Wong Choon Mei It looks like the curtains for Umno minister Shahrizat Jaili. A three-week emergency leave she requested from Prime Minister Najib Razak is likely to turn permanent as news emerge that a top official at the National Feedlot Corporation run by her husband had paid money to a ‘Datuk Fixit’ to influence a police probe into corruption at the cattle breeding company.
Already speculation is swirling that the official may be her husband, the NFC executive chairman Salleh Ismail. A harried Shahrizat had declined to comment when chased by reporters this afternoon.
“No, no, no, excuse me,” Shahrizat, who is also the Wanita Umno chief, had said when asked about claims made by PKR leaders that they had proof – in the form of an email – that there had indeed been ‘hanky-panky’ at the NFC.
Being chased out now
The email was written by Megat Najmuddin Megat Khas, a prominent civil society leader and a member in the advisory board of the Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission.
In his email, Megat wrote of how an NFC lawyer had told him of an NFC official had been tricked into paying money to a “conman”, believed to be Shamsubahrin Ismail who is also known by his nickname of “Datuk Fixit” to allegedly influence ongoing investigations by the police.
“The situation looks very serious for Shahrizat. Obviously, there is a lot of explaining to do and it is good that she takes a breather while investigations are carried out. But this is not the end of it. Najib must do more to protect NFC assets,” PKR vice president Chua Jui Meng told Malaysia Chronicle.
“Without jumping to conclusions on who this NFC official is, the writing has been on the wall for Shahrizat for a while now. She is dealing with hardened crocodiles within her own Umno party, so she should know and not try to negotiate too much because these are dangerous people. They think she is a liability to Umno in the 13th general election and therefore they will stop at nothing to force her resignation.”
Jigsaw pieces coming together
Indeed, Shahrizat had tried to fight back in a bid to claw some space for her children who also work in the project to raise local beef supply in the country to 40% of total demand.
In what was widely seen as an indirect threat to expose her Umno colleagues, she had told the press words to the effect, ‘who in Umno does not have problems’ – referring to the corruption and abuse of power cases that the ruling party is notorious for.
However, it looks like the latest revelation from the PKR, which showed the email to a press conference earlier this afternoon, has hit bulls-eye. Datuk Fixit was arrested last month and his remand extended for trying to bribe cops investigating the RM250 million NFC debacle.
At that time, there was no news that Datuk Fixit had been paid or hired to do so by a ‘top NFC official’. Shahrizat’s husband, Salleh, had even said the “Datuk Fixit” was neither a relative nor has he ever been an NFC employee.
But now, slowly but surely the jigsaw puzzle is starting to fit and a clearer picture beginning to emerge.
Among the allegations against Shahrizat’s husband and children are that they had squandered RM188 million of the RM250 million government soft loan on non-cattle-farming-related items such as purchasing 2 luxury condos in Bangsar and one in Singapore, high-end residential land in Putrajaya, a super-class Mercedes Benz, million-ringgit discounts and cash transfers to family-owned restaurants that also bought beef from NFC.
Between a rock and a hard place, but still “entirely speculative”
Confirming that he had penned the email which was distributed to a large but select group, Megat Najimuddin had written:
“He (the lawyer) told us about this conman’s story, about how this sweet-talking guy managed to convince his desperate client to part with his money so that he can get the police to be ‘less brutal’ in their interrogation! It’s sad to see how stupid one can get when you are stuck ‘between a rock and a hard place.”
However, Megat also warned that what he was told by the lawyer was still entirely speculative.
“It was a personal email and a personal opinion based purely on conjecture on my part as no investigations had started then. A lot of hearsay here. The MACC is already investigating the matter,”Malaysian Insider reported him as saying.
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