Najib in quandary over sports betting

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your say 'The arrogance of the high and mighty can only be destroyed by the high and mighty. Let's just sit back and watch Vincent Tan vs Najib Razak. Place your bets!'

 

Berjaya hits back, insists it has approval

Ahmad Daud: This is a test of PM Najib Abdul Razak's credibility. If indeed the licence was issued to Berjaya Corporation, then he has misled Parliament and must be brought to answer to the House's Select Committee on Rights and Privileges.

Habib Rak: The arrogance of the high and mighty can only be destroyed by the high and mighty. They will kill each other due to their arrogance. Let's just sit back and watch this unfold before us. Vincent Tan vs Najib Razak. Place your bets!

Khair Jamaluddin's open challenge to the PM cum finance minister to clarify the sports betting licence further supports the widely-talked-about split within the administration on this matter. The betting odds on Najib vs Vincent Tan is getting more interesting.

Louis: Our leaders cannot simply tell the truth straight away. Very often they tend to talk as if we are fools or stupid. In this case of sports betting, why is Najib too scared to face the issue? Instead of letting wild speculation fly, he should give a definite answer to the question. If he cannot solve such a simple problem, what big things can he do for the nation?

Malaysian for Malaysia: I dare Najib to make a fool of Vincent Tan by cancelling the issuance of the licence. The government and PM have the power to do so in the 'best interest of the public'. Or is Najib scared of Vincent Tan?

Come on Najib. Show us that you're a man and won't take these tactics of Vincent Tan sitting. No corporation is more powerful than the government, not even the mighty Petronas. Najib, you wanted the power, now exercise it against these kind of people who think they can blackmail the government.

Man: Dear readers and virtuous MPs, please advise: Can the rakyat demand the PM to provide an immediate clarification to Vincent Tan's bombshell?

Also, can the rakyat legally and legitimately demand for the PM's resignation for approving and yet maintaining silence over a gambling licence that is not only haram to a largely Malay-Muslim nation but also sinful or wrong to all other faiths - let alone the fact that it is morally and socially wrong to make money from gambling.

Isana: Vincent Tan is a battle-hardened, ruthless tycoon who thrived during the Dr Mahathir Mohamad/Daim Zainuddin era. He is calling in his investments now and he will not take no for an answer. Najib is caught between the devil and the deep blue sea.

Lim Chong Leong: Najib allegedly 'borrowed' so much from Vincent Tan during the 10 ‘buy-elections' that he now has to repay with this gambling licence. There is no way VT (Vincent Tan) will write off this debt, and Najib only has to answer to the Malaysian public whom he will hoodwink into believing that gambling is good for us through the spin provided by public relations firm Apco Worldwide.

Anak Pulau Pinang: To bet/gamble or not is up to every individual. We should not politicise everything. Last time, we always used to say Singaporeans are so ‘kiasu', but I think we are worst off now. I wonder since when DAP become even more Islamic than PAS, telling the Chinese what to do and what not to do.

Football is a sport to be enjoyed by every walk of life. Now, Singapore has opened up, but Malaysians are going back to the Stone Age.

Magnus: Being a cynic and normally wary of plotting politicians and shrewd business tycoons, why do I suspect this additional farce is a useful diversion of some sort from something else that perhaps needs an urgent cover-up from the public radar?

Alcoholic beverages or gambling or food products do not have the power to destroy lives or kill humans per se. Only human adults with a lack of self-control on their self-gratification needs can do that to themselves.

So tinkering around with the problem's surface symptoms and not its root causes is not going to cure the perceived problem of gambling, or that of drinking or of prostitution, because such problems will just disappear off the regulatory radar and find shadier outlets by going underground.

Proven truths may be hard to accept or inconvenient to live with but nevertheless, they are exactly that.

Anonymous: Umno leaders have only themselves to blame for playing hypocritical politics with ‘haram' and ‘halal'. No doubt, PAS have also confined themselves to such politics of ‘haram' and ‘halal', but they are not hypocrites. They walk the talk and they have been consistent with what the preached.

What's worse is that Mahathir has proclaimed unilaterally that Malaysia is an Islamic nation, even though the constitution clearly implies that we are a secular nation. I personally do not object to the granting of a betting licence to VT for I'm not a compulsive gambler.

But Umno's style of cakap tak serupa bikin is what disgusts me. The more they play hypocritical ‘haram' and ‘halal' politics, the more Pakatan Rakyat will gain from this.

For Umno to drag Islam into this without being consistent is what's killing them. Now, even when they want to sip beer, they have to curi-curi minum (steal sips). Padan muka (serve them right).

Abacus: All this to-and-fro between the Bursa Malaysia and the Umno-led BN government is so confusing. Nothing seems to be certain to simple folks like me. If the government is sincere, just withdraw the licence. End of story.

 


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