The public has been entertained to another round of wayang kulit (shadow plays) in the long running saga to cover up the RM10 billion Perwaja Steel scandal.
We have firstly Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad telling the world in a joint press conference from Switzerland (June 10) that he had finally obtained assurance of help from the Swiss government to unlock the secretive RM76 million fund which was illegally siphoned off from Perwaja Steel.
This statement dishonestly implied that Malaysia never had such cooperation from the Swiss in the past. However, the truth is that the Swiss authorities had actually given all the information and documents that Malaysia asked for as early as in May last year.
Then, we have the New Straits Times trumpeting the above Mahathir announcement in a headline splash (June 13), which has the dual effect of not only reinforcing the above deception, but also staging the grand illusion that the nailing down of this RM76 million fund is about all there is to the entire Perwaja scandal.
Whereas, the truth is that this RM76 million fund forms only a tiny portion (less than 1 percent) of the staggering RM10,000 million losses from the public coffers under scandalous circumstances, and should therefore never have taken centre-stage.
Perhaps the prime minister has underestimated the people's memory. It was only in March this year that the Swiss authorities gave a sharp rebuttal to the PM's attempt to scapegoat the Swiss for the Anti-Corruption Agency's (ACA) failure to crack the Perwaja scandal.
Prior to this, in a question-and-answer session with students in London on Feb 26, Mahathir tried to justify ACA's impotency to find any culprit over the six long years of prolonged investigations by pointing the finger at the Swiss authorities, accusing the latter of refusing to divulge details of the relevant bank account.
This allegation drew a prompt denial from the spokesman of the Swiss Justice Department, Folco Galli, who stated in a German language newspaper on March 1 that documents relating to two relevant bank accounts — one in Geneva and another in Zurich — had been given to the Malaysian authority in May last year. Galli disclosed that the Malaysian authority had never requested for these accounts to be frozen, in spite of being given the relevant details.
In a follow-up statement from Kuala Lumpur towards end March, the local Swiss Consul Ulrich Schlaesli reiterated that the Swiss Justice Department had "responded to all requests in a fast and uncomplicated manner". Schlaesli added that the Swiss authorities had even received expressions of gratitude from Malaysian officials for the former's speedy response.
The ball was therefore at Mahathir's feet. Did he or did he not lie when he said ACA's efforts had been frustrated by the Swiss' non-cooperation?
Regrettably, Mahathir has not responded to the above Swiss statements, despite public requests for him to do so, giving the unmistakable impression that he had been untruthful.
That impression was further strengthened when none other than Switzerland President Kasper Villiger himself disclosed in the same joint press conference with Mahathir on June 10 that since 30 years ago, the secrecy laws have ceased to apply to funds accrued through corruption and other criminal means, debunking the myth routinely churned out by Malaysian officials that Switzerland's strict banking secrecy laws have been obstructing Malaysian investigators.
As such, Villiger further stressed, secrecy laws had not been a hindrance to Malaysia gaining the information it was seeking with respect to the funds concerned.
The Perwaja Steel scandal is a fiasco of immense gravity and dimensions. It is the largest, causing the nation to suffer a loss in excess of one tenth of the national budget. These losses were caused by massive mismanagement and widespread frauds of staggering proportions, sustained over many years, most of which falling under the autocratic reign of a Mahathir crony Eric Chia.
This colossal disaster more than symbolises the ruling Barisan Nasional government's corrupt and inefficient administration, it drags the prime minister's name through the mud, from which he has not exonerated himself.
Former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim lodged a police report on 22nd July 1999 (Report No 19625/1999) naming Mahathir as the virtual head of Eric Chia's scandal ridden administration.
Anwar stated in the report:
"Eric Chia in fact repeatedly claimed that his actions had the support and under the directions of the Prime Minister Dato Seri Dr Mahathir. And this is further substantiated with letters written by the prime minister himself. With the so-called mandate, the Board was sidelined, tender procedures were blatantly ignored and there were questionable, 'unsatisfactory' payments made to certain parties".
Mahathir has not, to date, answered the above charges. Neither the police nor ACA nor the AG has taken any action on this police report.
Considering the peculiar political background that surrounds this scandal, it is little wonder that not a single prosecution has resulted from the years of investigations by the various law enforcing agencies, despite the existence of what must have been hundreds of criminal cases which took place while Perwaja's losses continued to climb to monstrous proportions.
These huge public debt, together with the condonation of high crimes against the state, will surely have such immeasurable adverse impact on the nation that its reverberations will continue to haunt this nation for many years to come.
Meanwhile, the authorities will continue to work hand-in-glove with the mass media to produce wayang kulit to hide the ugly mountain with a mole-hill and shield the main culprits from proper exposure. And naturally, the audience is expected to cheer the heroes on in oblivious innocence.
