YOURSAY 'This company with a RM7 million indelible ink contract has no signboard? Maybe the EC has forgotten to check its background.'

Indelible ink supplier very media shy

Anonyxyz: Contracts are awarded through connections everywhere in the world. The only unique thing in Malaysia is politicians and the well-connected are protected by the racial armour.

Dr Mahathir Mohamad started this ‘masterplan' long ago when he introduced the ‘Malay Dilemma' and complained about Chinese towkays stealing wealth from the Malays.

However, years after years Chinese and Indian towkays continue to flourish with new-born Malay towkays, and Dr M and gang are reported to have significant and majority stakes themselves.

While the majority scream threats at one another, aroused deliberately by manufactured racial issues ranging from education to the economy, the rich and powerful politicians and cronies towkays of all races group together for golf, gatherings and games, slapping one another on the back and laughing all the way to the bank.

Hermit: Pandan MP Rafizi Ramli, please get a copy of the indelible ink contract. We want to know what the specifications are for the ink.

The specifications would reveal whether the EC had carried out its duties diligently as a impartial party in carrying out the nation's general election, and a comparison between the actual product delivered against the specifications could tell whether the ink was value for money.

Otherwise, in your civil action against EC, we can request through the court proceedings, amongst others, that EC submits a copy of the contract for the supply of indelible ink.

Looking at how the ink fiasco has unfolded, there are a lot of questions the EC has to answer.

Rakyat: A company with no signboard! My Indian tailor who runs a small shop inside her house has a signboard. Where did Election Commission (EC) find out about this company? From upstairs?

From Penang: What is the core business of this company? Are they experience in supplying indelible ink? Do they have technical people qualifying the source? Do they have first article inspection for the products? Are they a ISO9001 certified company?

Pisang Goreng: We keep pressing and poking at the EC house for their costly contribution to the 505 (May 5) elections.

And every time, we find rot or decay or simply emptiness behind the facade. Eventually their house is going to crumble and it will come crashing down upon these EC clowns.

Akutuan: My Malay friend with RM2 company has a signboard. A one-man-show ‘Ah Pek' company has signboard. Even an old Indian man with a chair and a table inside a small office has signboard.

This company with a RM7 million indelible ink contract has no signboard? Maybe the EC has forgotten to check its background.

TheSilentMajority: This is the result of 'world class' procurement processes. I, as a taxpayer, demand that the money that was paid to these ‘thieves' be returned. If this is not treason for cheating the nation and sabotaging its democratic processes, then what is?

Cala: Is it not another case of rent-seeking? No matter how one intends to argue against it, Malaysia is, for all intends and purposes, a Third World state.

The indelible ink is only the latest fiasco whose contract to supply the ink (revealed to be food dye by Minister in the Prime Minister's Departmet Shahidan Kassim because it was silver nitrate-free) to the EC is connected to direct negotiation between the supplier and the executive.

As in any Third World state, the cost of supply is extremely high where competition is disallowed. In the end, rent-seekers make all the filthy profits in the name of the New Economic Policy (NEP).

Evil girl: This is Mahathir's legacy at the very best, he is no more in government but his legacy will remain and is perpetuated by the present government and even EC is doing the same thing.

By the way, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) should be the first to visit the indelible ink supplier's office and not Malaysiakini . Where is MACC?

Watchtower: There is no need to beat around the bush. Clearly the EC must be held responsible. I mean how complicate can this be? The EC is not an ordinary organisation. It is tasked to conduct a clean election.

So when ask to source for an indelible ink supplier costing millions, how did it ever get to end up getting it from a low-key supplier? Surely it is the purchaser (EC) that must be questioned and held accountable for such a fiasco.

Multi Racial: How can this be allowed in the first place? I want to know the reason behind the no open tender for the supply of the indelible ink? Why this company? What track record does this company has? How did the EC determine the actual cost?

In spite of all this, they expect us to trust them. They dare to say they are neutral. It cannot be just for the EC chief to resign but the whole commission, as all of them have to be held jointly responsible.

Kgen: Somebody must have made a lot of money from this corrupt deal. This company doesn't have a signboard because it doesn't conduct business the normal way, so it doesn't need one.

Ruslan Bahari: Interesting. If I was a director of the company, I would come out and say that the company has nothing to do with the ink supply, if that is the case. Silence does nobody any good. It promotes speculation.

If they did supply, and supplied as per EC's specifications and everything is above board, why the need for the secrecy? I don't get the argument that "the EC cannot name the supplier because it is confidential information".

Toonarmy: Well done, Rafizi. The reason company directors Mohamed Salleh Mohd Ali and Norsiah Yusoff can't come out is because they're making the fruit juice that will be mixed with Pelikan ink to be used as 'indelible ink' for the Kuala Besut by-election.

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