COMMENT | Soon after former Selangor menteri besar Mohd Khir Toyo’s BN state government fell in March 2008, a pile of documents running into a few dozen pages landed on our desk.

Among them were those related to the gift of an RM160,000 Patek Phillipe watch as a souvenir for his services as the then chairperson of Permodalan Negeri Selangor Bhd (PNSB).

Ten months on, he declared: “It is all ‘old tactics’ to tarnish Umno and BN. This is an old issue. I have already said that I returned the watch to them.”

Also in the pile were details of the exploits of certain officials of the Wives of Selangor Assemblypersons and MPs Welfare and Charity Organisation (Balkis).

I then wrote: “Among the ‘gems’ that were unearthed and put in the public domain were documents related to a rombongan (delegation) which went to ‘study how the poor lived in Cambodia’.

“But the leaders flew first class and stayed in five-star hotels! So much for knowing about poverty.”

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