YOURSAY ‘Shahrizat, you have no place making decisions which favour your family members. You are a public representative. Behave like one.'

Shahrizat: My family doesn't deserve the attacks

Dr Jacob George: The pertinent question that is being asked is whether there is a conflict of interest and whether the provisions in the Companies Act 1965 allow a company owned by a group of directors awarding discounts and loans to another company, which they also own, when public allocations - government funds - are utilised.

In the meantime, Women, Family and Community Development Minister Shahrizat Abdul Jalil must explain how her family qualified for this project. Don't turn this into another opposition-hatched controversy which irritates Malaysian voters, who are not stupid.

Dumbo119: Shahrizat Abdul Jalil, can you tell us why your family got the National Feedlot Corporation (NFC) project? What are their credentials in cattle farming? Was there any open tender?

Did you help them in anyway in your capacity as an elite member of the BN club? Is it because of the saying, ‘kebajikan mula dari rumah' (charity begins at home) that you, in your capacity as the Women, Family and Community Development Minister, decided to grow your family's business?

Gerard Samuel Vijayan: Was there an open tender? Did your family disclose their interests to the tender committee, including their connection to you?

Can the tender committee confirm that their decision was reached without any outside interference either from Agriculture and Agro-based Industry Minister Noh Omar or Shahrizat?

What about public perception and conflict of interest? So this form of corruption is ‘halal' now? Is Shahrizat's family so poor that they cannot survive without this contract?

Lizard: Now we all know that all this while, the welfare minister was taking care of her own welfare at the expense of the taxpayers. And she has the cheek to say her family works hard? Does that mean all of us do not work hard?

Hello, backdoor minister, we have the right to ask questions as you are a public servant and we are the taxpayers.

Anonymous_410a: After keeping quiet for so long, one would expect that Shahrizat will have a better explanation for all the issues that have been raised on the project. Instead she comes back with this? That her family work hard?

So many people work very hard, but do they get a RM250 million loan? And do they get to be protected by all the ministers and even the PM, even though the project failed miserably to produce the intended results?

And what about the clear violations of general principles of governance? Sorry dear, this excuse that your family work hard just doesn't cut it. You and your family have to be accountable. There is no other way.

Ferdtan: Shahrizat's family does not have experience in running the kind of business they are in. They get preference treatment in getting the contract from the government, including soft loans running into millions, and then make a mess out of it.

How many bumiputeras without Umno connections can get a fraction of such luck in landing a business contract without any risk involved? This is clearly a conflict of interest. The BN ministers are helping one another - you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours.

The agriculture and agro-industries minister gave the women, family and community development minister's family a lucrative contract, and you can be sure she would repay somehow the favour by giving similar contracts from her department to the minister, Nor Omar's family.

That is BN trademark - all rife with corruption.

Oscar Kilo: Is your family working hard at the farm everyday, under the hot sun? Or are they just working hard at buttering up Umno politicians?

SusahKes: I also work hard, Shahrizat. I work hard, then the Internal Revenue Board (LHDN) comes and takes part of my income as taxes. If I delay even one day, I get penalised. If I make a mistake on my tax return form or calculations, I get penalised as well.

The LHDN takes my taxes, earned from my sweat and tears, and then hands it over to the Umno-run government, which in turn dishes out RM250 million loans to people such as yourself.

If your definition of ‘work hard' gives us a return of only 3,289 ‘kerbaus' (cows) instead of the 8,000 projected, I then wonder how many ‘kerbaus' would have been produced if you didn't work hard.

Fair Play: The minister's reaction would only 'provoke' the rakyat further. Besides, has she forgotten that it was the Auditor-General's Report that 'triggered' the discussion on current state of affairs at the NFC (National Feedlot Corporation) in the first place?

Franco: Shahrizat, your family may have worked hard for this NFC project; however there are millions of rakyat Malaysia who also work extremely hard and pay their taxes.

I do not care whether your family works hard or not. What I do care about is that my hard-earned tax money is given to a few cronies and their family members and then use (or shall I say, misuse) the money to go on a holiday when I have to scrap the barrel, so to speak, to ensure that I, as a good citizen, pay my taxes.

The backdoor ministers (and the number seems to be increasing) have no place in the cabinet to begin with, let alone make decisions which favour their family members.

You are a public representative and please behave like one.

Malaysians Are Not Stupid: What Shahrizat fails to address is whether it's appropriate for a minister's family to be involved in any business in an area where the minister have an oversight.

I guess we have reached a stage where greed is no longer something to be ashamed of, where getting rich is paramount, regardless of the methods.

Onyourtoes: Tsk tsk tsk, Shahrizat, you are not answering the issue at all. I am not a member of the opposition, but I still want to know how this project came about.

Why do we need the NFC? What expertise does your family have to do a business like this? Why must those involved in this project, ie, your family members, be given soft loans?

Why must anybody doing any business be given soft loans? Do you know giving soft loans to selected people is an economic distortion?

How do people doing the same business but use their own capital and take their own risk compete with your family then? Do you know your family is doing business without cost of capital and without having to bear the risks?

In what way do you think your family members are working very hard? What hard work did they do other than going for holiday?

Discounts, loans to NFC sister firms justified, say BN MPs

Boiling Mud: What is the function of the NFC? Since when an excessively enriched cattle farm can also serve as some kind of bank to give out funds and discounts to its allied or sister companies?

This is clearly a malpractice and mishandling of public funds. Figures and facts do not lie and they are as they are. No amount of twisting and deliberate misinterpretation can defend or hide the truth of the auditor-general's finding.

Wira: So those BN parliamentarians are saying that the auditor-general is wrong? Award a contract without tender and give money freely to BN 'members' and then self-justify the action?

No wonder corruption is so rampant among Umno's high society. I help you, you help me. We all help ourselves while the country bleeds.

Anonymous: This NFC project is in trouble and yet can issue loans. Since when has it evolved into a loan agency?

Anonymous: My parents taught me when I was very young, if you make a mistake, admit it. That is the most honourable thing to do. It shows your strength and proves that you are man enough.

Let Rembau MP Khairy Jamaluddin go on trying to justify the matter. Yesterday, it was a draw down of soft loan which the minister himself could not explain how it was released, but Khairy claimed the amount was released and held in escrow. He knows better than the minister?

Today, Khairy opened another can of worms by saying that the company gave preferentially treatment in form of discount to certain other companies. Let him talk more, and more worms will come out.

Armageddon: The AG said the handling of NFC was a mess, while some BN politicians said it was not, and have even claimed that it was well-managed. Who shall we listen to - to the usual politicians or a senior government officer appointed by the Agong?

Babi-tamer: Whose money were they using - Umno's or taxpayers'? How could they have the audacity to claim they are justified to throw good money after bad?

VP Biden: Whatever ‘cock-n-bull' you are trying to stir, Khairy, it does not sound right that a ruling party minister is given the project. It's called nepotism and cronyism, you understand that?

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