Malaysiakini 's reports on the logging scam in Pahang doesn't surprise me at all. It shouldn't also surprise anyone else including our national leaders. The state has used its timber resources to enrich Umno and its members for as long as one remembers.

Everyone knows that in Pahang even very minor Umno officials believe that they have the inalienable right to be awarded a timber concession. Leaders get the big ones (using their wives or children's names, of course); so the minor official should also get one, albeit a smaller one. That is his kuasa or power as an Umno official.

Most of the time he will sell his concession to some logger even before he gets the permit. His application for timber concession alone is good enough for the logger.

When he receives the permit, he will invent some 'cause' to apply for more timber concessions. Oil palm cultivation would be one possible cause.

One would ask: If this is true, why are these malpractices not brought to the attention of the authorities? It would be a joke for anyone to think that the authorities do not know about such activities.

Besides, shouldn't all of us be grateful to Umno for leading the government which gives us peace, stability, and at times, prosperity too? Why should we rock the Umno boat and thus put our national interest in jeopardy? Why would one court imprisonment like (former DAP MP for Bandar Melaka) Lim Guan Eng?