Re-open Rafidah corruption case involving millions of shares for her son-in-law

Yesterday, during question time, the Minister for International Trade and Industry, Datuk Paduka Rafidah Aziz evaded all six of my supplementary questions on the AP scandal.

I had asked in particular whether the 1997 decision to give APs to MPs, when for 27 years from 1970 to 1997 MPs were not entitled to APs, were meant to silence MPs in connection with the corruption scandal involving Rafidah concerning the MITI allocation of 1.5 million Leader Universal Holdings Bhd. shares and 4.1 million FACB shares to her son-in-law Fazrin Azwar. .

Although Rafidah said the decision to give APs to MPs was a Cabinet decision, which had been contradicted by the former Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad who had said that he did not know that MPs had been given APs, the pertinent questions are:

*who had brought the ‘APs for MPs’ issue to Cabinet;

*what was the rationale for this decision; and

*as Dr. Mahathir said he knew nothing about this decision, how was
this matter and decision smuggled into the Cabinet.

In my supplementary question, I had referred to the finding in 1995 by the then head of the Prosecution Department in the Attorney-General’s Chambers, Gani Patail, who is now the Attorney-General, that there is prima facie basis for the arrest and prosecution of Rafidah on five counts of corruption under Section 2(2) Ordinance 22, 1970.

Parti Keadilan Rakyat youth chief Mohd Ezam Mohd Nor was convicted under the Official Secrets Act and served jail sentence for possession of the document certififying that Gani Patail had made such a recommendation to prosecute Rafidah for corruption, which is another proof of the veracity of such a document.

In view of the latest developments in the AP scandal, I call for the re-opening of the case of the scandal involving Rafidah in connection with the allocation of millions of bumiputra-reserved shares to her son-in-law in her capacity as Chairperson of MITI Bumiputra Shares Allocation Committee, based on the 1995 recomemndation of the head of the prosecution of the Attorney-General’s Chambers for the prosecution of Rafidah.

Former Prime Minister, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, had publicly said that he had saved Rafidah three times. Let Mahathir or Rafidah say whether this is one of the three times in which Rafidah was saved by the former Prime Minister, and what were the other two occasions.

Parliament 5.10.05