Wednesday, November 08, 2006

Zakaria Deros...The unasked Question

We must now all be very familiar with the Zakaria Deros scandal, we all now about his now infamous 4 storied and 17 room mansion. Its apparently worth a breathtaking RM8 million. Then comes his resignation a few hoohahs here and there and it all seems quiet again now. Malaysians must be a very forgiving lot indeed.

The question many of us have failed to ask is.. where the hell he got such sums of money from?..After all he is a municipal councillor and a state assemblyman. With his salary he can ill afford a RM8 million mansion, and the most interesting bit is the fact that the mansion is built on land designated for low cost housing and sold to his wife at way below the market value for RM180,000!

With the Prime Minister's promises of weeding out the evils of corruption from society, its astonishing that no investigation is being carried out by the Anti Corruption Agency (ACA). Here is a case of blatant wrongdoing and all that is done is a slap on the wrist and ordering the culprit to resign. If the government is indeed serious about rooting out corruption as it says it is,
it now has the golden oppurtunity to prove critics wrong. Launch an investigation on Zakaria Deros, and if there is a case to pursue charge him in court. In my humble opinion the goverment has nothing to lose by taking such a stand, and a lot to lose by letting the matter to fade away.

I'm pretty sure Zakaria's case is just the tip of the iceberg, there are lots of other powerful figures who have just not been exposed yet. The government's stand on this issue is an utter disgrace, all the covering up and reluctance to take action will only affect its credibility. But then what does it have to worry about? Malaysians are a forgiving lot as I earlier said and just continue voting the BN back into power come the next general election.