[Malaysia] Rasuah dan Penyelewengan

Amalan rasuah era Mahathir: Siapa di belakang Wong Chun Wai?
Tuesday, May 31 2005, Harakahdaily
Oleh PAK TAM

Wartawan kanan The Star, Wong Chun Wai, yang rapat dengan menantu Perdana Menteri, Khairy Jamaluddin, mungkin tidak menduga tulisannya Ahad lalu boleh membuatkan Tun Mahathir Mohamad berang, atau lebih buruk lagi sehingga membuatkan bekas PM itu memanggil satu sidang akhbar khas mengenainya.

Sukar untuk dipercayai jika serangan ke atas bekas PM itu dirancang bersama Khairy bagi menjatuhkan lagi reputasi Mahathir ketika bapa mentuanya, Pak Lah, giat membina imej bersih di tengah-tengah dakwaan beliau seorang "perdana menteri yang tidak berkesan".

Bagaimanapun, saya dimaklumkan usaha menekan Mahathir terutama dengan membangkitkan unsur-unsur negatif semasa pemerintahan 22 tahunnya mendapat restu pihak atasan. Ini bertepatan dengan gerakan untuk membersihkan sama sekali "tangan-tangan ghaib Mahathir" yang masih mencengkam urusan pentadbiran negara, khususnya dari segi kewangan.

Mungkin kini baru Mahathir terasa bahang melepaskan jawatan semasa masih sihat bertenaga, apabila banyak peninggalannya cuba ditenggelamkan. Dalam interviu Berita Harian dengannya baru-baru ini, secara terbuka Mahathir mengakui ada dasar dan rancangan kerajaan di bawah era pemerintahannya telah dibatalkan.

Wong Chun Wai hanya memulakannya, saya pasti tentu ada yang mengekorinya nanti. Pak Lah mungkin tidak sebegitu agresif untuk memburuk-burukkan Mahathir, tetapi bagaimana dengan tokoh-tokoh muda generasi Khairy yang tidak sabar-sabar mahu menguasai segalanya. Kumpulan ini mahu legasi Mahathir dilupakan begitu saja, apatah lagi jika difikirkan ia boleh menyuramkan bintang Pak Lah yang asyik tenggelam timbul itu.

Namun, apabila membincangkan soal rasuah yang berakar umbi dalam pentadbiran kerajaan, juga sebati dengan Umno, kesalahan tidak wajar digalaskan kepada bahu Dr Mahathir semata-mata. Buktinya, seperti ditunjukkan statisik badan dunia, persepsi amalan rasuah di negara ini, meskipun di zaman Pak Lah semakin buruk.

Pemilihan Umno yang lalu juga menunjukkan gejala rasuah politik makin menjadi-jadi, dan dilakukan secara terbuka. Menteri-menteri yang tidak menjanjikan pulangan wang kepada perwakilan kalah teruk. Pak Lah pula seperti tidak mampu berbuat apa-apa sedangkan yang dihadapkan ke depan jawatankuasa disiplin parti hanyalah ikan bilis di bahagian yang sebahagiannya menjadi mangsa konspirasi.

Tentu kita masih belum lupa bagaimana pilihanraya Mac 2004 dijalankan secara paling tidak demokratik, manakala petugas kempen Umno-BN tidak malu-malu lagi menawarkan rasuah politik kepada pengundi untuk menewaskan pembangkang, selepas semua saluran kempen secara terbuka ditutup.

Lebih jauh dari itu, melaksanakan pilihanraya secara kotor, dengan kempen terpendek dan senarai pemilih yang diselaputi pengundi hantu merupakan amalan salahguna kuasa terbesar yang patut dikecam.

Dalam satu pertemuan dengan wartawan-wartawan kanan, Mahathir dijolok pertanyaan mengenai pandangannya terhadap pemerintahan Pak Lah. Selalunya Mahathir mengetepikan saja soalan seumpama itu, dibimbangi akan dituduh cuba campur tangan.

Bagaimanapun, pada kali itu, mungkin secara tidak sengaja, Mahathir mengeluh: "Kita serahkan negara ini elok-elok kepadanya (Pak Lah), dia bagi kat anak isterinya pula!"

Jika anak-anak Mahathir dituduh menggunakan kedudukan bapanya untuk meraih kekayaan, dengan menguasai lebih 200 syarikat. Tetapi anak Pak Lah lebih menjolok mata lagi. Hanya dalam masa singkat, anak lelaki tunggal Pak Lah boleh menduduki antara sepuluh Melayu terkaya di Malaysia, dengan sumber utama kekayaannya diperolehi dari syarikat yang mendapat kontrak besar Petronas.

Mungkin dalam sedikit masa ini kita dapat melihat pendedahan demi pendedahan dibuat terhadap pemerintahan Mahathir oleh orang-orang yang dekat dengan Pak Lah sendiri. tentu ramai ingin tahu reaksi anak-anak didik kepercayaan Mahathir dalam kabinet Pak Lah, misalnya Najib Razak dan sepupunya Hishamuddin Hussain.

Melalui Buletin Utama TV3, 31 Mei, Ketua Pemuda Umno, Hishamuddin, sambil terketar-ketar bibirnya, menuduh penulis yang memburukkan Mahathir itu sebagai pengecut dan tidak berbudi. Namun saya lebih tertarik dengan serangan Mahathir ke atas seorang lagi anak didiknya, Rafidah Aziz, mengenai AP kereta luar negara yang menyebabkan prestasi Proton merosot teruk.

Atau mungkin Mahathir tidak bermaksud menjadikan Rafidah sebagai sasaran, sekadar tindakan sinis mempersoalkan orang lebih berkuasa menentukan segalanya, Pak Lah!

Supaya kita mendapat gambaran lebih jelas sikap Mahathir terhadap analisis Wong Chun Wai itu, disiarkan kembali transkrip penuh soal jawab wartawan dengan bekas PM itu, pada Isnin, 30 Mei:

Q: Who is the one trying to shut you up?

A: The report (in the Sunday Star) made it out, more or less, trying to tell me, what did I do? These things do not happen overnight, it takes years to build. What did I do? If you ask what I did, I did a lot of things.

I appealed to Umno, I even stopped elections in Umno to curb the habit. Malays have got more money now and they are using it wrongly. I know people who finance certain people.

I know during the recent election, a group of delegates were offered RM50,000 for a vote, openly. Everybody knew about it. The thing (is) it's getting worse and worse. During my time, I criticised, you people (reporters) know, how many times I had spoken out against corruption.

Are you trying to say while you appealed to Umno, in the government machinery you also did the same?

I appealed to everybody because I know it's difficult to prove and get evidence on corruption. Because the person involved will never tell. He will tell you, but if I tell him to appear in court ... no way.

He said "my business will be destroyed, these people will take action against me". They are afraid. It is very difficult to prove corruption.

Can you indicate who is trying to shut you up?

Well ... the way it is reported ... (asking) me "what did you do when you were the prime minister?" So, if I comment on anything, he can go back (and) say what did you do when you were the prime minister.

If you don't want my comment, don't ask me any questions. I didn't ask that you should come and see me. They wanted to come and see me. So, if you want to come and see me and ask for my opinion, I give my opinion lah ...

I have always maintained that you can't fight against corruption if it has become part of the culture. I am talking about that. I am not talking (about) government action. Government has limited capacity.

Kalau boleh ... government action ... you know in China they shoot people to death if you are corrupt and still there is corruption. Because it is a culture, not the punishment. Same with drugs, we pass the death sentence but they still smuggle drugs.

Umno vice-president Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin proposes allowing grassroots members to elect Umno Supreme Council members. Don't you think this would involve more money politics?

I know money politics also involves people at the branch level and many are prepared to pay to win to become branch leaders. Sometimes, it does not involve money and other times they get things like computers, jerseys and calculators and they said they are just helping.

My suggestion is if you want to give to the members, give it to Umno headquarters and let them distribute to whoever deserves it but this did not happen. They want to be seen giving things to people to get publicity. From there everybody wants to become elected as delegates to the general assembly.

They like to become wakil because they have the chance of making money. Before it was not like this ... this is a new erosion, I remember before, you don't even have to campaign. I didn't go around campaigning, except during Anwar's time, we used to bring people to my house to give a speech.

Do you agree that the cost of doing business goes up if corruption is involved?

Of course ... corruption is bad and I tried to explain that. It will destroy the whole country. It will make everything expensive and retard development. Already (there's) no development. You can see countries which are corrupt can't develop at all.

What do you think of the level of corruption in Umno now?

There is slow erosion and corruption is now worse than before. Umno members are now talking more about this than debating on important issues like the party president's speech.

Were you satisfied with what you had to do to fight corruption?

Yes ... ACA will take action only if they really have a proven case and they will not take any case to court if they don't have any water-tight case. What I tried to do in Umno was to tell them don't get involved in buying votes and things like that.

To a certain extent l knew that somebody who was paying money lost in the election because I told them to reject anybody who paid money. Nowadays, they come out openly and say, 'you pay me money l will vote for you'. The attitude is different now.

Was money politics worse before?

Now it's worse. After the Umno general assembly, that is what they talked about. They never talked about the party president's speech. These people gave this much, that person gave that much. When complaints were made against the accusers, they retaliated, saying they were not involved.

How about the awarding of closed tenders during your administration?

It was agreed that if it was an open tender, bumiputra contractors will not get any. But we didn't give to the same person all the time. We gave to people who were capable as, sometimes, the capital needed was very high.

If you need one billion (ringgit) as capital, how many bumiputra contractors have one billion (ringgit) capital? It's not given to one person ... it's given to a whole lot and you can go and check on it.

The government used to give to Class-F bumiputra contractors computer lab projects and when we gave to everybody without experience, everything collapsed ... you had to choose.

Now it's a choice between bumiputras and bumiputras with the open tender, bumiputras will compete with bumiputras. It's good ... now we don't have to go through negotiated tender.