AH CHEAP KOR, AH, ISSIT?

Or 'Would You Buy A Second-hand Camel From Our PM?' by ah fatt the Camelot mechanic, Donplaypuks® intrepid correspondent for exhaust spinning affairs

Is it really surprising in a nation battered and buffeted by fraudulent retainers of $100 million a year paid (from the Taxpayers' pocket) to spindoctors like APCO Israel and $55 million to FBC Media (UK), that (dis)reputable polling centres should carry out a "representative" survey the day after PM Rosemajib so generously gave out $2 billion of our hard-earned Taxpayers' cash under BR1M scheme, and declare the PM has a 69% popularity rating?

How can any reputable polling centre claim it is independent (merdeka?) with such a huge bias staring at them in their face like an elephant in the room? This is as believable as Bush's WMD's in Iraq, and Greece claiming it has been extremely prudent in its national borrowing and spending, thank you for the $130 billion bailout!

I dare PM Rosemajib to dissolve Parliament and call for GE 13 today if he truly believes in these types of scurrilous "research" and "opinion polls."

Perception, like everywhere else, is almost everything in politics until, of course, the truth emerges. But, when the truth does emerge in its naked glory, our politicians will not surrender. They will try and save face by claiming Zionist conspiracies and spin even more.

What can we say of a PM and his integrity, when he:

1. Lied to the whole nation about meeting up with Sighfool, not once, but, twice!
2. Misled the King and Ambiga/Bersih about holding the Bersih rally.
3. Implied Ambiga was anti-Islam by saying "Who doesn't know Ambiga? She's the one who threatened Islam." Yet, it was not Ambiga who defended Lina Joy, but Dr.Cyrus Das!! What can we say about a PM and his advisers who did not research the matter properly but resorted to dangerous and incendiary demagoguery when cornered? 

So, we come to this latest public allegation that the PM's Office was invoiced for some $400,000 expenses relating to the engagement dinner of the PM's daughter. This is not an isolated incident, coming as it does amidst a slew of allegations against the PM and his wife of having abused Government funds and facilities for personal expenditure and gain. Let's list a few of them:

1. In May last year, the PM and his wife attended the graduation ceremony of their daughter at Georgetown University, Washington DC, USA, claiming that by chance, it coincided with his working visit to New York and Washinton. Coincidence? The PM had visited President Obama a month earlier in April 2011. So, having attended to all the groundwork then, what was the necessity for PM (and his wife) to visit New York and Washington again a month later on any official business, when normally, all follow up work would be left to our Ministers?
2. In June 2011, PM and wife again, together with a large contingent of civil servants, visited Kazakhstan. It so happened that visit dovetailed with the engagement of the PM's daughter to a wealthy Kazakhstanian. Coincidence? Again? Wisma Putra quickly published a letter that the PM's visit had been planned a year earlier as Kazakhstan had agreed to host the Malaysian sponsored 7th World Islamic Economic Forum (WIEF). That may be so, but if they knew about it a year beforehand, the PM and his advisers should have anticipated that the Opposition would certainly raise the question of the timing of his daughter's engagement. What cannot be disputed is that it all worked out hunky dory for the PM and his wife, financially.
3. If, as also claimed by Wisma Putra and government, Kazakhstan is Malaysia's largest trading partner in Central Asia, then pray list for us all the MOU's claimed to have been signed with Kazakhstan during WIEF AND their fate 1 year later. How many of these MOU's actually translated to performing contracts? It would appear the Shareholders and Directors of $250 million 25-year low interest subsidised government loan beneficiaries National Feedlot Corporation formed part of the Kazakhstan contingent? Who footed their bill?

In Ian Fleming's James Bond 007 novel 'Goldfinger' the eponymous villain of the piece, Auric Goldfinger, delivers the classic lines:

"Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Thrice, Mr.Bond, thrice, is enemy action."

I suspect the PM and his wife are their own worst enemies. It's incredible, is it not, that despite having at their disposal the services of the entire machinery of the Civil Service and Government, the PM and his wife should become embroiled in one after another of these allegations of conflict of interest and financial impropriety?

Now this latest disclosure lends itself to new accusations of the occupant of the highest public office in the land being a cheapskate. If, as rebutted by the PM's Office, the expenses were not paid from government funds, then why should any company have invoiced the PMO? Surely, savvy and on-the-ball aides and advisers would have directed the company to invoice the PM personally at his private residence?  

Who is to be blamed if the PM and his wife do not jealously and scrupulously protect and guard their personal integrity and that of the office of the Prime Minister, with careful forward planning and spotless conduct? Who are their personal aides and advisers who continue to be employed at the PMO, as though actually loyal to the Opposition?

Like pride, integrity too, goes before a fall. Governments in UK have fallen for precisely these types of abuse of power, conflict of interest and padding of expense claims.

CLICK HEREfor my earlier article 'INTEGRI T? SORRY, WE HAVEN'T SERVED THAT BLEND SINCE 1969?'