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On Tuesday, Utusan Malaysia and Berita Harian had blacked out any mention of Dr Mahathir Mohamad's accusation of money politics and bribery at Kubang Pasu. Mahathir had said that apart from RM200 placed inside a brown envelope, there was also a list of 'preferred candidates' to be voted for. This list did not include his own candidate number.

A day later, after a cue from Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi who is in Helsinki, the Malay-language mainstream media have decided to highlight the matter. This included a statement made by Kubang Pasu division chief Johari Baharom, which confirmed half of Mahathir's accusation.

Referring to Dr Mahathir's claim that a 'preferred list' was circulated among delegates, Johari said such lists were normal during party elections.

"In fact, such lists are not only confined within Umno, but were common at other (Barisan Nasional) parties," he said.

Here is the same report in the Berita Harian :

"Mengenai senarai calon pilihan itu, Johari yang juga Timbalan Menteri Keselamatan Dalam Negeri berkata, perkara itu berlaku di mana-mana pertandingan termasuk pada peringkat Majlis Tertinggi (MT) Umno.

"Pada saya biasalah bila ada pertandingan, ada orang keluar senarai seperti itu, itu perkara biasa," katanya.

But this 'preferred list' which the division chief has openly acknowledged was the only one prepared and distributed to the delegates at Kubang Pasu. The question that begs to be asked now is what was the criteria for recommending those candidates in the preferred list to the exclusion of Mahathir?

This very frank slip-of-the-tongue by Johari also raises doubts over his denial that "the supreme council had instructed that Mahathir be prevented from contesting". If the Supreme Council had not given such instructions then Johari must explain who gave instructions to prepare the preferred list and put it in an envelope to be given to the delegates?

It is also a fact that on Sept 8, the night before the Kubang Pasu division election, Johari assembled all the delegates at the Kelab Golf Darul Aman for a meeting with division leaders. The meeting was chaired by Osman Aroff who was once deputy division head of Kubang Pasu. Others present at the meeting were Saad Man, one time Youth chief of the division and Hanafi Ramli also previously a division vice chief. It was at this meeting that the 'preferred list' was handed out to the delegates.

And since Johari acknowledged that the 'preferred list' was put inside an envelope and given to the Kubang Pasu delegates, how do we know if there wasn't anything else in the envelope like RM200 cash?

Umno leaders including Najib Razak are particularly upset with Johari for being so careless with his statement. Johari seems to have quite seriously shot Umno in the foot. His careless statement that BN component parties also do the same thing at their own party elections makes a mockery of the democratic election process.

All this while we thought that Umno and the BN component parties conducted free and democratic party elections. Here's what Johari was essentially saying - it is usual for these elections to be 'rigged' through preferred lists and such.

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