DEFENDING THE RIGHTS OF THE MALAYS – PLEASE SAY IT AGAIN HASSAN ALI?

It was reported that Selangor PAS Commissioner Hassan Ali has said that the reason he raised the issue regarding SELCAT’s method of questioning of witnesses over the unusual disbursement and spending of the previous Selangor government state assemblymen allocation was because he only wanted to defend the rights of the Malays. Here, he was referring to the District Officers who were called as witness to the public inquiry.

I think Hassan Ali is utterly confused as to what ought to be defended, and what ought not to be defended. In the case of the on-going SELCAT inquiry, it is clear that the District Officers who are the custodian of public funds have approved the request for the release of the allocation to the assemblymen via the ‘express service’ that is deemed unusual and supposedly casting aside regulatory procedures pertaining to the disbursement of the allocation.

Here we are talking about public funds derived from the tax payers totaling several millions, and not the personal account of the Menteri Besar or the assemblymen. For the assemblymen to exhaust their entire year’s allocation within a space of a few days and prior to the March 8, 2008 General Elections, should be a cause of grave concern to the District Officers. How could they ignore this is something that I as a retired government servant could not fathom. I know for sure that there is no such thing as an ‘express service’ in the disbursement of funds in the government, and I think Hassan Ali also knows this.

SELCAT has every right to find out the truth and if need be, to be harsh in their questioning of the witnesses in order to get the truth out of them. There is an obvious lack of responsibility and accountability on the part of the District Officers being questioned, and this has to be corrected. In defending the conduct of the District Officers, is Hassan Ali saying that what the District Officers did was proper and in keeping with the order of the regulatory procedures?

If Hassan Ali is sincere in wanting to defend the rights of the Malays, there are many other issues that he can be looking at and one of which is the long delays taken by the previous BN state government in reviewing the status of Malay reserve land. Don’t tell me that these land that has been occupied by the Malays for several generation will remain a ‘leased land’ in perpetuity? Please go out and start asking the owners of such land.

Next, as an elected representative, is Hassan Ali satisfied with the livelihood of the Malays in the kampungs. While the people living in the urban areas lavish themselves with the ‘joys of life’, many in the Malay kampungs scarcely earn enough to feed their families a meal a day. Haven’t he noticed this? And what about those poor Malay kampung folks who cannot afford to send the children to school? Doesn’t he know this? These are the things that he should be voicing out loud, if Hassan Ali is dead serious in wanting the defend the Malays………not merely their rights. And please do not forget that as an elected representative, you are also responsible to the other races, and not merely your kind.


CRUSADE AGAINST CORRUPTION