(Petaling Jaya, Monday): The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamad has taken three different positions in the past year on the issue of KKN - corruption, cronyism and nepotism.
At first, Mahathir denied that there was cronyism in Malaysia. Next, he gave an absurd definition of cronyism and nepotism and said that all Malaysians were his cronies. Now, he wants the people to believe that there are only "Anwar cronies" in the country.
I call on Mahathir to present at the July 12 meeting of Parliament the full list of all privatisation projects awarded by the Economic Planning Unit (EPU), and not just to "supporters of Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim" as was done during the UMNO General Assembly on Saturday. Malaysians are entitled to know all privatisation projects approved by EPU to "supporters of Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamand and Tun Daim Zainuddin", as well as other UMNO Ministers and leaders.
Malaysians have seen selective prosecution, selective justice and now selective release of government information to try to discredit the ruling coalition’s critics and opponents.
At the UMNO General Assembly last year, Mahathir released a list of names of those awarded privatised projects - 171 companies including the names of major shareholders and those connected to party and government leaders and another set containing 114 companies which had been offered privatised projects in principle - in his rebuttal to the attack by the then UMNO Youth leader, Datuk Ahmad Zahid Hamidi who raised the issue of nepotism and cronyism in his speech as UMNO Youth Leader.
I had then asked the Prime Minister to make public a full and complete list of companies awarded privatised projects, government contracts, share allocations, approved permits (APs) and licences as well as adopt a new policy that all such awards would be made public on a half-yearly basis, but this call fell on deaf ears.
The government’s credibility on this issue is at stake. Mahathir should realise that unless the government is prepared to release a full and not a selective list of all persons awarded privatisation contracts, share allocations, government contracts, approved permits and licences, the government cannot convince Malaysians that the cancer of corruption, cronyism and nepotism is being addressed at all.
(21/6/99)