Very little love left for Rafidah in Parliament
There is very little love left for Rafidah Aziz, the second longest-serving Cabinet Minister after Samy Vellu, in Parliament – whether among UMNO and Barisan Nasional MPs or Ministers.
Samy entered the Cabinet almost 26 years ago on October 21, 1979 followed by Rafidah about a year later in September 1980, marking her quarter-century in the Cabinet this month!
Although my motion this morning to refer the Minister for International Trade and Industry to the Committee of Privileges for her selective, incomplete, misleading and mischievous written reply to me on the APs scandal was disallowed by the Speaker this morning on the ground that proper notice needed to be given, UMNO, Sarawak and Sabah MPs came up to me to express their support of what I had said, with some of them passionately contending that Rafidah had committed a grave breach of privilege in trying to arm-twist and silence MPs from speaking up on the APs scandal.
In fact, history-of-sorts was made today when one Cabinet Minister publicly berated another for gross parliamentary dereliction of duty – when the Minister in the PM’s Department, Nazri Aziz went on record to declare that most Barisan Nasional MPs were angry with Rafidah for her absence from Parliament and failure to give a satisfactory accounting for the multitude of questions about the long-running APs saga.
If Rafidah does not come to Parliament next Monday to submit herself to parliamentary scrutiny on the APs scandal, then she may not need to come to Parliament anymore as she would no longer be welcome by MPs, whether Barisan Nasional or Opposition.
Just to remind Rafidah of the multitude of APs questions and contradictions she has to confront and address, apart from the issues I raised in my privilege motion today, here are some more:
Samy entered the Cabinet almost 26 years ago on October 21, 1979 followed by Rafidah about a year later in September 1980, marking her quarter-century in the Cabinet this month!
Although my motion this morning to refer the Minister for International Trade and Industry to the Committee of Privileges for her selective, incomplete, misleading and mischievous written reply to me on the APs scandal was disallowed by the Speaker this morning on the ground that proper notice needed to be given, UMNO, Sarawak and Sabah MPs came up to me to express their support of what I had said, with some of them passionately contending that Rafidah had committed a grave breach of privilege in trying to arm-twist and silence MPs from speaking up on the APs scandal.
In fact, history-of-sorts was made today when one Cabinet Minister publicly berated another for gross parliamentary dereliction of duty – when the Minister in the PM’s Department, Nazri Aziz went on record to declare that most Barisan Nasional MPs were angry with Rafidah for her absence from Parliament and failure to give a satisfactory accounting for the multitude of questions about the long-running APs saga.
If Rafidah does not come to Parliament next Monday to submit herself to parliamentary scrutiny on the APs scandal, then she may not need to come to Parliament anymore as she would no longer be welcome by MPs, whether Barisan Nasional or Opposition.
Just to remind Rafidah of the multitude of APs questions and contradictions she has to confront and address, apart from the issues I raised in my privilege motion today, here are some more:
*why did Rafidah create the three “AP King of Kings”, Tan Sri Nasimuddin SM Amin, Datuk Syed Azman Syed Ibrahim and Datuk Mohd Haniff Abdul Aziz. The three were collectively issued 33,218 APs or 50.1% of total AP allocation for 2004 and 28,283 APs or 41% of total AP allocation for 2005. At the average worth of RM30,000 per AP, the three “AP King of Kings” stood to make some RM996 million for 2004 and RM850 million this year or a total of RM1.8 billion for these two years. What is the total number of APs issued to
the three “AP King of Kings” since 1988?
*On July 19 2005, after chairing the Wanita Umno exco meeting in the morning (before she knew that the first APs list would be released by the Prime Minister’s Office in the evening), Rafidah denied any wrongdoing in issuing APs to import cars and dismissed talk that she was connected to any AP holder. (New Straits Times 20.7.05). She even invoked the Quran with the declaration: “I have no connection with any of the AP holders in terms of being related or in other aspects”! Why did Rafidah hide the fact that her niece, Annie Tajul Arus was given the Franchise AP in 2004 to import 850 Kleemann cars and 199 for 2005? Has the Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) investigated whether any conflict-of-interest or corruption offence had been committed?
*UMNO Youth Exco member Datuk Mukhriz Mahathir had said that Rafidah had not given to former Prime Prime Minister, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad the list of AP holders in her July 8 written explanation to the former Prime Minister as directed by the Cabinet, although she had given Parliament and the country the clear impression that she had done so in her “pretty long” letter to Mahathir, with “about 10 indices attached on every issue that was raised”.
*Why the APs list, whether for 2004 or 2005, were incomplete when released. Mahathir had pointed out that the 2005 APs list was incomplete. As for the 2004 APs list, Rafidah had said in South Africa that the list would be released “in its entirety”, including the list of showrooms of the AP holders. (Star 28.7.05) This had not been done.
*Rafidah told the UMNO annual general assembly that when she was first appointed MITI Minister in 1987, she revoked the APs given to 153 companies on grounds that the companies were not operational, no showroom, improper management of accounts and APs were sold to non-bumiputeras – resulting in only 76 companies currently still
receiving Open APs. Why is Rafidah so coy in listing the number of showrooms owned by each Open AP holder since 1988?
*Why Rafidah did not revoke a single AP in the past 17 years after the 1988 revocation, despite rampant AP abuses, including under-declaration of the value of cars imported under the AP system, resulting in the country losing over RM1 billion a year in revenue?
*The shocking revelation by Mahathir that there was no official announcement of the new category of APs, the Franchise APs, when Rafidah introduced it in 1997, and
that he had not known about it although he was the Prime Minister.
*The reluctance of Rafidah to make public all the APs lists for the past 35 years since the introduction of APs in 1970, including during the period Mahathir was Minister
for Trade and Industry from January 1978 to July 1981, in line with Abdullah’s pledge for accountability, transparency, integrity and good governance.
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