UMNO prefers Ong Tee Keat out?

In Malaysiakini Chua: It's baffling Umno not defending Ong the former-MCA-now-PKR man, Chua Jui Meng, acting in his new role as char koay teow man, stated the obvious, that not one, yessiree, not one single UMNO minister inclusive of the PM, has defended Ong Tee Keat over the latter’s exposure of the Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) issue.

UMNO has been deafening in its absolute silence over Ong's handling (exposure) of the corruption-scam crisis.

Chua said: "Ong is the president of the second largest BN component party and no one from Umno is protecting him. All these years, UMNO leaders have come out in the open to defend their under-attack colleagues from component parties. I find it strange."

I don’t!

Some three years ago, around September 2006, a then deputy Education Minister, Ong Tee Keat aroused the ire of Hishamuddin Hussein when he (Ong) exposed the corruption in a school.

Hishamuddin's cousin, Najib (then DPM) managed to get the Education Minister to apologise for his deputy’s (Ong’s) exposure of the rot in the education domain. Ong had refused to apologize wakakaka so his boss had to do it.

But much to the cabinet’s embarrassment, Samy Vellu confirmed what Ong exposed in that particular case, that corrupt school administrators couldn’t account for 90% of the maintenance funds, yes, 90% and not just 10% of the funds.

The word used was ‘embezzlement’. Ong Tee Keat exposed it, Hishamuddin was mad he did. Najib made him apologise (Ong refused and so his Minister-boss did).

Ong Tee Keat had then discovered UMNO didn’t like the exposure of acts of corruption by the government lil’ napoleons or BN insiders. I believe that’s what Chua Jui Meng is now saying, that UMNO is once again mad with Ong for repeating his ‘mistake’, with the current PKFZ issue, ...

... which, BTW, the current DPM wants settled in an ‘amicable’ manner, though what he had meant by that, one can only guess.

In my post "No sorry please, we're UMNO Youth leaders" I wrote of that affair:

On the cabinet reprimand of Deputy Higher Education Minister Ong Tee Keat’s criticism of alleged embezzlement of school maintenance funds, since then confirmed by Humpty Dumpty, Hishamuddin dug in deep himself. He said the reprimand [of Ong] had to be made.

Obviously the subsequent vindication of Ong's statement by the Works Minister wasn't enough to restore a just apology to the man who was unjustly reprimanded for exposing corruption.

Hishammuddin said his ministry has thousands of staff, and it was not possible to keep an eye on all of them to ensure that they do a proper job. He said it was not fair for Ong to specifically pick two Chinese schools in his complaint and to publicly criticise another ministry. He averred that when there were problems, they must be dealt with quickly, instead of turning them into a racial issue.

Bull Hisham! It's everyone's duty to expose corruption, not just Ong's. And in fact, Ong did not air that alleged embezzlement as a racist issue. He merely highlighted corruption. There was no mention of race. That the schools were vernacular in character was never the issue - the missing 90% of the maintenance funds was.

It was Hishamuddin who turned it into an anti-Ong issue because he obviously didn’t like the idea of an MCA bloke highlighting alleged corruption in his ministry. His act of political intimidation against Ong could be seen as an act against the exposure of corruption.

Even DPM Najib knew that there had been, to use Humpty's word, 'irregularity', which was why he stressed on cross-ministerial procedures as the reason to reprimand Ong while in the same breath, stating the 'facts' of the case was a different issue. He stated: “I don’t want to talk about facts, that’s another issue".

The DPM of the nation didn't want to talk about facts of an issue, that have direct bearing to a case of corruption? Kalah ta'apa, gaya mesti ada - form takes precedence over substance.

For more, read my earlier postings:

(1) Najib's facts, principles, goose & gander
(2) Corruption 'Fact' for DPM Najib & Hishamuddin
(3) What the cabinet reprimanded Ong Tee Keat for!
(4) Najib riled with Ong Tee Keat's last laugh!
(5) Int Sec Ministry gagged Chinese press on alleged embezzlements
(6) MCA at a crossroad

So I am hardly surprised that UMNO would be moving to oust Ong Tee Keat, a loose cannon in the BN scheme of never washing dirty linen in public.

In MCA's history there were/are three of its presidents who didn't/doesn't quite meet UMNO's requirements, namely, Lim Chong Eu, Tan Kwon Swan and Ong Tee Keat.

These were what happened to them: (a) Tunku cunningly manoeuvred Lim Chong Eu out in favour of Tan Siew Sin; (b) Tan Kwon Swan however made life easy for Dr Mahathir when he was arrested by the Sings; and now (c) Ong Tee Keat may well be the 3rd on UMNO's political hit list.

And what sort of Chinese politician would be UMNO's ideal partner? Ask Hishamuddin - anyway, the answer lies here - check the 2nd photo! ;-)

Anyway, back to Ong Tee Keat - Ong said of his intention to expose the PKFZ scam: I am willing to dismantle this time-bomb and if I fail, I will be the first to die.

In a way, I am waiting for death. Do you think Malaysians are stupid? Voters want transparency and accountability. Don't blame the blogs for posting gossips and speculations (on the PKFZ).

I am fighting for real and Ong Tee Keat never fakes his fights. As long as I have this breath, I will carry on this task.

If he doesn't succeed, he knows that it’s not only him who will ‘die’ but the MCA as well.