The difference between Pakatan and BN — Jaleel Hameed

JULY 8 — In terms of scale, the Talam Corporation Bhd debt settlement pales in comparison with the Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) and Scorpene submarine cases.

The mainstream newspapers have been going at great guns with the so-called TalamCorp scandal. Understandbly because they are partial to the Barisan Nasional (BN) government. As for the alternative media, the reverse is true as some are partial to BN’s political foes, the Pakatan Rakyat (PR).

Yet, there’s a marked difference between PR and BN which can be seen by how each one has serious allegations of corruption and mismanagement and their respective reaction to the claims.

In the TalamCorp case, PR leaders are prepared to have a White Paper on the matter although it is puzzling why there has not been one since the case came up in 2010.

And PR MPs such as Tony Pua and Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad and even Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim are all willing to lift the veil of corporate secrecy and explain the numbers to the public. After all, it involves public institutions and funds from the time the deal was struck when Selangor was under BN rule.
Transparency is key to all this.

But how about the the other side. The PKFZ case took years after the Auditor-General and several journalists raised alarm bells. Even today. the federal government is paying money which should not be paid until the entire case is settled. What do you say, Mr Prime Minister, sir. Or Dr Chua Soi Lek or Chua Tee Yong? What do you say, sirs?

Or the Scorpene allegations and claims of the sale of state secrets. All we have is bare denial and some mumbo-jumbo from Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi that nothing happened. Well, ask the French if nothing happened. They have a full-scale inquiry going on about that and we do the Gallic shrug, sir? Really?

Absolute silence seems to be the norm from the BN side. Way back during the Carrian and BMf saga, silence was also the standard operating procedure for BN.

It doesn’t take a genius to figure out how each side views such allegations or are prepared to come clean, admit faults and repair the damage. Is it too much to admit faults, sirs?

In the final analysis it seems is that: one coalition is quite prepared to be put under scrutiny and another coalition has something to hide. You know, sirs, that would be a great consideration when I do vote in the next general election.

I can’t speak for all Malaysians but I want an honest government, not one that runs down their foes but have a lot of dirt under the carpet.

* Jaleel Hameed reads The Malaysian Insider.