Who is right?
In one of the most disgraceful cases of sinister siphoning of public money by State owned fronts, where the Ministry of Finance selected a dodgy company over a bona fide one, against the recommendations of the Works Minister, the worst nightmare come true when the dodgy one reneged on its contract, disappeared with hundreds of millions, and folded in on itself conveniently without anyone taking any actions or blame.
The Finance Minister at that time was none other than Anwar Ibrahim but he, not surprisingly, disclaimed responsibility.
Because Humpty Dumpty had blamed the entire Matrade fiasco on the Finance Ministry led by Anwar, whom Humpty said failed to heed the advice of the Works Ministry, then led by Leo Moggie, Anwar in return claimed that he had ‘strong suspicion’ Humpty Dumpty had an interest in Ireka Construction Berhad (ICB), which had bid unsuccessfully for the project.
He declared: “As a general rule, any recommendation from the Works Ministry - especially in situations where the minister had shown some interest - would raise a lot of suspicions from among the Treasury officers during my time. So the moment Samy showed any interest in any project, the Treasury would review the entire process.”
Anwar said that to explain why the Finance Ministry had probably refused to accept the Works Ministry’s recommendation of Ireka, and instead went for the dodgy Perangsang International Sdn Bhd (PISB), formerly owned by the Selangor government’s investment arm. He said these steps were taken against Humpty’s ministry and not other ministries following recommendations by the Anti-Corruption Agency then.
Mind you, he quickly added that he was not part of the tender board headed by the then deputy minister, Abdul Ghani Othman, now the Johor Mentri Besar.
Well, Anwar, you were the Minister, so stop passing the buck around. That’s the concept of authority and responsibility. It doesn’t matter whether your deputy had been the man heading the tender board, you were still responsible for his official actions and any decisions by the Ministry.
Anwar Ibrahim has a habit of attempting to teflon himself. Many years ago when as Education Minister, his permanent secretary for his Ministry unconscionably forced non-Muslims schoolchildren to pray in the Muslim fashion including rising their arms in Muslim style during weekly school parades, Anwar by some strange coincident was away, leaving that decision strangely not to his (elected) deputy minister (unfortunately a Chinese) but to a mere public servant, the unelected/unrepresentative permanent secretary, to issue such a radical hateful proselytising policy.
I hold Anwar Ibrahim responsible for that Islamist proselytisation despite his sandiwara (theatrics) when he 'returned' after the hullabaloo. I deem that policy emanating from Anwar's Ministry as one of the most unconscionable draconian acts of religious persecution.
Remember, the concept of the indivisibility of authority and responsibility!
Then, when it was proven that Dr Mahathir’s policy of pegging the ringgit to the dollar was miles superior to his all-readiness-to-surrender to the IMF, after his release from incarceration he distanced himself from the IMF option.
This was what Answers.com had to say about him when he was DPM and Finance Minister:
During the Asian financial crisis in 1997 Anwar, in his capacity as finance minister, supported the International Monetary Fund (IMF) plan for recovery which meant a restructuring of the economy involving opening up to greater foreign investment and competition. [...]
Although many Malaysian companies faced the threat of bankruptcy, Anwar declared: "There is no question of any bailout. The banks will be allowed to protect themselves and the government will not interfere." Anwar advocated a free market approach, sympathetic to foreign investment and trade liberalisation, whereas Mahathir favored currency and foreign investment controls, blaming (alleged) unchecked speculation by currency speculators like George Soros for the shrinking economy.
But the following was what he told Lorraine Hahn of CNN after his release from prison, when it had already been proven that Dr Mahathir's method was correct, even winning the grudging admiration of the World Bank:
And there's the issue of corruption and then of course the IMF and the World Bank. We were not Indonesia, or Thailand, or South Korea - to be subjected to conditionalities and prescription of IMF because we did not seek IMF funds ...
Well, that's Anwar Ibrahim for you.
For all Anwar's blame on Humpty Dumpty, for whom incidentally I have no sympathy at all, the Works Minister in a strong retort revealed that he had not yet assumed his present post when the tender process for the beleaguered Malaysian External Trade Development Corporation (Matrade) headquarters project was undertaken in 1993.
From 1989 to 1995, Humpty held the post of Energy, Communications and Post Minister.
What does this revelation make of Anwar Ibrahim’s blame of Humpty Dumpty for the Matrade fiasco, when Humpty wasn't involved while he was then Minister of Finance, responsible for the Ministry of Finance?
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