UM sexual assault case - JUSTICE for Victim compromised!

Has UM sexual assault case been swept under the rug?

Mariam Mokhtar

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August 29, 2020 7:00 AM

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Violence and sexual assaults against women are crimes and we should protect the rights of vulnerable women. However, the experience of one university student shows that the rights of women in Malaysia are often ignored and there is a reluctance to punish certain members of society who have committed a crime.

So, why don’t we punish sexual offenders and why do we refuse to name them, especially sexual perpetrators who hold positions of authority?

We skirt around the issue, and treat the perpetrators with kid gloves, despite the victims coming forward to expose the alleged assault. Making a public statement about an alleged sexual assault cannot be easy for the victim.

Last July, a Universiti Malaya (UM) student who called herself “Ching” alleged that an associate professor had sexually assaulted her in his office on June 3, 2019.

When the university failed to act against the lecturer and refused to share the findings of an internal investigation with her, she lodged a police report thinking that the police probe would be conducted swiftly and be transparent.

What transpired was unacceptable.

On Thursday, the police told Ching that they had completed their investigations into the alleged assault by the UM associate professor. They said that no further action would be taken against him. They said that he had already faced the university’s disciplinary committee, and had been demoted. They informed her that he had retired in June.

Did it take the police three months to tell her, “Case closed, no further action”?

Most people would contend that the disciplinary committee should not be allowed to handle a serious sexual allegation of this nature.

The police said their investigation had been conducted under Section 354 of the Penal Code which involves the use of criminal force on a person with the intent to outrage the victim’s modesty. If the man had been found guilty, upon conviction, he would have faced a maximum of 10 years’ imprisonment, a fine, with whipping, or any combination of two of the punishments.

So, why was Ching denied justice? Why has the perpetrator been protected? Was his name kept secret to save his family’s reputation?

How about other women? Won’t they be at risk? It appears that every effort is being made to protect the reputation of UM. Why did the student bodies not protest more strongly?

The results of the police probe have not been revealed and Ching must feel that she has been violated three times. First, by her lecturer, second, by her university, and third, by the authorities.

If the lecturer had not done anything wrong, the university would not have demoted him or conducted the hearing under a cloak of secrecy, would it? Why was the victim not allowed to counter his evidence? How many are in the disciplinary committee? Were any women on it?

So many questions remain unanswered and denying a public hearing has only further tarnished the university’s reputation.

The university should not be afraid to publish its investigations. They should show an interest and find out if other students had been assaulted. Perhaps, his colleagues are aware. Did they keep quiet or were they warned not to expose him, in which case, students were put at risk.

A proper hearing would have revealed more, including whether there are other victims or if members of the university staff were subjected to similar assaults. A public hearing would have encouraged others to come forward, but now it looks as if this serious allegation has been swept under the rug.

Perhaps Ching should name her former lecturer, start a private prosecution and seek compensation.

Petaling Jaya MP Maria Chin Abdullah is aware of the matter, but more importantly, we would like to know the reaction of the following people: the minister for women, family and community development; the minister for youth; the minister for higher education; and the law minister. Why are they silent?

Sexual assault is a serious crime, but if our ministers and educational establishments adopt a tidak apa attitude, then our society has failed our womenfolk.

UM sexual assault case - JUSTICE for Victim compromised! The Police should just do their duty and arrest and charge the offender and not play Judge. SICKENING!!!

PAS MP refuses to apologise for Bible remark, says Christians ‘have no right to be offended’ - SEDITIOUS REMARK (What are the authorities going to do ?)

 

PAS MP refuses to apologise for Bible remark, says Christians ‘have no right to be offended’

Saturday, 29 Aug 2020 05:02 PM MYT

BY SOO WERN JUN

Datuk Nik Muhammad Zawawi Salleh delivers his speech during the Muktamar Dewan Ulama PAS Pusat at the IOI Palm Villa in Kulaijaya, September 17, 2014. ― Picture by Yusof Mat Isa

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 29 — Pasir Puteh MP Nik Muhammad Zawawi Nik Salleh has said today that there is no need for him to apologise for saying that Bible has been corrupted or manipulated.

In report by Malaysiakini, Nik Zawawi also said that Christians should not be offended, claiming his statement was “a fact”.

“They have no right to be offended. What I said was not an accusation, but a fact,” he was quoted saying.

“There is no need to apologise. Why should I? I don’t want to comment, what I said is right. Why should I apologise?”

Earlier today, the Association of Churches in Sarawak (ACS) demanded for Nik Zawawi to retract his remarks in Parliament and urged him to tender a public apology to all Christians.

Nik Zawawi had instead said that he is willing to hold a “dialogue” over the matter.

The PAS MP made the remark when debating the Road Transport (Amendment) Bill 2020 to propose heavier fines for drink driving offenders on August 26.

Despite being corrected by DAP’s Beruas MP Datuk Ngeh Koo Ham, the PAS lawmaker insisted that he was correct and that he made the remarks based on his study religion comparison.

Nik Zawawi had accused Ngeh for referring to a Bible that was already distorted when referring to alcohol consumption in Christianity.

Earlier this week, church leaders explained that Christianity does not forbid liquor but only condemns intoxication and debauchery.

PAS MP refuses to apologise for Bible remark, says Christians ‘have no right to be offended’ - SEDITIOUS REMARK (What are the authorities going to do ?)

If this was done to the Koran what is going to happen? We all know what going to happen. RIGHT!

Birds Of A Feather - TIME to REMOVE them all from power

 

Birds Of A Feather Flock Together? 27 August 2020

The new Finance Minister, Tengku Zaifrul was appointed thanks to his lofty connections not because of his political experience, indeed he is not even an elected MP. This week the inexperience told as he plunged into a deep political trap that might well have been laid by craftier operators than him. He shows no signs of clawing a way out. It began in Parliament on Monday. Zaifrul’s fellow PN coalition members have grown restless, seeking counter-accusations against those they turfed from office, in order to deflect from the mountains of charges of illegalities laid against themselves for past corruption and misdeeds. Former Finance Minister, Lim Guan Eng, is their top target and has already become the butt of a swathe of corruption smears, police reports and now dubious charges. So, on Monday afternoon Zaifrul took the bait to push the accusations further. Ahmad Maslan MP (himself facing money laundering charges) set up the moment by archly questioning his senior colleague if any Direct Contracts (ie. not subject to open tender) had been awarded under the PH government? What an opportunity to show up the reformers from the deposed elected government who had sought to enforce transparency and abolish the scourge of dirty ministerial backhanders – those so-called ‘negotiated’ Direct Contracts! Smugly, Finance Minister Zaifrul answered that indeed he could report (since he had clearly prepared for this question and reply) that no less than RM6.6 billion worth of Direct Contracts had been awarded across some 101 negotiated contracts during the short period PH held office before the backdoor coup. Zaifrul accused his predecessor Lim Guan Eng of having deceitfully signed them off in contravention of his proclaimed drive for open government. Ooops – Cornered! His followers were jubilant as Parliament erupted with heckling MPs. Later cyber-troopers crowed, why did not Sarawak Report expose the RM6.6 billion, instead of just hounding poor, convicted Najib Razak? But soon the horror dawned. It was not for the likes of Sarawak Report to come up with the details as the former Finance Minister and his political colleagues pointed out, it was for Tengku Zaifrul to publish his own report, which he clearly had not properly read himself. Meanwhile, Lim Guan Eng published a table of just 12 such ‘negotiated’ projects sponsored by the previous BN government that dwarfed Zaifrul’s figures at the staggering total cost of RM139 billion! Just 12 projects cited by Lim Guan Eng included the Sarawak Solar project which has landed Najib’s wife Rosmah Mansor in court over millions in backhanders By the following day the former Prime Minister and Finance Minister were taunting Zaifrul to publish his ‘101 list’ in full. They pointed out that almost 70% of the entire RM6.6 billion related to five so-called legacy projects that had actually been ‘Directly Negotiated’ by his own PN colleagues under the prior BN government. Given the original projects were so vastly inflated PH had successfully negotiated them down, but were unable to discard the contracts owing to the lock-in clauses agreed to by BN.  Zaifrul’s list treated them as if they were new outrages instead of a mitigation of old outrages committed by his own colleagues. The largest of these was Phase 2 of the Klang Valley double-tracking project which was signed up to on the last day of the BN government, awarding Dhaya Maju LTAT Sdn Bhd andastronomical RM5.265 billion, which PH pared down to RM4.475 billion. “Zafrul should be praising the Harapan administration because we saved RM790 million in taxpayers’ money,” said Lim Guan Eng Who Signed Off Those Contracts? It then got even more awkward for Zaifrul and his colleagues. Laying out his figures from his own administration the former Finance Minister pointed out that most of the remaining expenditures also related to events that had taken place under the previous government, expenses that needed to be honoured. Only 5.3 percent of the RM6.6 billion involved “new” directly awarded contracts undertaken by the Harapan government, amounting to RM352 million, Lim said, and half of that amount was for a new solid waste transfer station in Jinjang Utara. It was not himself, the Finance Minister, who signed off that contract, but the leading PH defector and celebrated side-kick of the chief coup conspirator Azmin Ali, Zuraida Kamaruddin. So, if there is blame to be levelled it points right back to PN which has clearly attracted the chief personalities who appear to have let the side down for the elected government in more ways than one! “Perhaps it’s better for the minister, who has refuted claims of being involved in direct awards, to explain what happened,” suggested Lim Guan Eng. Indeed. He then went on to explain most of the other list of directly awarded contracts, making the point that Harapan’s election pledge was never to do away entirely with direct contracts, which were needed in some specific circumstances such as those he’d cited, but to conduct open tenders as widely as possible. As the unravelling of Zaifrul’s ‘masterstroke’ continued, Zuraida herself countered with a line from Najib’s own playbook. She had not known about the RM170 million contract signed off by her department, she said earlier today (having suggested only yesterday that she had been involved in no such contracts from her ministry): “I would like to emphasise that the projects were approved without my knowledge” Oh dear. What more can one say? Storm Clouds Gather Faced with the inevitable, the shamed Finance Minister had little option but to release the details of the 101 projects and did so yesterday. Reporters scoured the figures as the accused opposition leaders drummed their fingers waiting for what would further be revealed. The second largest figure on the list of covertly negotiated contracts soon leapt out. It was a fat RM270 million contract awarded to Datasonic Technologies Sdn Bhd (DTSB) to supply of biodata chips used in Malaysian passports. The company has only recently hit the headlines as its then CEO has been implicated as one of the crony insiders caught paying ‘donations’ to a bogus foundation run by the present UMNO leader Zahid Hamidi. Abu Hanifah Noordin broke down in tears as he explained the alleged RM6 million backhander to Zahid, who used the millions ‘donated’ to the foundation on his personal expenses. He has since stepped down as CEO of the company, but not before that plum ‘direct contract’ was handed out under the PH government according to the figures presented by Zairfrul: Item 15 – massive contract to Data Sonic Technologies The recent RM270 million contract under the PH government was also handed out by the Home Ministry, according to the data, meaning that in this case it is Zahid’s successor who was responsible for the contract, none other than his predecessor as Deputy UMNO leader under Najib, the PH defector and present Prime Minister, Muhyiddin Yassin. After Transport and Defence, Muhyiddin’s Home Affairs Department issued the highest expenditure on untendered contracts during the PH government: Muhyiddin over saw RM517.6 million in direct contracts under PH So, does PN’s ‘PM8′ also find that he cannot remember approving all these contracts or is he willing to offer a full explanation as to why his department signed off a ‘negotiated’ contract with a known crony of the BN government who was already caught up in his predecessor’s corruption charges? Zaifrul started the week as the hero of his party, moving the spotlight on corruption off their own decades of misrule and on to the elected government with a reform agenda, which they turfed from office. Has it all backfired and created even more question marks over a coalition lead by charged and convicted crooks and headed by their former close friend and colleague who defected back to join them?  Birds Of A Feather - TIME to REMOVE them all from power. These ex PH political frogs should NEVER be voted into Office again!!! Time also for PH to get back into power as we VOTED them into office and power!

CO2 SAVES THE PLANET: Research confirms that high levels of carbon dioxide result in “global greening” as forests and food crops flourish

 

(Natural News) Plants were efficient absorbers of carbon dioxide during the early Miocene – a period with high levels of carbon dioxide, found a study published in the journal Climate of the Past.

Researchers from New Zealand analyzed plant fossils from a former lake and discovered that the levels of carbon dioxide at the time exceeded those recorded today. They added that Miocene plants had features that equipped them to grow in drier and hotter climate. With such enhanced plants, the high carbon levels provided a “forest fertilization effect.”

These findings are useful in the context of today’s rising levels of carbon dioxide. With the study’s reconstruction of early Miocene as an analog, they provide a picture of the world several years from now.

Efficient early Miocene plants

The Miocene epoch was a time marked by global warming. It occurred from about 23 to 5.3 million years ago and is credited for the appearance of grasslands and kelp forests, underwater ecosystems that are dense with the plant kelp.

During Miocene, global temperatures rose after a period of global cooling in the preceding epoch. Ice largely disappeared at the poles and land became more arid. It is estimated that Earth was 37-44 F hotter than today.

While experts agree that temperatures rose at the time, the levels of carbon dioxide were hotly debated. Some experts contended that carbon levels were around 300 parts per million (ppm) – near the same amount before the Industrial Revolution started. Others estimated that carbon dioxide in the atmosphere reached 400 ppm, which is around today’s global average.

“Evidence has been building that carbon dioxide was high then, but there have been paradoxes,” said lead author Tammo Reichgelt, a scientist at Columbia University.

For the current study, the researchers unearthed plant fossils from a now-extinct volcanic crater located in the city of Dunedin, southern New Zealand. The crater dubbed Foulden Maar once hosted an isolated lake where blackish layers of carbon matter are deposited within the bed, including different leaves from a subtropical evergreen forest.

The researchers analyzed the carbon isotopes within the leaves of a half-dozen tree species. By looking at the isotopes, they could determine the carbon content of the atmosphere at the time. They also examined the geometry of the stomata, pores in a plant tissue used for gas exchange, as well as other anatomical features and compared them to those of modern leaves.

After combining all the data into a model, they discovered that levels of carbon dioxide at the time were about 450 ppm, matching the information on the epoch’s global temperatures.

Furthermore, the leaves absorbed carbon dioxide more efficiently and without leaking much water through the same route. This process of leaking water, called transpiration, is similar to sweating in humans. When too much water is shed, plants could wilt or not grow right. According to the researchers, the leaves under study were able to grow amid the warmer conditions of early Miocene.

Will Earth experience global greening?

By 2040, the levels of carbon dioxide are estimated to reach 450 ppm – similar to the average of the study’s reconstructed early Miocene.

Previous experiments showed that when levels of carbon dioxide rise, various plants increase their rate of photosynthesis. That’s because they can more efficiently remove carbon from the air and conserve water in the process.

In another study, researchers looked at satellite data and found a “global greening” effect that was mainly due to rising levels of anthropogenic carbon dioxide over the recent decades. Leaf volume among a quarter to a half of vegetated lands increased since 1980, said the researchers. And this effect is expected to continue as the levels of carbon dioxide rise. (Related: Carbon Dioxide revealed as the “Miracle Molecule of Life” for re-greening the planet.)

Impossible Foods and B. Gates

 

Impossible Foods model of monopoly capitalism raises another 200m

Saturday, August 15, 2020 by: News Editors
Tags: bill gates, business, capitalism, covid-19, economy, government, Impossible Foods, monopoly, politics

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(Natural News) Food company Impossible Foods is a Bill Gates portfolio startup.  For those who have not been following, Bill Gates has been killing it since COVID- literally.  His portfolio has ballooned to enormous sums.  And while the mainstream media is covering how much his billionaire friends have made – even Mother Jones failed to mention Gates name.

(Article by globalintelhub republished from ZeroHedge.com)

There are a few things that bring the Gates portfolio together; life sciences, genetic engineering, sustainability, and transhumanism.  Whether the ‘sustainability’ movement is genuine or an artificially created problem, we will leave for another article.  The fact is that events are happening in the real economy that are driving demand for Impossible Foods through the roof.  Of course, they are not the only company offering meat alternatives.  There is publicly traded Beyond Meat, and private company Just.  But Impossible Foods is different in a few ways.

First, their cap table is a who’s who in pop culture.

If you were going to launch something that was questionably ethical, the most logical and smart thing to do would be to get a bunch of celebrities on board who would sell it to their fans.  It’s a genius branding image.  Those people on the cap table eat Impossible Foods and promote it.

Also, Impossible Foods employs food scientists that are working on hundreds of food products.  But this is not a food company, it’s a save the planet company.  That’s because the biggest CO2 emissions come from cows, which feed the American population beefy burgers at your local fat food chain.  So their do good business model is to create genetically modified foods that trick the human brain by use of chemical science to think it’s a real burger, and thus change humans diet.  It’s the first time that large scale human behaviors are attempted at being changed on a biological level (food).

From Wired Magazine:

Biting into an Impossible Burger is to bite into a future in which humanity has to somehow feed an exploding population and not further imperil the planet with ever more livestock. Because livestock, and cows in particular, go through unfathomable amounts of food and water (up to 11,000 gallons a year per cow) and take up vast stretches of land. And their gastrointestinal methane emissions aren’t doing the fight against global warming any favors either (cattle gas makes up 10 percent of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide). 

These burgers are not healthy.  There are no studies done on the teratogenic effects on these chemicals.  They are trying to shift demand in global meat consumption – which will be beneficial for the planet.  Their business model was a big question mark – until COVID happened.

Since COVID demand for Impossible Foods has skyrocketed.  First, meat factories started closing because workers were catching COVID in the factories.

Then, government orders came in to start killing livestock (not only cows, also pigs, chickens, and other animals) and they are actually helping farmers doing the killing:

The government offered to help livestock producers locate contractors skilled in killing herds or flocks of animals and to provide cost-share funding for their disposal because the coronavirus pandemic has shut down packing plants and reduced consumer demand. The National Pork Board held a webinar on Sunday that discussed step by step “emergency depopulation and disposal” of hogs.

Based on traditional economic theory, what happens when supply evaporates?  Demand for remaining products goes higher.  That’s what’s happening to Impossible Foods.  In order to fulfill this demand, Impossible Foods has expanded distribution systems and will even ship product to your home or cafe direct.

Although Impossible Foods is not publicly traded, shares have been increasing in the private markets from the last round $15.5 to as high as $29, and investors still think there is a lot of room to go higher.

In fact, they just raised another $200 Million from a small group of investors:

Impossible Foods has raised $200 million more for its meat replacements. The new round values the company at a Whopper-sized $4 billion valuation, according to the data tracker PrimeUnicorn Index. The new round was led by Coatue, a technology-focused hedge fund; another New York-based hedge fund, XN, also participated in the round. Since its launch the company has raised $1.5 billion from investors, including Mirae Asset Global Investments and Temasek. The presence of these new public/private investment firms on Impossible Foods’  cap table could mean that the company is readying itself for an initial public offering, but that’s just speculation. Impossible previously raised money from investment firms including Horizon Ventures and Khosla Ventures,  as well as some of the biggest celebrities in the U.S., like: Jay Brown, Common, Kirk Cousins, Paul George, Peter Jackson, Jay-Z, Mindy Kaling, Trevor Noah, Alexis Ohanian, Kal Penn, Katy Perry, Questlove, Ruby Rose, Phil Rosenthal, Jaden Smith, Serena Williams, will.i.am and Zedd.

It seems like Impossible Foods can do the impossible, and has been built with the Monopoly model in mind.  The Monopoly approach to Capitalism doesn’t take risk as an entrepreneur does, they use predetermined outcomes to plan their business.  If there is no demand for a product, they create it.

There are rumors they are working on an IPO for next year.  There is an expression in Quantum Physics as well as the self-help industry, that describes these companies well:

There are no accidents.

The idea is that an accident is not an accident at all.  It’s also called Synchronicity: 

Synchronicity is a concept, first introduced by analytical psychologist Carl Jung, which holds that events are “meaningful coincidences” if they occur with no causal relationship yet seem to be meaningfully related.

Another word is Serendipity.

an aptitude for making desirable discoveries by accident.

good fortune; luck:What serendipity—she got the first job she applied for!

If we look deeper at how the Elite operate, their ‘luck’ is actually intelligent planning.  For example when Microsoft was a garage company, it was Bill Gates parents who helped him secure the lucrative contract with IBM, you know – the one that made Microsoft the largest software company in the world:

Bill Gates’ mom, Mary Gates, helped her son form a lucrative relationship with I.B.M., securing a contract with his fledgling company, Microsoft, according to the New York Times.

Predetermined outcomes drive Monopoly Capitalism.  Imagine, a business without risk.  It’s better than finance!  Their business and political agenda is well thought out, well funded, well researched by think tanks, corporate consultants, advisors, lawyers, and experts.  The investors and others involved, such as Temasek, are some of the largest and most powerful people in the world.  Temasek is the sovereign wealth fund of the Singapore Government, that manages about $333 Billion.  Li Ka-Shing is Asia’s richest man.  Viking Global is one of the largest hedge funds in the world (at $33 Billion).  UBS is one of the largest banks in the world.  These are all systemically important investors, who don’t like taking risks.

All of these are compelling reasons to invest in Impossible Foods, of course there are no guarantees and anything is possible.  Investing in Private Markets is for accredited investors only, and is highly risky.  Also, if there was a problem with the company, liquidity would drop to zero (like it did with WeWork).  Those are the risks.  On the other hand, Private Equity is where Bill Gates and others actually made their wealth – through the stock of their startups which grew into behemoths.  For those who have never encountered this here’s a quick economic explanation.

Starting a new enterprise is extremely risky.  They say that 9 out of 10 companies fail, but the number is probably 99 out of 100 that fail.  But the 1 that succeeds, can potentially win big such as Google, Microsoft, Amazon, etc.  Stories about people like Bill Gates are portrayed as misleading, they allow people to think that ‘anyone can do it’ which statistically is a true and correct statement.  The reality is if you graduate from Stanford or Princeton the chances of you becoming the next Bill Gates are infinitely higher than any other timeline.  From start to maturity, take a look at this chart:

Recently you may have heard about “Unicorns” which are simply billion dollar private companies.  Another term that’s been coined is “Pre IPO” which means basically companies that are so big, they should be public, but they are not.  Private Equity deals with the full spectrum until a company is public.  Now look at this risk chart:

Basically, as a company becomes older, it becomes less risky, and the potential ROI also declines.  Take the example of a startup.  In a seed stage investment, you can lose 100% of your money, or potentially make 3,000% returns.  If you invest in Palantir, which is going to IPO soon, you can potentially lose 100% of youARMING peoples' health!!!!r money but chances are your losses are limited because Palantir has such a good reputation, it’s almost a ‘blue chip’ private company.  Remember we are comparing Palantir to a startup, not to publicly traded blue chips.  The potential return for investors on Palantir is comparatively low, they may be happy with a 50% return or 2x.  But they are happy to get a smaller return for smaller risk.  This function is a metaphor to explain what happens to companies over time, it doesn’t mean that all companies fall into a simple linear model.  Each company needs to be evaluated for its own risks and benefits.

Read more at : ZeroHedge.com and Risk.news.

These evil people are making huge PROFITS and at the SAME time HARMING peoples' Health!!!

 

That's NOT The Way You Do It - When Money Is For Nothing! 11 August 2020

How the big time crooks from UMNO must have held their sides with laughter to see Lim Guan Eng hauled up over a paltry charge of allegedly conspiring to skim a 10% “profit bribe” plus another alleged RM3.3 million supposedly pocketed in return for his government having awarded (through open tender) a multi-billion dollar project. Imagine taking so little and imagine waiting until profits come in to demand the gratification – after all, ten years on and the project has not yet got going, so no 10%!  Any UMNO practitioner worth their salt would have got themselves a fat percentage up front – look at Rosmah and the solar power project for Sarawak schools. Even better there is that simple, run-of-the-mill practice of inflating the contract to accommodate all the kickbacks. Najib is a master in how to do that one – this DAP amateur should have asked him. For example, with the East Coast Rail Link the former UMNO prime minister cum finance minister simply doubled the contract from RM30 billion to RM60 billion and got the Chinese state contractor to backhand him most of the difference. Likewise the inflated Sabah pipeline projects which Najib’s finance ministry illegally paid 80% upfront, so that a billion dollars could immediately be channeled back through Kuwait and then the Seychelles through to his 1MDB creditors in Abu Dhabi. That’s the way you do it, “money for nothing” as the popular lyric goes. If Lim Guan Eng had alternatively decided to use the ‘foundation’ scam, well it sure seems like the present UMNO boss (Najib’s successor Zahid Hamidi) could have taught him a thing or two about managing that one! No wonder then that this opposition leader’s oh-so-ordinary wife (she has to WORK for a living after all) has always been kitted out so dowdily. No Parisienne couture for simple Betty Chew with her market stall handbags and dreary working woman’s shoes. And if political success is to be measured by the grandeur of one’s home and holidays, well we have all seen the interior of the Najib household (Netflix ‘Dirty Money’) with its echoing corridors and gilt sofas in Kuala Lumpur’s poshest area. Compare that palace to the modest two story Penang bungalow inhabited by this ‘failed’ couple.  Also, the total absence of photos of them enjoying super-yacht holidays all over the Med or 7 star luxury accommodation in the likes of Beverley Hills, let alone buying up half Harrods and the Hong Kong jewellery stores. Nonetheless, it is this paltry home, which the couple rented for a few years before they finally got a mortgage and put the money down to buy, that is of course at the centre of the other much feted corruption charge, reported years ago to the MACC by UMNO supporters from “Najib’s Gang” and now being ‘re-chauffe’d’ to haul them through the courts. As everyone knows the market price of a home is actually what someone is prepared to buy it for and what the seller is prepared to take. There are clearly plenty of benefits to the vendor in selling to existing long term tenants for a clear profit (RM300,000) as opposed to chucking those tenants out and risking the market. Especially if they were celebrity friends you might wish to boast about. However, despite the UMNO persons who filed the report having admitted they only did so after hearing ill-founded accusations about the ‘low price’ from political enemies of the DAP leader, the MACC have now built a case of elaborate conspiracy against these two parties to the transaction. The allegation is that Lim Guan Eng and his wife achieved a cheaper deal on the property than their friend the vendor might have managed to get on the open market (might being the operative word) in return for an inducement – rather than simply telling the vendor the maximum price they could afford and asking if she would accept it. Let’s not forget in all this, the couple had to get a big mortgage to meet the not insubstantial RM2.9 million on the house – it was hardly for free nor did the vendor sell at a loss, far from it. So, what was the inducement? What the MACC have alleged is that in return for the ‘cheaper’ deal the couple gained on the house Lim Guan Eng a year later as the head of Penang’s development authority allowed a company involving the vendor to put in a construction proposal on agricultural land. Do they have evidence there was a conspiracy here and that the couple had planned to remunerate the vendor in this backdoor manner through abuse of power?  Because, if there are no written agreements, recordings or witnesses to the alleged scheme such a conspiracy would be hard to prove at the best of times. However, even what appears to have been mere speculation has been fatally undermined, because in the event Penang’s open tendering and planning process (overseen by Lim Guan Eng himself) threw out the vendor’s company proposal and the land remains to grow rice and vegetables as before. As any UMNO warlord could surely have told this bunch of amateurs if you take such a bribe, then you need to deliver on the project. The vendor did not gain benefit from the deal. So, unless the vendor has turned prosecution witness to denounce her former tenants for having accepted her deal on the house for ‘planning favours’ but then ‘welshed’ on the agreement, it would seem hard to fathom what evidence there could be to find the couple guilty of conspiring to abuse their power for money. Likewise, the tunnel farrago. There is still no tunnel so there has been no payment of “10 profit bribe”. The chap on whose testimony the accusations rely in this separate case (an UMNO member and convicted fraudster according to reports by Lim Guan Eng’s own fiercest critics) has admitted to paying politicians left right and centre to gain their favour towards his business, but says he has no way to prove these alleged cash payments. Meanwhile, Lim Guan Eng has queried what evidence the MACC have found of him being ever in possession of unexplained cash that might have come from such payments, because he says he was never questioned over any such amounts and doesn’t have them? The couple’s home was raided but the court was presented with no details of stashes of cash or valuables or hefty bank accounts, and they say they were never questioned over any alleged suspicious sums. So, as we are yet again talking about an alleged conspiracy that never delivered on its alleged promise, what evidence does the MACC propose to produce to stand up their tunnel story? The contractor says he offered the ‘profit bribe’ alone in a car with Lim Guan Eng, but that the politician made no response….. so no recording is likely to be of help. The contractor also says that he later rescinded the offer after being told there would be an open tender, but still received no comment from Lim Guan Eng. Cash At Identified Last? Yet, there was an indication in court today that the MACC plan to bring as evidence three separate payments made to Betty Chiew, the lawyer wife of Lim Guan Eng, totalling a relatively paltry RM372,000.  At last an actual money payment, but sadly not even enough to buy a single Birkin handbag! Is this the elusive evidence on which the MACC and new AG will hang their case? Betty Chew is a practising lawyer. She has said these payments which the MACC have chosen to describe as “money laundering” were professional fees. If so, she will have documents to support those payments as lawyers always do, given they charge an awful lot (Hadi Awang’s London lawyers charged him in excess of RM2 million for handling his failed case against Sarawak Report, for example, and they will have detailed every penny). Who wins this argument will be learned in court. It seems either the MACC will be alleging that the vendor of the home paid Betty Chiew legal fees for a non-existent purpose (as a way of increasing the benefit of the allegedly below market price for the property) or the MACC are alleging the money paid to Betty Chiew was from a criminal source, which she ought not to have accepted. If it is the latter then one wonders why criminal proceedings relating to that crime have not also been initiated against the person alleged to have paid Betty Chiew (one assumes the vendor). On the other hand, if it is the former then the MACC must prove the legal work performed by Betty Chiew was a bogus front for the alleged conspiracy to gain a development opportunity – good luck to them given that in the end the vendor/ commissioner of the work appears to have got nothing for their pains. As all Malaysia knows this is a case that has already been thrown out of court once for lack of evidence and it is not hard to see why.  So, the grounds on which the new AG has sanctioned this return to prosecution must involve new evidence – according to the law that is. However, Malaysians must also bear in mind that they have a return of UMNO behind the case and that the brother of the same AG has just been appointed Speaker of Parliament also by ignoring the due process of the law. So, unless there is so far hidden new evidence to transform this case the signs are that it has been brought for the very reason almost everyone suspects, which are politics and vengeance as UMNO seek to find anything with which to prosecute and attack the clean reputation of their political opponents. In the long run as the facts are tested in the courts it is a case that is likely to backfire as it has before. But, if the purpose is merely finding mud to sling over the next few months as Najib appeals his billion dollar convictions and UMNO pushes for partisan elections then that purpose will have been served