Press Statement by YB Gwo-Burne Loh Member Parliament Kelana Jaya on 17 November 2011, Kelana Jaya.

Call for DPM to revoke statement regarding Shahrizat’s involvement in NFC, and for the establishment of Sunshine Laws on Ministers and their family

In response to Umno’s Kinabatangan MP Datuk Bung Moktar Radin’s call yesterday in the Dewan Rakyat that those responsible for the NFC fiasco to resign. Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said that Datuk Seri Shahrizat Jalil is not directly involved in National Feedlot Corporation and therefore there is no need for her to resign over the matter.

This is a baffling, irresponsible and illogical response from a Deputy Prime Minister. Since according to rules set for the cabinet ministers, they are not allowed to be involved in business, therefore ministers in general will almost never be “directly” involved in any business venture. If the Deputy Prime Minister’s reasoning on Datuk Seri Shahrizat Jalil’s involvement with the NFC is to be accepted, it will entail that ministers will never be held responsible for any type of involvement in business as long as they do not get involved personally. There is no family member closer than one’s husband/wife and children, to exclude the possibility of abuse of power in a case involving a minister’s direct family is extremely irresponsible and flies in the face of the people’s call to fight corruption in our Country. NFC includes Shahrizat’s husband Mohamad Salleh Ismail, her children Wan Shahimur Izran (27), Wan Shahimur Izmir (31) and Wan Izzana Fatimah (25).  I would like to stress that family involvement give rise to the perception of abuse of powers by the ministers, whereby ministers can get away easily by appointing their babies.

Over the years there have been many accusations leveled against the families of cabinet ministers regarding their involvement in government contracts and projects. There is much talk among the public about ministers and their family,Tun Ling Liong sik and his children, Tun Mahathir and his children, Tun Badawi and Khairy Jamaludin, Datuk Seri Muhyiddin Yassin and son-in-law for the biometric project for foreign workers (note: Mahyuddin is in the Cabinet Committee for Foreign Workers). And there is wide spread belief in the public that these children and family members of ministers have become multi-millionaires. Datuk Seri Shahrizat’s and her family’s involvement in Government money is but one of numerous such scandals. Constant scandals involving ministers and their family members are seriously eroding the people’s confidence in our national institutions, destroying the imagine of the Malaysian Government, and are bane to foreign investment into our country.

Transparency and accountability has to be enforced and seen to be enforced by our government. Ministers taking powerful positions with great opportunities to abuse their powers must be open to scrutiny and held accountable by the public. Sunshine laws and policies must be adopted whereby ministers must declare not only their own assets and interest, but also that of their family members’ assets and their involvement with public projects, be it direct or indirect.

In the interest of public accountability I therefore make the call to our Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, to revoke his statement that Datuk Seri Shahrizat Jalil is not directly involved in National Feedlot Corporation and therefore need not be accountable. I also call for the our Prime Minister Dato Seri Najib Razak and the Government to establish Sunshine Laws and policy where by ministers and their families declare their assets and interest in public projects and contracts.