Give prosecution powers to MCAC, says Khairy

The Edge Daily (13/5/08): Khairy Jamaluddin (Rembau-BN) has called for the Malaysian Commission for Anti-Corruption (MCAC) to be given prosecution powers as part of the country’s efforts to combat corruption.

“The implementation of the suggestion will allow the commission to focus on the prosecution of corruption cases and lift the burden off the Attorney-General’s Chambers, which is facing a backlog of cases,” he said in the Dewan Rakyat yesterday.

Debating the motion of thanks on the royal address, Khairy praised the government’s effort to fight corruption by restructuring the Anti-Corruption Agency into an independent MCAC and to provide protection to whistleblowers.

“I also hope the government will continue its effort to combat corruption through the use of modern technology,” he said, adding that this would allow for money spent on anti-corruption efforts to bring the best value.

He said the government could use information technology to lower the cost of procurement and channel the savings to development projects.

Citing the example of electronic procurement, Khairy said it could ensure that goods would be sold to the government at reasonable prices, adding that this system had lowered the costs to giant corporations by up to 25%.

In his speech, Khairy also welcomed Home Minister Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar’s proposal to review the annual licensing requirement for the print media, which would eliminate the bureaucratic restriction on print media’s freedom.

According to him, an open, responsible and credible mass media was a pillar of democratic system and there should be an integrated effort to increase the credibility of all forms of mass media.

He said new journalists, including journalists for weblogs and Internet news portals, should also enhance their skills by undergoing professional training like new journalists in the mainstream media. “This will expose them to the basics of journalism such as ethical journalism and laws regarding sedition and false news, to produce responsible journalists.”

Once the media industry could demonstrate a high degree of professionalism, including a greater sense of responsibility, the government could transfer its role of regulating the media to an independent body, Khairy said.

Khairy also highlighted that there were models for a commission of complaints on the media in several countries to prevent seditious news reports which could incite public anger.

“If this mechanism can be established and the regulation of the media can be done independently without affecting public peace and security, and if the industry is serious about building up their capability and skill for ethical, fair and responsible journalism, then the Printing Presses and Publications Act can be abolished,” he said.

Khairy also criticised the opposition for promising to lower oil prices by tapping Petronas’ coffers to win support during the general election.

He said the government received RM48.3 billion, representing 66.2% of Petronas’ gross profit, which went straight into the government’s budget for development purposes in 2007.

“Among others, the balance of the profit is used for exploration and production activities in foreign countries. Is it wrong for Petronas to look after our future to ensure we can at least share these foreign oil reserves when our reserves dry up?”

Khairy also called for Petronas to hold a special briefing and table its complete financial report in parliament to prove that the government and the national oil company had nothing to hide.

There was a commotion when he touched on the issue of food crisis and accused the Selangor state government of giving top priority to “Projek Khinzir Raksasa” (mammoth pig project) or PKR, which is also the acronym of the largest opposition party.

He was referring to the decision of the PKR-led Selangor state government to proceed with the centralised pig farming project in Kuala Langat.

Khairy also claimed that PAS had lost its “teeth” as it failed to take DAP to task on issues such as the social contract and the Malay monarchy.

Dismissing Pakatan Rakyat as just a public relations ploy among those with different ideologies, he said PAS did not even bring up the Islamic state once it became a “junior partner” in Pakatan Rakyat.

A shouting match with name-calling ensued as Khairy refused to ,allow other members of parliament to interject his allegations and questions posed to the opposition.

At one point, Mahfuz Omar (Pokok Sena-PAS) responded by saying that the pig farming project in Selangor was actually approved by the previous state government led by Umno.

Retaliating to Khairy’s twist on PKR’s acronym, he said it was “Projek Babi Negara” (national pig project), which is a play on Barisan Nasional’s (BN) acronym.

'Pakatan' merely a PR exercise - Khairy

Bernama (12/5/08): A backbencher said Monday that the opposition coalition comprising PAS, DAP and Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) known as `Pakatan Rakyat' is merely a public relations (PR) exercise.

Khairy Jamaluddin (BN-Rembau) said the coalition was actually fragile, weak and suspicious of one another and were afraid of being stabbed in the back by each other.

"The coalition is purely a PR exercise. PAS and DAP are only putting up a show so that they will look impressive and strong in the eyes of the public. But in reality, there is clearly no mutual understanding basically," he said when debating the motion of thanks on the Royal address at the Dewan Rakyat Monday.

He questioned the PAS stand on the social contract raised by Lim Kit Siang (DAP-Ipoh Timur) so that it would be reviewed as well as the issue on the Islamic state pursued by PAS.

The lack of response to the issues raised by Lim portrayed the Islamic party as a `toothless lion' and afraid of the mastermind that PAS was collaborating with, Khairy said.

"We in the ruling party are also not ideal and have our weaknesses. But for as long as the Barisan Nasional (BN) is helming the federal government, we will defend the social contract that is enshrined in the Constitution," he said.

Khairy also questioned why Pakatan Rakyat could not give a commitment to do away with the New Economic Policy in all the states under its administration for greater uniformity and consistency.

He said the inconsistency was apparent in the five states administered by the Pakatan Rakyat where in Kedah and Kelantan it was an Islamic State, a Malaysian Malaysia in Penang, a puppet government in Perak and the pig breeding project in Selangor.

He also asked for a special briefing to be held in Parliament where a detailed statement would be tabled so that the financial position and where the Petronas profits were being channelled to would be clearly understood by all members of Parliament.

According to the Petronas financial statement 2007, the government received RM48.3 billion in terms of taxes and royalty and this amount represented 66.2 per cent of the gross profits of Petronas while the balance was utilised for oil explorations in foreign countries.

Khairy also suggested that the government adopted the `e-perolehan' system which was capable of saving as much as 25 per cent in terms of cost for the purchase of items as was being practised by mega companies in the world.

He also proposed the `track and trace' system in the government administration so that the public could obtain immediate and current feedback on their applications which would improve the delivery system and reduce corruption.

In his speech, Karpal Singh (DAP-Bukit Gelugor) defended his statement which touched on the rights of the Malay Rulers, which he said had not violated the law.

"So far, 20 police reports had been made against me, even 2,000 police reports can be made, but what I had stated (on the issue of the transfer of the Perak Islamic Religious Department Director Datuk Jamry Suri) did not breach the law," he said.

He hoped the Attorney-General would give appropriate consideration when the investigation reports on the case were sent to him very soon.

The Dewan Rakyat will sit again Tuesday.

Is KJ the young and the restless ‘Prince of Darkness’?

NST (12/5/08): At the prime age of 32, Khairy Jamaludin has somewhat effortlessly elevated himself as perhaps the most maligned political operative-turned-elected representative in the Malaysian political orbit, more so in its riotous blogosphere, next to the dominating presence of a certain ex-Prime Minister and a certain ex-Deputy Prime Minister. Placing his name in the same stratosphere as Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim for this dispatch is also certain to attract a dense level of malignancy.

No matter. Khairy is always a good news item, even if the news adds a little more notoriety for him. He is finger-licking good copy for political commentaries, star character in the sensationalistic stories of Raja Petra Kamarudin’s ‘Khairy Chronicles’ for a mix of hair-raising parables and seeming truth, fodder for gossip at all levels of society, punching bag for the Pakatan Rakyat in their crowd-pleasing ceramahs and more recently, zesty prey for opposition MPs to grind razor-sharp axes for the chop in their Dewan Rakyat debates and rejoinders.

Endlessly battered and scapegoated, he’s still a bothersome presence for many of his critics and he is, amazingly, still in one piece, more energised than before. His ascendancy to MP for Rembau is not long and not arduous, though he weathered a national onslaught that befell the sturdiest of Barisan stalwarts in the March 8 polls. He also scored huge political merit points when Malaysiakini apologised to him for misreporting that there was a recount against him during counting for the Rembau parliamentary seat on polling night.

Khairy is a dream “babe magnet” for all forms of political discourse and the man seems to be absorbing the fire arrows with a singular, “come-and-get-me” youthful temerity. He is blamed – fairly or unfairly, rightfully or wrongfully – for all that is wrong with this country, from cronyism, interference in the conception and running of Government policies due to his filial proximity to the PM, blanket dominance of major mega Government contracts.

But if the pejoratives are believable, is Khairy the new “Prince of Darkness”, the boy who may soon be king? Not if the raucous crowd of political bloodhounds dogged in their collective efforts to bring him down, or at least, cut him down a notch or two, can help it. Yet, he is not without charm, persuasive powers and sophistication (not to mention a dapper in a stylish suit), a slick marketer capable of presenting a well-structured sales pitch and a self-advertiser of his own untrammelled talent for timing and opportunity. Within meteoric parameters, he rose to power as Umno Youth deputy chief and won a deputy presidency in the Football Association of Malaysia in October last year, all within four years.

The timing and opportunity to unleash his aspirations, vision and ambition arrived when he stood up to deliver his maiden Dewan Rakyat speech in support of the royal address. And what an explosive, not-safe-at-any-altitude speech it was – cogent, forceful and constructive on pressing social, economic and political issues of the day, when he was not rudely interjected by rival MPs. And yet, he was mockingly and derisively contemptuous of rival MPs, Karpal Singh (DAP-Bukit Gelugor) in particular, and scathing in his attacks against Anwar Ibrahim and Pakatan Rakyat. In a sense, Khairy was releasing months, if not years, of frustration of being unable to freely respond to all attacks for fear of political reprisals.

Khairy, while supporting the PM’s move to set up the Judiciary Appointments Commission which he believed would not erode the Prime Minister’s prerogative or the monarchy’s sanctity to give consent to new judges, called for commission representatives to be also filled by ex-judges and legal intellects of “knowledge, experience and integrity.” But his more urgent call was for the commission to have indictment powers, more so to release the burden of backlog piling up at the Attorney-General’s chambers.

He supported withdrawal of red tape conundrum to license the print media but his proposal that bloggers be given the same professional training as mainstream media journalists would likely raise heckles among the more boisterous bloggers while suggesting that if the media can agree to emulate a neutral Media Complaints Commission to check slander and defamation, and agree to self-imposed ethics, fairness and responsibility, the tough printing presses act can go the way of the dodo. By this time, he also deflected three interjections, refusing to give way to rival MPs to seek clarification.

Excitement and incitement brewed after Khairy articulated the need to reform national subsidies for a truer target and while he was elaborating on the oil/petrol price crises, he launch the first of his well-prepared attacks against Anwar Ibrahim, accusing the ex-Finance Minister of conveniently forgetting that during his eight-year Cabinet tenure of zero petrol price hike, oil was a lowly US$16-26 a barrel, unlike the current prices that have surpassed US$120 a barrel.

“What was so difficult about his era? Oil prices were extremely low,” Khairy thundered. “Don’t be self-congratulatory when you are actually fooling the people…the Government’s handling of the oil prices now to be the lowest among Asean nations is far more praiseworthy. This is not even opening the story of the PKR adviser’s absolute failure to check the 1997 financial crisis!”

You can sense the blood boiling at the PKR end of the House and still Khairy won’t budge from his refusal to allow a single clarification to his attacks. Emboldened by the momentum of his speech, Khairy kicked in the booster rockets. As he outlined efforts to contain the food crisis and offered some pointers on reducing the burden of production, he pointed out that chicken and pork were the only food production that were a 100 per cent self-sufficient, so much so that a certain State Government had made pig rearing a priority project that he handily coined as “Projek Khinzir Raksasa” (Mammoth Pig Project), alluding to the PKR acronym and the fact that the word ’khinzir’ to replace ‘babi’ was Anwar’s doing when he was DPM. Here’s the irony: for his entire rebuke against Anwar, Khairy reminded veterans in the august hall of a 1970s Anwar Ibrahim at the peak of his fire breathing grandiloquence, doused somewhat when he joined the Government in 1982.

The ruckus that followed was predictable but the intensity wasn’t. A dozen indignant PKR, DAP and Pas Mps sprang up like multiple jack-in-the-boxes, demanding clarification but only Zulkifli Noordin (PKR-Kulim Bandar Baru) was given the floor for his point of order, demanding that Khairy withdraw the acronym under Standing Orders 36 (4) as words that were improperly uttered.

Khairy steadfastly defended his ground while under the virulent attacks of rival backbenchers, refusing to give way when a slew of DAP, PKR and Pas MPs demanded clarification on his attacks. Sensing that Khairy was never giving way, other rival MPs used an alternative tact to deter Khairy by invoking various point of orders: that Khairy was reading (BN backbenchers shouted back that even the Opposition leader read while debating), MPs had the right to seek clarification (the Speaker stated that KJ had the right not to give way), uttering words that cause pain (it wasn’t clear what the Speaker ruled but the this triggered titters from Barisan backbenchers who shouted back that Lim Kit Siang (DAP-Ipoh Timur) uttered far more worse improper words).

Lim took the liberty of elaborating his point of order by an off-tangent demonstration – a newspaper report that Datuk Seri Dr Lim Keng Yaik had spoken improperly and misbehaved. You should have heard the pure cacophony of clashing human voices that erupted – Khairy and BN backbenchers shouting at Lim to stand down while the DAP adviser continued droning while opposition backbenchers launched collective shouts and screams, including a high-pitch vent by Fong Po Kuan (DAP-Batu Gajah) that summarised the verbal orgy.

While the verbal free-for-all hurtled towards a free fall, Khairy literally played to the gallery: he turned to the public gallery directly behind him filled with secondary school students of the Malacca High School, smirking at the confusion and mockingly pointed with his hand to the rival MPs side as if he was saying: “See…this is the kind of MPs you have for the Opposition.”

In between the vocal vents, verbal wrestling and trash talk, out came this epithet from N. Gobalakrishnan (PKR-Padang Serai): “Babi negara!” and in unison, Khairy and a dozen BN backbenchers jumped, shouting: “Who is babi negara? Say it! Say it!”

When the Speaker managed to douse the fire breathers who threatened to inflamed proceedings, Khairy found a little bit of peace to continue with his speech, slamming Lim Kit Siang’s personal attacks he endured last week (“richest unemployed man in the world”), lambasting Pas’ fear of DAP, fear of raising the Islamic state struggle and fear of chiding Karpal when the latter questioned the powers of the Sultan of Perak in the state’s state religious director’s transfer fiasco, inferring that the Pakatan Rakyat acronym of PR actually stood for “public relations” where policy-making by opposition parties were PR stunts.

But KJ hit sonic boom when he lashed out the following: “Although you sleep in one bed, one mattress, one pillow but you dream differently! There are some who dream of flying carpets, some who dream of flying rockets and some who dream of flying pigs!” Eight indignant opposition MPs stood up like marionettes strung up by a puppeteer but Khairy insisted that no one gets a chance to seek clarification. “Get your clarification on your own time. My time is precious,” he barked back.

With time running out and sensing that the agitated rival MPs will not allow him a landmine-free passage to conclude his seven-page speech, Khairy abruptly ended his speech one page less by debunking Pakatan Rakyat’s boast that they were better administrators than the previous Barisan State Governments, especially belittling the Selangor Government’s exclusive allocation of RM500,000 only to PR assemblymen after demanding that the Federal Government spread allocation justly to all elected reps.

“Is that fair? You don’t walk the talk,” Khairy contended. “This is just two months of ruling and you have cleverly lied and manipulated. If the Kuala Krai MP claim that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely, the Pakatan Rakyat’s action proves that even a little power corrupts very quickly….”

Nasharuddin ignores Khairy’s query on discord

The Star (8/5/08): An opposition MP refused to reply to his Barisan Nasional counterpart on political differences that occurred between the parties in Pakatan Rakyat.

Debating the motion of thanks on the royal address, Nasharuddin Mat Isa (PAS-Bachok) said that the people would not be hoodwinked by Barisan’s method of implementing “instant-mee” projects to gain support.

He said Barisan representatives were made to swallow a bitter pill now for being arrogant, adding that was how they lost the support of the people.

“If the arrogance of Barisan representatives continues, it will not be impossible for Pakatan to win the next elections,” he added.

At this point, Khairy Jamaluddin (BN-Rembau) said Pakatan should not be so sure about taking over the Federal Government, pointing out that differences had already existed within the Opposition.

“Ipoh Timur (Lim Kit Siang-DAP) himself had said that the Islamic nation concept is not acceptable to a multi-racial Malaysia. Do you agree to this?” he asked.

Nasharuddin, however, ignored Khairy’s query and continued with his speech. Khairy continued to pin Nasharuddin down, demanding he reply but the latter said that he would reply at the end of his speech.