Save the Sultan, nab the boys

Iskandar Investment Berhad couldn’t have imagined such publicity even if Kalimullah had been their Chairman and Abdullah Badawi was still sleeping somewhere in Putrajaya.

The past few days ISKANDAR INVESTMENT has been in the limelight for all the wrong reasons. When news of the MACC operation and subsequent court appearance of a few super senior ISKANDAR INVESTMENT officers broke, some FOURTH FLOOR boys up North in KL must have been rattled.

No doubt that Shahrizat Jalil could have a breather, a temporary one that is, but MACC’s hit in Johor has definitely sent a chill down the spine of quite a number of high profile operatives- those in Khazanah included.

What many may not notice is that the Iskandar hit may just be the tip of the iceberg as some of the trails could be leading up the ‘serene’ hill, or so they say.

Word has it that a former MMRCB senior officer has spilled the beans about a so-called multi million under-table payment to a newly minted Sultan. It could be empty talk or just the former 4^th floor policy maker’s name-throwing antics but that has surely led to a series of other allegations against the same Sultan.

Its certainly snowballing and people in Johor and Singapore are talking about it.

Sources, not from the North, East or West, say the Sultan on the advice of the ex-4^th floor boy who claims to have the Sultan in his pocket, has been encroaching into the affairs of the state civil service with impunity.

The said Sultan’s friends and business partners could also be deeply involved in the ISKANDAR scandal which is fast unfolding now. Medini Iskandar, the say, could be holding lots of secrets.

Since the shit in Iskandar has hit the ceiling, the Sultan may want to reconsider his partnership with those who claim to have paid him millions from MMRCB and continue to sell the Sultan’s name from Kota Baharu to Kallang , Kuala Lumpur included.

One DTK ZZ is up to no good, or so they say.

Being a Sultan, the monarch may also want to stay out of business that involves state land, state policy and arm-twisting the state civil service.

In the meantime Azman of Khazanah should do an audit on the GLCs (or rather their directors) who have been claiming that the Sultan could be bribed. The Sultan may appear fierce but we his people don’t believe that he is corrupt or has been abusing his powers. 

Why should he be doing such things when he is the Sultan of our state?

Ampun Tuanku! Jangan biarkan si-kitol menikam dari belakang Tuanku. 

WRITING on the WALL for Shahrizat Jalil?

NFC office raided, suspect remanded

Yes Shahrizat, you better pray very hard that you are not nominated in the next general election.

The NFC scandal involving government minister Shahrizat Jalil's family has taken a positive turn with enforcement authorities moving into the second phase of investigations involving a suspected misappropriation of 250 million ringgit of Government funds.

Police arrested a suspect in the course of their investigations yesterday and have handed him to MACC. 

It was understood the suspect who have since been remanded is none other than NFC chairman Dr Salleh Ismail's close relative. Salleh just happens to be Shahrizat Jalil's husband. 

This afternoon, the NFC office in Mont Kiara was raided by MACC officers. 

Friends and foes are guessing Shahrizat Jalil's reaction to these damning developments in the past 24-hours. 


As a senior politician, government minister and particularly as Wanita Umno chief, is Shahrizat prepared to take the necessary step? 


The writing is on the wall and many are of the opinion that everybody else could read the BOLD writing, except for those entangled in the 250million scandal. 

The next 24-hours could be equally interesting.

Conspiracy of comrades

DAP leaders, particularly party advisor Lim Kit Siang and his son cum secretary general Lim Guan Eng, have been trying to play down the recent spat between DAP Chairman Karpal Singh and Penang Deputy Chief Minister P.Ramasamy.

On the surface it appears that both the senior Lim and his chief minister son are trying very hard to prevent an all out war between Ramasamy and party stalwart Karpal Singh.

But what is the actual development in the party, which now controls the state of Penang? Is there a storm brewing below the surface?

Observers are of the view that a serious power struggle is underway in Penang, with senior party leaders making their move in preparation for the 13^th general elections.

The Ramasamy-Karpal spat started after the former took it upon himself to announce the names of a few of his strong supporters as DAP candidates.

Known as an individual who sticks to the spirit of the letter, Karpal immediately shot back at Ramasamy for breaching party rules and ethics by openly venturing into the sacred domain of the central committee.

Karpal said Ramasamy shouldn’t behave like a warlord by positioning his team without prior consultation or approval of the central committee and Ramasamy shot back saying that DAP doesn’t need a ‘godfather’ – in clear reference to the chairman.

The central committee that is basically run by the advisor and his son quickly formed a special panel to handle the Ramasamy-Karpal spat.

Both father and son included themselves in the panel and also roped in the obedient party life advisor Dr Chen Man Hin.

The panel swiftly, in a matter of hours, concluded that the spat has been solved and DAP would move forward to face the elections, but what they failed to do is to address the problem in hand.

While the three-man panel issued a statement ‘resolving’ the spat, Karpal issued a strong counter statement that all was not well.

The no nonsense party Chairman has said that the matter was far from over and that the party must take action against Ramasamy and those associated with him for breaching DAP’s rules, regulations and party ethics.

Karpal’s strongly worded statement, which was published in the New Straits Times, has now created a storm in DAP.

It was reliably learnt that secretary general Lim Guan Eng had confided to his father and requested the senior Lim to reprimand Karpal for his outburst in the NST.

Lim Kit Siang did make a telephone call to Karpal to calm him down and to convey Lim Guan Eng’s displeasure, but the advisor was given a dressing down by the Tiger of Jelutong for condoning Ramasamy’s serious breach of discipline.

Karpal, it was understood, is perplexed with these recent developments and the way the Lims were behaving to Ramasamy’s crude politics.

Two DAP state assemblyman in Penang, R.S.N. Rayer (Seri Delima) and A. Thanasekaran (Bagan Dalam), who are known Karpal supporters, have also been the target of Ramasamy’s open attacks.

 What surprises political observers and DAP veterans is how Ramasamy, being a novice first term politician and a new comer in Penang, could have mustered enough political courage to mount such an attack against Karpal Singh.

Almost all of them suspect some hidden hands at work behind the campaign to attack Karpal since demonstrations against the party chairman have also been held outside Penang.

In Selangor, the party veterans effigy was burnt by a group DAP members claiming to be Ramasamy supporters.

But has Ramasamy gained such support and influence in DAP after just a couple of years in politics or is the former UKM lecturer being pushed into the ring by powerful DAP leaders who are out to remove Karpal?

Karpal’s close confidantes believe that it’s a high level conspiracy hatched to not only remove Karpal but also to consolidate certain individual’s hold on the party.

You could call it a power struggle but its not just a DAP Penang issue. This is a battle to gain total control of the DAP and to form a new team of elected representatives who would toe the secretary general and his father’s orders.

Who could the conspirators be? Whatever their plans are, Karpal is not going to just give up and walk away.

We shall watch the Tiger of Jelutong fighting to protect his territory. You could burn his effigy but not his courage to take on his enemies, more so when they’re merely the hachet men of Karpal’s once trusted comrades.

Anwar conned Qardawi

Zul Noordin: Dr Yusuf Qardawi Deceived 

Member of Parliament for Kulim-Bandar Baru, Datuk Zulkifli Noordin has admitted to have deceived renowned cleric Syeikh Dr Yusuf Qardawi into issuing a fatwa supporting the sodomy II case involving Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and his aide, Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan.

“We have made a mistake…we admit making the mistake. I was among those who made the mistake, and I must meet up with Syeikh Yusuf Qardawi to make amendments.

“Because…we wish to inform (that) it was true we had deceived Syeikh Yusuf Qardawi into believing that Anwar had been slandered,” he said.

As Anwar’s lawyer, Zulkifli had prepared biased questions to elicit the fatwa from Dr Yusuf Al Qardawi in 2009.

According to him, he was responsible in preparing the questions, which sided Anwar and hiding the truth about the complainant, Mohd Saiful.

“I was the one who gave the briefing and prepared the questions couched in specific forms to persuade and convince Syeikh Yusuf Qardawi that Anwar had been slandered…that was how it was pictured.

“We completely avoided the truth about the case, (for example) that Saiful was Anwar’s employee…we didn’t tell him about Saiful complaining that he had been sodomised.

“We (only) described that there was slander in this sodomy case. When he understood the way we put it, 

Syeikh Yusuf Qardawi immediately issued the ‘Qazaf’ fatwa,”

Zulkifli, who was one of Anwar’s defence lawyers in the sodomy I trial (1998), also admitted what he did was wrong and sinful because he went to the extent of lying to the respected cleric just to save Anwar’s reputation and image.

“Looking back, we find we have committed much sin relating to this matter…to the extent that we even had the audacity to deceive a cleric of such stature in believing that the issue faced by Anwar was one of slander – an issue that needed to be addressed through Qazaf.

“That was why I spoke in parliament…we have made a mistake and I am asking our colleagues not to persist in doing the same.

“Alhamdulillah, Allah has made me realise. I still have the time to meet certain people and ask for apologies...and I have done so.

“I have the responsibility to meet him (Syeikh Yusuf Qardawi) to explain and correct the situation, if it can still be corrected, that is. If he refuses to accept it, then it will be his responsibility, but at least I have tried to make amendments about what I have done,” he said.