic of news . When asked to comment on the matter Dato Mohd.Said b. Mohd.Yusof ,the Jasin MP explained that he was merely bringing the grouses of a bumiputra importer whose timber was seized by the Customs Department . Later it was revealed that he was not telling the truth . Infact he admitted at a press conference held outside Parliment that the so called bumiputra importer was he himself .The opposition leader in Parliment Mr.Lim Kit Siang took the opportunity to table a motion to bring the Jasin MP to face a Parlimentary Disciplinary commitee for misleading the public and bringing disrepute to Parliment. His motion was however supported by Dato Shahrir Abdl Samad MP for Johor Baru and also the Back Becnchers Club Chairman who through his conscience felt that it was the right thing to do but unfortunately without the support of his members .Feeling agitated and ashamed for the members of BBC , Dato Shahrir left the House and tendered his resignation as Chairman of the Back Benchers Club .
When asked during his arrival at KLIA from Jamaica PM Abdullah Badawi supported the action of Dato Shahrir . Surprisingly the next day there was a twist of the turn when the PM announced that Dato Shahrir was wrong . Obviously he made the decision after hearing the briefing from his Deputy ,Dato Sri Najib Tun Razak .Worst still no action was to be taken against Dato Mohd Said due to the fact that the motion was rejected by Parliment and instead Dato Shahrir would have to face an UMNO/BN Disciplinary Committee for supporting an oppostion motion . He also revealed that that the BN had made the decision that it's MPs should not support any motion of the opposition .
What sort of leadership our country is having ? What sort of transparency that he was bragging about ? No wonder Dr.Mahathir was not very happy with what is going on in the country . BN leaders used to say that the opposition would oppose everything the government does even if it is good for the people and yet when Dato Shahrir supported a good motion of the opposition ,he was penalised .The government is obviously not doing according to what it is preaching.
In the first place the Jasin MP had obviously committed an offence under the Corruption Act for interfering with the Customs Department's work , the same so called offence commtted by the former Deputy Prime Minister Dato Sri Anwar Ibrahim for interfering with the Police work . If Anwar Ibrahim was charged for the offence ,why is the Jasin MP being spared ? Where is the talk about transparency and eradicating corruption in this country ? Or is the law only applicable to the lower echolon of the society while those in the upper echolon could do whatever they want ?

No comments: