7 Jun 2023, 20:07 Kuching
7 Jun 2023, 13:07 London
The Terengganu assembly today passed the Shariah Criminal Offences (Takzir)(Amendment) Enactment 2022 which, among other things, includes Section 3A involving witchcraft and sorcery activities.
State Shariah Implementation, Education and Higher Education Committee chairman Datuk Satiful Bahari Mamat said the amendment also involved Section 33A (women acting like men), Section 36A (preparation for sodomy), and Section 29A (pregnant or giving birth to a child out of wedlock).
“We are trying to make use of the opportunity by maximising the punishment based on Section 356, namely a three-year jail term, a fine of RM5,000 and six lashes.
“With this amendment, we hope that the well-being of Muslims, especially in Terengganu, will be better protected,” he told reporters after the state assembly session at Wisma Darul Iman, here today.
On the witchcraft and sorcery-related section, Satiful Bahari said a special committee had been established under the Terengganu Religious Affairs Department to monitor the matter and ensure that the state’s Muslim community did not seek alternative treatments that conflicted with Islamic law.
He elaborated that the punishment would only be meted out on individuals who provide such treatments, and not the patients.
The section on women acting like men, he said, was needed because the existing legal provisions only involved men acting like women.
“In the past, there might not have been much of this issue (women acting like men). Now, however, we see that ‘pengkid’ (tomboys or lesbians) and similar cases are becoming more widespread. So, the state government intends to curb this issue,” he said.
In addition to the four sections’ inclusion, he said today’s amendment also involved 21 existing sections and would come into force after receiving Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin’ consent.
Historical records show that hundreds of years ago, before other countries got rid of the sorts of primitive laws that the bright boys of Terengganu have just decided to re-introduce, the most awful acts were committed on the excuse of countering these same phantom crimes of ‘witchcraft’, ‘heresy’ and ‘deviancy’ all in the name of religion.
Women (since this is about gender abuse) were drowned and burnt, often after being raped and tortured by ‘religious’ activists – the actual criminals in the case. Sadly and appallingly the world is watching the same sort of perversion in the name of God taking place in Iran today and likewise Afghanistan.
The introduction of these new phoney laws are an invitation for the same kind of abuse to develop in Terengganu as ‘religious’ police set about enforcing their new powers against women.
After all, the first problem with inventing ‘crimes’ around alleged ‘witchcraft’ and ‘deviancy’ is that such matters are entirely in the mind of the beholder rather than present as solid fact and so they are in reality merely a way for one segment of the population (men) to seek to exploit, bully, threaten and control another segment (women). The punishment being violence.
The entire exercise is utterly countrary to the rule of law as developed by modern civilisation. It is just an excuse to introduce an arbitrary, primitive exercise of authority for privileged individuals.
There is no need for such legislation since genuine crimes are long since outlawed. The practice of alleged sorcery, for example, is already dealt with under civil laws to the extant that if an unlicensed practitioner is seeking to administer harmful substances in the name of superstition to another person, then there are plenty of civil laws to control and punish such behaviour without endorsing the supernatural claims which have no basis in science nor indeed the Muslim religion.
So, why give credence to nonsense? Indeed, it is clear that by outlawing ‘witchcraft’ these buffoons are admitting they themselves believe in it, which is not only contrary to their religion but encourages others to assume it must exist as well – otherwise it could not be outlawed!
Likewise, what makes for a ‘tomboy’? Is this a girl who proves too forward by coming top in class perhaps? A girl who is energetic and likes to run and climb a tree? A girl who rejects a disappointed male even?
How do these men plan to define the female who should receive lashes on grounds of being a ‘tomboy’? Are they off to Afghanistan to ask the Taliban? One assumes so, unfortunately.
As for punishment for pregnancies out of wedlock. Will there be a DNA test so that the stronger of the two sinners can be identified and punished likewise?
This intrusive snooping into other people’s lives should not be legitimised in any society where there is a modern state and judiciary. This is village level governance that belongs to primitive times and primitive economies. It can bring no wealth and no prosperity (nor any moral uplift) to the folk of Terengganu.
The bullies from their newly funded mosques clearly have nothing more to offer in terms of ideas. Their training and life experiences do not extend beyond seeking to dominate the hard-working wives, sisters and daughters who make their homes and families, grow their food and do most of the work about the place. What do they do themselves save preach and procreate?
Without doubt civil crimes will be committed in the name of these contrived laws of oppression. They always are, and the victims will be the physically weaker sex whom these bullies seek to target.
Terengganu will be condemned throughout the world for its oppression of women and the rest of Malaysia is going to leave them well behind.
Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim might unveil the names of new cabinet members tomorrow – albeit a partial list, according to sources close to the PKR president….
Meanwhile, an Umno insider claimed that there was a setback in forming the new cabinet due to lobbying by a former minister, who is allegedly eyeing the finance minister position.
Ex-minister becoming a stumbling block?
The source, who is close to Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi’s office told Malaysiakini that the former minister is from the nationalist party, but his name was not among those in the list of candidates that Umno had sent to the Prime Minister’s Office.
“He is the stumbling block. He was not part of the list and Anwar also doesn’t want him as finance minister.
“But because he had been lobbying with certain figures, so now we are in this situation,” the source claimed.
Malaysiakini has reached the former minister for comment and is withholding his name pending a response.
If, as is being rumoured, this last minute interloper demanding the Finance Ministry role is none other than its previous occupant, Zafrul Aziz, the resounding response must be why?
Zafrul originally got the job based on no political background whatsoever, beyond an apparent close friendship with the current Agong. Somehow, he emerged as Finance Minister as part of the arrangement devised behind palace doors when Muhyiddin was appointed the surprise PM as the leader of a tiny band of rebel MPs.
It looked mightily like Zafrul was the quid pro quo for the royal backing ‘Moo’ received.
Once again, when the BN contingent of the Coup Coalition managed to wrest control, Zafrul was allowed to remain in post as an unelected Finance Minister, directing the spending of a government with a wafer thin majority in a Parliament that barely sat.
Perhaps the strange state of affairs was less evident during the Covid ‘state of emergency’ called by the Agong.
However, Zafrul’s ambitions to remain in the job were plain in that he took the trouble to run for what ought to have been a safe seat at the last election, had his party and his record been considered acceptable to voters.
Instead he was rejected and failed to win the seat while his party crashed. That should have been the end of politics for Zafrul Aziz. The negotiations of the past few weeks have rightly involved those who were elected and a Prime Minister is now appointed with the authority to decide the cabinet – that PM does not want Zafrul, naturally, and nor do the other coalition leaders nor the world of finance.
Indeed, the big bounce in the ringgit following the announcement of Anwar Ibrahim’s appointment as PM, speaks to the general verdict on Zafrul’s past three years’ management of Malaysia’s economy with his bloated budgets and scant accountability.
So why, belatedly, the apparent pressure to re-appoint this unelected fellow, rejected by voters and with a record scorned by all?
What ‘high-level’ influence could have been exerted on Zafrul’s behalf to give the new PM pause in such a way, when the Constitution makes absolutely clear that it is for him to negotiate with his political colleagues as to what jobs go to whom?
UMNO confirm that this unelected has-been from two discredited past administrations was not on their list of proposed cabinet posts. So, which other political faction would have pushed his cause?
The Prime Minister and his elected colleagues must now be allowed to do their job without interference, surely, if only to avoid unhealthy speculation as to who is promoting this rave from the grave, and why?
PAS president Tan Sri Hadi Awang has branded the unity government of newly minted Prime Minister (PM) Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim as a “minority government supported by robbers, pirates, gangsters, secret societies, and givers and recipients of bribes”.
“In their (GE15 campaign) speeches, they mention about fighting corruption, robbers and pirates. But when they form a government, they invite these types of people to make up their numbers. How can we accept them?” Harakah Daily quoted Hadi who successfully defended his Marang parliamentary seat in the recent 15th General Election (GE15) as saying.
“We have dignity. We Muslims have to follow the laws of our religion. God’s order is superior to the orders of all the governments in this world. This must be understood,” he told a gathering at the Darul Ummah Mentara Integrated Islamic Foundation Elementary School (SRITI) in Rompin, Negri Sembilan on Monday night (Nov 28).
Earlier, Hadi also belittled Anwar’s unity government as merely “a minority government with minority support” given that “it is dominated by DAP and non-Muslims”.
He further claimed that more than 80% of the Malays (in Peninsular Malaysia) and Bumiputeras in Sabah and Sarawak had voted for Perikatan Nasional (PN) as well as the Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) and the Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) thus creating a “majority-elect legitimate government”.
These MPs, whom Hadi describes as “robbers, pirates, gangsters, secret societies, and givers and recipients of bribes” are, of course, the self-same individuals that Hadi and his allies are simultaneously fighting to bring into their own coalition.
Indeed, he has worked in a joint governing coalition with many of them for the past three years.
By virtue of working with Hadi, are they therefore cleansed of sin?
By the same token, in Hadi’s apparent world view (shared by few other respected Muslim leaders, many of whom have branded Hadi a leading figure of a terrorist organisation) those who say they are Muslim are good people, whereas those who were brought up in other religions are bad people.
This, naturally, has not deterred Hadi from cruising around in non-Muslim vehicles, availing himself of life-saving non-Muslim medicine nor from flashing the occasional non-Muslim accessory (see image).
Hadi rails against the Chinese majority DAP party, as if their DNA categorises them as evil, and yet his struggling coalition relies on the remaining MP from the Chinese majority MCA party to make up its shortfall in numbers.
Hilariously, Hadi also proclaims GPS Sarawak as backing him, when GPS clearly represents a majority Christian state which dissolved into uproar when there was a hint that its MPs would support a coalition dominated by Bible-burning Hadi – prompting the present decision to support PH instead.
You can’t denounce someone as evil and yet beg for their support, whilst at the same time proclaiming to be holy. It’s called trying to have your cake and eat it – and everyone knows that it is either, or.
Terengganu Pakatan Harapan chairperson Raja Kamarul Bahrin Shah Raja Ahmad has alleged that PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang has committed treason by insulting the institution of Malay rulers.
He called on the authorities to investigate Hadi’s statement, which he also claimed was seditious.
Raja Kamarul said that those who were unable to govern well are disrespecting the Malay rulers out of lust to remain in power.
“Those who supposedly once established a Malay-Islam government in Malaysia should mirror all the good of being Malay and Muslim.
It has been convenient for PH as the winning party, once the Agong fulfilled his role and called their leader to form a government, to bandy about talk of the Agong’s ‘decree’, duties of obedience, and now it seems of ‘treason’ and ‘sedition’ on the part of those who have been bad losers – like Hadi Awang.
Of course, the old political cleric has been behaving more like a small child who lost at a party game than a mature leader concerned about the good governance of his nation, let alone a worthy man of religion.
He is indeed a menace to the nation, having darkly hinted at disturbances and retribution (apparently to be meted out by God). Hence, the rightful concerns about sedition on the part of those who left PAS when Hadi’s faction took over the movement (with a nice dollop of assistance from his UMNO friends at the time).
Hadi is a man who has incited riots and caused innocent folk to die in the past, all in service of his personal ambitions which he likes to cloak in the name of God. He is dangerous.
However, so is the bandying about of accusations of sedition and calls for punishments over ‘disrespect’ to royalty. Democracies have to be tolerant of criticism of those in high places and of opposing views, complaints and so forth.
The past Harapan government saw a welcome respite from the hounding of dissent, which immediately returned with the coup coalition of which Hadi was a part.
Hadi is indeed quite capable of leading riots and plotting insurrection. He has done it before. However, this is not the time to start harassing and investigating him for petulant words. He needs watched and he needs answered, but he should be judged by his actual actions.
Constitutional expert Prof Datuk Dr Shamrahayu Ab Aziz said a unity government is thought to be one of the main choices because it is considered capable of achieving unity among the Malaysian communities.
She said that the royal decree issued by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong appointing Anwar as prime minister did not specify the form of government to be constructed, although the King had previously suggested a unity government.
The form of government is a privilege owned by the prime minister, who will also advise the Yang di-Pertuan Agong on the appointment of the Cabinet, she said.
However, the King’s suggestions for a unity government must be given the highest consideration, she added.
“The selection of members of the Cabinet is the right of the prime minister, who at the same time determines the type of government that will serve the country.
“Even so, the recommendations or advice of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong about the type or form of government recommended by the King need to be given the utmost attention by the prime minister and the relevant parties.
“This is because the decree of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong is not merely a suggestion but an order that must be obeyed,” said Prof Shamrahayu.
With all due respect to the Prof, her interpretation of Malaysia’s constitution misleads. It is not for the Agong to ‘Decree’ that the Prime Minister must form a ‘Unity Government’, it is for the Agong to call the person who appears to command the most support in Parliament to form a government as that person sees fit.
This is because elections are not held for fun or as some kind of opinion testing exercise. They are an expression of the will of the people. Malaysia is a parliamentary democracy meaning that it is ruled by the people and not by the Agong. The Agong’s role, as a constitutional (bound by strict laws) and temporary monarch, is to remain above the political fray and to ensure the WILL OF THE PEOPLE is obeyed.
The Prof does acknowledge “the form of government is a privilege owned by the prime minister” but on the other hand suggests Anwar’s appointment is “a decree…. not merely a suggestion but an order that must be obeyed” – as if a Royal Decree is not something that has to be authorised by Parliament, which it does.
Indeed, were it simply up to the Sultan who happens to be Agong at the time to decide who gets to govern, and how, you could end up with a situation where the Agong could completely ignore the leader who commands the most support amongst the people’s representatives and appoint someone who commands absolutely no support whatsoever …..
Oooops! That is exactly what happened, of course, in 2020.
However, the debacle of 2020 ought to be treated as an extreme lesson in what ought not happen, rather than as some kind of precedent. The excuse then was, perhaps, the extraordinary circumstances where a coup was hatched in the same week a pandemic struck.
Amidst much loose talk of ‘Decrees’ and ‘Orders’, as if the temporary Agong was an absolute monarch, Muhyiddin who was a traitor to his own party and who held no legitimate role as an elected leader of any party, was appointed PM following the Sheraton Coup.
‘Moo’ had claimed he had a majority of ‘Statutory Declarations’ from MPs supporting his bid, despite plenty of evidence to the contrary. That has been proven to have been a lie and so weak was his actual following that the Agong was then obliged to suspend Parliament for months so that this imposter would not be shown up by a confidence vote.
To be clear, under the Constitution it is the Confidence Vote that confirms the position of a new Prime Minister. There is no reference to any ‘Decree’ by the Agong nor any ‘Swearing In Ceremony’ by the Agong nor ‘Orders’ by the Agong to form this or that type of government. It is Parliament that confirms that an administration has the support of the majority of the people.
In order to maintain the Muhyiddin Government through this disastrous period of minority rule, therefore, the Agong was forced to resort to another of his limited but important roles under the Constitution. He called a State of Emergency which was used to suspend Parliament altogether!
The excuse for the State of Emergency was Covid, but few other countries extended their Covid Emergencies to a complete suspension of democratic government. Quite the opposite, most countries leaned on the authority of their Parliaments to press through emergency rules that were often hard to bear.
Unsurprisingly, ‘Moo’s’ propped up regime eventually collapsed under the weight of its democratic deficit and incompetence (but not before billions in un-tendered Covid contracts had been funnelled through without scrutiny).
Now the same fellow is running around again claiming that his alleged new bundle of SDs outweigh the declarations of party leaders that have made it clear to the people and even to the Agong where the support of MPs lies.
Anwar has told the Moo cow that he can keep his unconstitutional SDs and that he will this time see him in Parliament, which is indeed the proper place, as determined under the Constitution, for this dispute to be resolved.
Anwar is confident he has his majority, hence no need to find an ‘Emergency’ excuse to block MPs nor to rely on specious talk of ‘Decrees’ and ‘Orders’ which misrepresent the role of the Agong under the Malaysian Constitution.
It is there for all to read.
GPS will be joining the unity government that will be led by newly minted Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, as per the Yang di-Pertuan Agong’s decree.
Its chief Abang Johari Openg said the Sarawak-based ruling coalition abides by the Agong’s decree, saying His Majesty wants a strong and stable government.
“The Agong advised us to form a unity government to overcome the political impasse.
“We obey the constitutional monarchy and the Rukun Negara clearly states that we must obey the king, even though we don’t have a king in Sarawak,” he told a press conference today.
Last night Abang Jo was pledging to only support PAS controlled-PN, for reasons most Sarawakians are wondering very angrily about.
This was AFTER he had last seen the Agong, but while he still plainly hoped that his pal Hishamuddin would pull off his treacherous move to snatch the leadership of his BN party and then the country.
Now, far too belatedly, Abang Jo is claiming that some ‘Decree’ by the Agong has instructed for him to be part of a Unity Government.
This is not how the Constitution of Malaysia works. Much as the ceremony and ‘Swearing In’ at the palace may have made for a great news story and a symbolic acceptance (at last) of the fact PH won most seats at this election, it is not for the Agong to ‘Decree’ the nature of his government.
That will be confirmed by Parliament when Anwar demonstrates what has become obvious (even at last to the King) which is that he commands a majority of MPs. It is for Anwar to appoint his coalition colleagues following negotiations between themselves.
However, owing primarily to his crass behaviour of the past few days, Abang Jo is not part of that configuration. It was not thanks to GPS ‘Kingmaking’ that Anwar achieved his numbers, but thanks to the majority of BN’s MPs, whom Abang Jo sought to destabilise with his plotting with PN and the likes of Hishamuddin and Ismail Sabri.
Abang Jo may be desperate now to jump on the bandwaggon with his GPS lackeys. But they have all shown they had preferred to work instead to support a PAS led coalition, and had been prepared to actively undermine the collaboration between PH and BN designed to achieve a stable government.
The Agong may have ‘Decreed’ a unity government, but he cannot decree that Anwar gives any of these GPS chancers a single seat in his slimmed down cabinet – and nor should he!
Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) will leave it to the wisdom of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong to decide who should be the prime minister.
GPS said this in a statement today, two days after it claimed that it would support a government led by Perikatan Nasional’s (PN) Muhyiddin Yassin as prime minister.
Its latest statement does not mention Muhyiddin at all, nor did the coalition nominate anyone else.
GPS said this although it had previously proposed the formation of a government comprising PN, BN, GPS and Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS)…
Having first proclaimed he would surrender Sarawak to a coalition dominated by the malignant voice of the extremist PAS and a leader who just before the election proclaimed PH was a front for a ‘Jewish and Christian Plot’, Abang Jo has now said he will submit entirely to ‘the wisdom of the Agong’.
Why have elections at all?
The Agong has a role in the process as a constitutional monarch who acts as the objective umpire to make sure that the WILL OF THE PEOPLE is obeyed – not his will. He is not a capricious autocrat, who may or may not be wise, but a titular head of state.
Abang Jo should stop making a fool of Sarawakians and press for their interests in this process. That doesn’t not involve submitting to PAS nor submitting to a Malay Sultan.
Caretaker Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob today described the shadow cabinet poster that went viral on social media as nothing more than a psychological war waged by his opponents.
Ismail Sabri said the opponents have no “product” to sell to the voters and that he would not use such a tactic in his focus on winning the 15th general election.
“It is up to them (the opponents) to unveil the shadow cabinet. I did not form a shadow cabinet because my focus is on winning the election,” he told a press conference after attending the Semarak Uniti Keluarga Malaysia programme at Dataran Kerayong in Bera.
Ismail has not revealed his own shadow cabinet because he has no clue whatsoever who’d be in it!
He knows that if he and his sometime enemies and sometime allies from PN were to grab power (he has no hope of winning) it could only be achieved by making endless bargains with each other and several other parties.
He doesn’t even know if he could hang on to being PM, given Muhyiddin is desperate to get the job and Zahid is hovering in the wings. If he did he would have to pay off PAS, GPS, and a swathe of frogs like Azmin (if he keeps his seat).
So, the first thing that would be revealed by an Ismail shadow cabinet would be the sheer shocking size it would be bound to be, with jobs for dozens of squabbling egos who could not even settle their differences to agree on a joint election slate.
Anwar, meanwhile, is able to present his ‘product’, namely his team and manifesto – like a normal democratic party from anywhere in the world – so people know exactly who and what they would be voting for if they tick PH …. and how many ministers they’d be paying for as well!
Becoming increasingly clear to voters is that there is one party in this election which is fit and ready to govern.
The rest who are not fit to govern will make their excuses, like Ismail Sabri has just done.
Pakatan Harapan (PH) will investigate former Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin for allegedly awarding RM500 billion in contracts during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Melaka PH chairman Adly Zahari said PH will do so if it manages to form the government after the 15th General Election this Saturday.
“We promise to carry out the investigation on the case even though Muhyiddin said the money was to combat Covid-19, we have to look at it from every aspect.
“If there are any irregularities, we will charge him in court because it is the country’s money,” said Adly when met after a campaign in Kampung Ujong Padang. Also present was PH candidate for Masjid Tanah Mutalib Uthman.
He said the allocation was a big amount and even though it is said that it is to save the people and the country from the pandemic, it must be investigated.
The question everyone is asking is how did PN/PAS obtain the deep pockets to engage in their lavish electioneering in every seat…. and now, it sadly seems, in dirty old-fashioned vote buying?
One senior Terengganu PAS candidate appears here to have shamelessly plastered his own photo and name across a gifting pouch in the shape of money – in this case the alleged recipient has advertised RM150 found inside.
Yet PAS, previously out of office for decades, had been famously short of money until Najib started courting them before GE14. What has made them rich this time round, could it be their new partnership with the stunningly well off Bersatu, whose present leader Mahiaddin Yassin enjoyed office for 18 months during the pandemic?
Mahiaddin (aka Muhyiddin) snatched power after betraying the party he had hitched on to for the election (he is an ex-UMNO man who got sacked by Najib for trying to take advantage of 1MDB to usurp his boss) and then joining up with all the losing parties.
The Agong appointed him PM despite his having registered the support of not a single MP. Instead, ‘Moo’ had visited his local Sultan of Johor in a prolonged visit a couple of days before the coup. The Sultan is the Agong’s brother-in-law, maybe he advised him that Moo was ready to serve?
Days after that coup the Covid alert became a global issue and the new government took full advantage of the situation, using the Agong to declare a state of emergency. This allowed Moo to suspend parliament and crack down on protests against his coup for months and months.
Now it emerges that while Malaysia suffered under one of the cruellest Covid regimes on the planet – and also one of the most incompetently managed – Moo was handing out contracts under the emergency legislation and the excuse of Covid to the tune of RM500 BILLION.
There was no open tender and no scrutiny whatsoever – and very little impact for the money as far as ordinary Malaysians were concerned.
The appalling mismanagement of the Covid crisis in Malaysia eventually gave Moo’s UMNO rivals their opportunity to seize the upper hand in the coup coalition, something that after a meagre protest Malaysia’s shortest serving PM accepted.
Was this because he knew he had a war chest stashed away unlike any other?
It would appear that Moo bided his time and built his bridges with PAS while cooperating with those who had sidelined him. That lasted until the moment the election was called. Sensationally, and seemingly against all electoral logic the ex-PM then set himself up in opposition to his coalition allies fighting UMNO in every single seat.
This despite the razor thin majority presently held by the alliance over the winners of the last election, Pakatan Harapan. What was Muhyiddin about?
Now that the money has started to flow the answer is becoming clear. Moo is planning his revenge, and far from his new party Bersatu being wiped out at this election (it was after all a vehicle set up by his predecessor Mahathir who is now vehemently against him) he believes he has accrued the deep pockets to bulldoze victory over his former UMNO party, together with his new allies, the extremists cum lapdogs from PAS.
PH is right to say it will scrutinise those un-tendered Coved contracts.
Abang Johari Tun Openg must tell Sarawakians how much is the State Reserves now, said Parti Sarawak Bersatu (PSB) president Dato Sri Wong Soon Koh….
“He (Abang Johari) has to let us know how much is our State Reserves now. Also, how much Sarawak government owes to others either in the forms of bonds, loans or other commitments?
“How much money has the state government given to DBoS and how is DBoS doing in terms of managing the funds? Because DBoS cannot raise funds from outside the government and the money must come from the State Reserves,” he told a press conference at PSB Bawang Assan Branch here today…
He noted that See Hua Daily News quoted Abang Johari as saying that the State Budget 2023, which he will table after the 15th general election (GE15), would see the state’s revenue estimates exceeding RM10 billion…
He observed that Deputy Premier Dato Sri Dr Sim Kui Hian had on several occasions said that Sarawak is rich given the RM10 billion revenues.
“Dr Sim is muddle-headed. He doesn’t know what he’s talking. He keeps on saying we have RM10 billion but not all of that money is for development because you still need to cover expenditure,” Wong said.
As a poacher turned opposition party gamekeeper Wong Soon Koh is very well placed to comment on the actions of the GPS government when it comes to the mishandling of public money.
He was a former finance minister of the state for many years under the kleptocratic rule of Taib Mahmud, after all.
So, Wong knows better than most first how money is siphoned away from proper development purposes and second how the likes of ‘Premier’ Abang Jo seek to hide that fact through lack of budget transparency.
The state government has even sought to sue the opposition leader Chong for ‘defamation’ for doing his job in demanding that missing and undeclared financial figures be presented for scrutiny. Chong pointed out long ago that around half the money raised from the state has been disappearing into a ‘Black Hole’ that is simply unaccounted for to the public.
Wong is one man who can spill the beans on some of these shenanigans right up till 2019. He should agree to stand as a witness in the outrageous court proceedings against his opposition rival on this matter.
