Sunday, November 28, 2010

De facto, my foot! What about de facts!

Over the last few days I have been travelling around a fair bit. When I returned to catch up with the political news I wasn’t surprised at the deteriorating state of affairs in PKR, though I am disappointed, not so much for PKR itself but for Pakatan.

From the continuing horror stories, centered around the unbelievable denial mantra of its secretary general Saifuddin Nasution and the ‘ask me not, ask the Secretariat, 'coz I don’t know anything, I’m just a deer caught in the headlights of a car’ reenactment of Pontius Pilate by Molly Cheah, it would seem PKR is determined to show, at all costs, it is indeed the weakest link in the coalition.

In my last post
PKR without Anwar Ibrahim & Azmin Ali I wrote: I reckon the scandal, complaints and questions over the recent PKR party polls have been a blessing in disguise because it means a significant number of PKR members and supporters might have woken up, realizing their messianic icon is not so reformasi-inclined as they had blindly and foolishly believe. This may spell a nascent willingness among PKR members to consider their party as one minus Anwar and Azmin.

We now have a serious complaint, out in the open, written by Jonson Chong and published in The Malaysian Insider as
Lies, damn lies and stupidity. The article is produced in full below:

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After my polite final appeal to the president of KEADILAN was ignored … No … actually she told us that the central election committee would carry out thorough investigations and that all candidates should stop using the media to criticise the party. Although that did not sit well with me I respected her wishes so much so that even when I withdrew from the contest for a vice presidential position. I did it quietly.

Indeed, I know some shrewder politicians ridicule me for not taking the opportunity to make a public statement. Well the rationale for me is simple. I quit because I found the entire party election to be such a disappointment and it completely lacked credibility. And it gave me neither profit nor pleasure in making the party look worse than it already was (For your information I tried contacting the president directly before I wrote my open letter to her).

Now I share my true feelings not because I want to embarrass the party but because I sense the presence of foolish arrogance in the voice of the party’s secretary-general. And I simply cannot remain silent in the face of bold-faced lies because I know it will eventually bring the party to its knees. Yes I am talking about his statements vis-à-vis the sacking of Jenapala.

Before I proceed, let me confess one thing I am no fan of Jenapala’s. At one point in time we were both deputy secretaries-general of the party and I came to realise that I did not like the way he expressed himself which is probably due to the way he thought. Anyway I digress.

Back to the current sec-gen of KEADILAN. He said that he welcomes the police to investigate the forgery of a letter sacking Jenapala purportedly signed by the previous sec-gen. For those who are unaware I served as the deputy to the previous sec-gen. Apart from opening the doors of the party HQ and computer servers to the friendly PDRM the current sec-gen also says that, “All we did was open our files and found the letter that Salehuddin signed. How am I supposed to know if his signature was forged?” Does he expect members supporters and the public to just accept this lame explanation and conclude all is well in the party.

Please allow me to share how the previous sec-gen would have handled things if this matter cropped up, i.e. whether Jenapala was actually sacked from the party. One. he would have asked the membership officer to check Jenapala’s membership status. Two, he would have asked me to scrutinise the central leadership council meetings’ minutes for the relevant decision. And three, he would have asked whether we issued a letter to inform Jenapala if indeed such a decision was made.

For me, just the stupidity of how this Jenapala issue was handled is enough to tell me that the judgement of the people who are purportedly in charge of the party are seriously impaired.

But what really sickens me to the core of my being is that I know for a fact that someone in the party HQ knows that the letter is a forgery. It was created to cover up an initial honest mistake made by somebody when they said that Jenapala was sacked in February 2009.

For your information, I was the deputy secretary-general charged with the responsibility to assist the disciplinary board in handling cases referred to them by the MPP. When the Jenapala matter first came up during the party election someone from the HQ called me to ask whether there was a letter sent to Jenapala to sack him. I said there isn’t such a letter and there never was such a decision to sack him. There was only a decision to sack him in principle if indeed it was found that he was involved in the formation of a new political party.

Then before I knew it I saw a letter with the previous sec-gen’s signature which was purportedly sent to Jenapala to sack him way back in February 2009. I was speechless.

I was speechless because there is no doubt in my mind that the letter is a forgery, and I am dumbfounded that they could resort to such a thing to cover up an honest mistake, for which they could have just humbly informed the media and move on.

Now, in light of the police report lodged by the previous sec-gen, this matter cannot be swept under the carpet anymore, especially not the way the current sec-gen attempted to do it. I’m amazed that he doesn't see the gravity of the situation.

I know, in politics perception is everything. But I also know, in a court of law evidence is everything. And when the judiciary is not on your side, it doesn’t even matter if they don’t have the evidence. All they need is a good reason to put you away.

If the president still does not take some serious action to remedy this situation, then I’m afraid the party’s days may be numbered with or without a new line-up. And let me unequivocally state that I am not addressing the de facto leader on this matter because I no longer recognise the validity of that position.

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Jonson's last paragraph requires urgent attention but I doubt Dr Wan Azizah has the will, willingness and wibawa (authority) to take action.

It also took me a while to think of a title for this post! I hope Jonson doesn't mind my wee creativity wakakaka.

Related: Haris Ibrahim's Shielding fraud behind a Mahathir ouster clause?

2 comments:

  1. De facts, my foot!

    What about de anus of saiful?

    And the corruption of umno?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anwar has finally acknowledged the numerous complaints over the party polls and vowed that all complaints will be taken seriously.

    I'm glad that he has finally picked up enough courage to admit the numerous voting irregularities in their recent party election.

    But talks are cheap, don't assume that we are forgetful and forgiving people, we want to see him walk the talk,and let his blue-eye-boy Assmin be punished if he's found guilty as charged,until I see this action taken, I won't be convinced of his sincerity on "Reformasi" and "KeADILan"...

    ReplyDelete