COMMENT Like in the past with Dr Mahathir Mohamad and former works minister S Samy Vellu, now it is Rahman Dahlan, Salleh Said Keruak, Azalina Othman Said (and oh yes, Ahmad Maslan, Ismail Sabri Yaakob and Jamil Khir Baharom) whose verbal diarrhea and brand of politicking make me “vomit”.

I have always wondered why it is that Barisan Nasional (BN) continues to produce notorious leaders who are hardly of any substance at all. They talk nonsense and allegedly concoct one lie after another, expecting ordinary Malaysians to praise them.

Despite being busy with my work, I find I just have to respond to an article that came on Malaysiakini last night where Rahman, in his capacity as the Local Government and Urban Wellbeing Minister, lambasted Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng for being “insincere” in requesting for approval of a third Penang bridge via a letter to the works minister.

The BN strategic communications director, who tries to be a copycat of PKR’s Rafizi Ramli, does not even understand the meaning of preliminary discussion or what a letter of intent is intended for.

It’s a letter of intent

According to BusinessDictionary.Com, a letter of intent is an “interim agreement that summarises the main points of a proposed deal, or confirms that a certain course of action is going to be taken”.

When there is so much politicking with the intention of frustrating the Penang state government, it is natural for Lim to send such a letter. The dictionary portal continues in its definition: “Normally, it does not constitute a definitive contract but signifies a genuine interest in reaching the final agreement subject to due diligence, additional information, or fulfilment of certain conditions.”

So, what’s wrong with Lim writing a letter to first secure an agreement from the works minister that such a bridge is necessary? Even if I were in Lim’s position, I would not waste time on submitting tonnes of papers in a proposal that would end up on the laps of ministers like Rahman Dahlan.

Assuming I were to invite Rahman to officially open my event, and I write him an e-mail. If he has no intention to come as guest-of-honour, he should just state so right from the beginning. But if he responds to say he is keen to come, and in the end, after going through so much hassle of following up with him, only to find that he does not attend, I would just ‘kick his ass’, crudely speaking.

Such proposals cost money and people’s time, and unless there is clear intention on both sides to even proceed with the idea or suggestion, I would not even spend the time writing a big proposal. So, who is really doing all the politicking if not Rahman himself?

Penangites are suffering because of the traffic jams and here we have a minister who is trying to play politics.

I quote Rahman’s question: “What more that this is a multi-billion ringgit infrastructure project that has big implications for traffic flow of our entire highway system as well as to the long-term planning for the development of the area?”

Since Rahman has been defending the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) scandal, tell me, did Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak, or any of the chief officials in 1MDB, carry out their fiduciary duties or groundwork to find out more about Aabar Investments (BVI) before the amount of US$3.5 billion (over RM10 billion) was transferred to the company?

Show us all the background search that was conducted before the money was transferred by 1MDB to Aabar (BVI). Najib cannot claim that he was not involved, as he is the finance minister and the man behind the creation of 1MDB. How can a man in his position just shrug off the responsibility by saying that the government is not liable for the money that has gone missing.

This is akin to him focusing on the RM1 chicken, when the nation and the whole world was talking about the missing MH370 aircraft. Najib, in my opinion, has failed in his duty as prime minister and adviser of 1MDB by not instructing a thorough investigation to be carried out on the missing RM10 billion.

Whether the government is liable or not, the money belonging to 1MDB is money from the public coffers and it is our money that has gone missing. Rahman Dahlan should answer his own question, especially when such a huge amount of money, instead of being used to construct the infrastructure that can help the people, has gone into a black hole.

Again, without further investigation to get to the root of the problem, how can Najib just brush it aside by saying that the government is not liable for the amount that went missing? It is highly irresponsible of Najib to make such a statement.

RM10 billion is no small amount of money. We would like to hear from Rahman Dahlan asking the same question in Parliament of Najib to find out what groundwork was done to check on the background of the British Virgin Islands-incorporated company.

Until we get to the root of the 1MDB scandal, another deputy minister, Ahmad Maslan, should not be calling the RM2.6 billion ‘donation’ an old story. This is an insult to our intelligence.

It is because the explanations given by various people differ, and even from the same person, Najib himself, keep changing. In the end, it gives us, the ordinary citizens of this country, the feeling that we have been lied to by these politicians.

Will Rahman Dahlan tell us that he is not responsible for 1MDB; therefore, he would not know the background to the story, the way that Sarawak Chief Minister Adenan Satem had claimed.

Then, what is the cabinet and the Parliament for? Rahman Dahlan should raise this one big question in Parliament and in the cabinet, and demand a plausible answer from Najib.

Rakyat the ones who suffer...

As in the case of water shortage in Selangor, we have also seen how Umno-linked personalities have been playing with the issue to the point that the rakyat suffer.

While chatting with a lady, I empathised with her own story: “My late husband was having dialysis at home. At that time, we were living in a bungalow. And in order to carry out dialysis at home, he needs clean water. Water stored in the tank was never good enough.”

A number of other people also complained that they had to suffer in their own ways because of frequent water disruption.

It’s the same now with the people in Penang, because of the endless politicking by the likes of Rahman Dahlan. By trying to frustrate the traffic dispersal system that Penang state government is trying to implement, Rahman should not imagine that the people of Penang would be pleased with his politicking. The payback time is just two years or less from now.

And, to remind Rahman, since he became the minister in charge of housing, he has done nothing to implement the 'build-then-sell' concept which was promised by one of his predecessors. He should be visiting the concept again and work hard at implementing it for the sake of the people. At least, I would have given him a brownie point for that!

STEPHEN NG is an ordinary citizen with an avid interest in following political developments in the country since 2008.