“Fuzi is scheduled to retire this coming March along with his deputy, Tan Sri Noor Rashid. All the remaining officers who joined him in Istanbul are due to retire sometime this year. Like I said, it is customary for the GoM to honour the services of officers prior to retirement by sponsoring getaways to foreign land. Clare made much ado about the RM312,443 spent but made no mention whatsoever of Damacai. If indeed she is this “well-connected whistleblower,” how is it possible that she was not told of the betting company’s role in the whole affair?”
Raggie Jessy Rithaudeen
The Sarawak Report ‘mega’ expose on Inspector General of Police (IGP) Tan Sri Fuzi Harun’s lavish getaway to Istanbul along with 16 other high-ranking police personnel is still making headlines. Despite it being seven days since Clare Rewcastle Brown penned the piece, the Minister of Home Affairs and the Minister of Finance are at a ‘ping pong match’ with each other trying to decide who funded the trip. The Home Affairs guy is saying that some fellows related to the Ministry of Finance (MoF) did it. The MoF guy says the whole thing was a Barisan Nasional idea approved by the previous government.
So who funded the trip?
The fellows who own Damacai.
Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin is the Minister of Home affairs and has been in the business of governing for decades. He knows that it is customary for the Government of Malaysia (GoM) to honour the services of high-ranking police personnel prior to their retirement by sending them off on lavish trips. Clare made such a big deal about the whole affair by alleging that Fuzi and gang spent RM312,443 on flights and rooms alone. Lim Guan Eng more or less defended Fuzi but didn’t quite put things into proper perspective.
In what perspective did he put them then?
He took a swipe at Barisan Nasional.
He gave the impression that the previous government was prone to wasting taxpayer money by approving lavish getaways for no reason. But that was utterly stupid of him, given that the Malaysia Totalisator Board which approved the trip comes directly under the purview of his ministry. If the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government can cancel multibillion dollar infrastructure projects on the pretext of them being a strain to the economy, what stopped him from overriding the RM312,443 decision taken by the previous BN government?
But I thought you said the trip was paid by Damacai?
It was.
And that’s the other reason why I call Guan Eng Brylcream King. One minute, he gives you the impression that BN wasted money by sending Fuzi and gang off on lavish getaways. Next minute, we’re made to understand that the trips were sponsored by the Pan Malaysian Pools Sdn Bhd (PMP) owned Damacai. For the record, PMP is a number-forecasting company incorporated in Malaysia on the 4thof July 1988. Tell me, is it not stupid to put the spotlight on BN when the argument should have been that the trips did not cost the Pakatan run government a single sen?
I think the Brylcream is getting into his brain…
But isn’t it wrong for Damacai to sponsor government trips?
How so?
PMP conducts and manages the Numbers Forecast Totalisator business legally under the provision of the Racing (Totalisator Board) Act, 1961. On 9th of August 2011, Jana Pendidikan Malaysia Sdn Bhd (JPM) acquired the entire shareholding in PMP and began donating all net dividends it received to The Community Chest (TCC). Launched on the 26thof September 2011, TCC was brought into the picture to promote and support education by means of corporate funding. The restructuring effectively transformed PMP into a community themed fund tasked with providing long term donations to TCC.
How is that relevant to Fuzi’s trip?
Fuzi and gang were in Istanbul to gather intel related to online gambling schemes and tactics. The goal was for him and his team to formulate new long term strategies to help PDRM bring an end to the menace. That strategy would augur well for PMP as it translates into better returns and profits for the company in the longer run. A little over a year into its launch, PMP was already able to spread RM38.3 million across 196 schools in the Klang Valley alone. Imagine what the figure would be should PDRM succeed in putting a stop to illegal betting online.
So you condone gambling?
That’s not the point.
The point is, what PMP does is allowed for under the Racing (Totalisator Board) Act, 1961 and other such laws. This discussion is confined to the premise, that since we already have such laws, all activity allowed for under its construct require regulation in the strictest sense possible. The long term goal is to ensure that a portion of the sum PMP makes is used to help educate communities. Logic has it, that the better educated a community is, the less likely it is to fall prey to illicit gambling schemes. Tell me, would that not augur well for society in the longer run?
So there was no conspiracy?
None whatsoever.
Fuzi is scheduled to retire this coming March along with his deputy, Tan Sri Noor Rashid. All the remaining officers who joined him in Istanbul are due to retire sometime this year. Like I said, it is customary for the GoM to honour the services of officers prior to retirement by sponsoring getaways to foreign land. Clare made much ado about the RM312,443 spent but made no mention whatsoever of Damacai. If indeed she is this “well-connected whistleblower,” how is it possible that she was not told of the betting company’s role in the whole affair?
What about Clare’s deep throat?
Every bit of information the Sarawak Report Chief Editor ‘leaked’ was obtained from information already available online. All she did was download pictures of hotels and dining rooms even my grandmother could pluck off the internet. She then wrapped those pictures with ham-fisted theories before dabbing them with her usual dose of conspiracy. What was so stupid about the whole affair was that her victims, Muhyiddin and Guan Eng, turned out to be persons associated with her own paymaster, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
So you see, it’s difficult for me to get all too excited each time she speaks of these so-called “deep throats” of hers. Perhaps she meant to say that she was going to give Guan Eng and Muhyiddin Yassin “deep-throats.” All I can say is that her Istanbul story was so terribly botched, it failed to do what it was meant to do, which is, to shift the spotlight away from Dato Ambiga Sreenevasan. But that is something I will be talking about in an article due for release later today.
What about the ‘ping-pong match’ between Muhyiddin and Guan Eng?
Actually, Muhyiddin felt the pinch because he was party to getaway approvals back when BN was government. So all he did was explain, that whatever said and done, it was an arm to the Ministry of Finance that funded Fuzi’s trip. It was a wise and calculated explanation, to be honest. But Muhyiddin forgot, that the guy who runs the MoF has an IQ equivalent to the number of toes there are on my feet. Guan Eng actually thought he was under attack and decided to slingshot the entire blame onto the previous BN government, proving once and for all, that using too much hair cream could cause serious harm to your brain.
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