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Malaysian Opposition Urges Minister To Resign
by Kazi Mahmood
KUALA LUMPUR, April 2 (IslamOnline) - The opposition in Malaysia on Monday urged Information Minister Khalil Yaakob to resign from his post and allow probes into alleged misappropriation of state resources proceed unhampered.
Yaakob was accused of misappropriating Pahang state resources while he was Chief Minister there. Police are investigating claims made by Beserah state assemblyman Fauzi Abdul Rahman who lodged a police report with Kuantan district police headquarters against Khalil last Wednesday.
Opposition leader Fadzil Noor told malaysiakini, an Internet news magazine, that from a moral perspective, Khalil is advised to take the leave, particularly from his government post, until police investigations are over.
Fauzi Abdul Rahman claimed that Khalil committed abuse of power including awarding timber concessions without going through procedural channels.
Presently, it is not clear whether the state assemblyman resigned or whether his resignation was accepted by the administration.
The president of the ruling United Malays National Organization (UMNO) party, Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said his party would set up a special ad-hoc committee to investigate the allegations.
Mahathir, however, announced that Khalil's position, as secretary-general of the UMNO and information minister, will remain.
He also said if the report is unfounded, action will be taken against the person who lodged the report for "malicious intent to disgrace the party".
If Fauzi Abdul Rahman resigned as assemblyman, there would be an election in the Berserah constituency in two months. The UMNO, sources said, would do without any by-elections in any state, and certainly not in Pahang where the Party Islam Se Malaysia (PAS) made inroads in the 1999 general elections.
In Berserah, the PAS candidate lost to Fauzi by less than 1000 votes, with the opposition claiming that pro-Anwar supporters voted UMNO in 1999, saying they voted for Fauzi because he declared himself a friend of the jailed former deputy premier.
The UMNO says the outcome of the incoming by-election will be different this time around and that the PAS might win the seat. Opposition sources told IslamOnline they were eager to face a by-election with the backdrop of a financial scandal involving a top ranking UMNO minister.
Opposition leader Noor questioned the UMNO's setting up of a special in house ad-hoc committee, saying that it implied the party did not trust the police.
"The complaint has been made to the police as it is a criminal issue involving alleged abuse of power by Khalil during his tenure as Chief Minister. They should have just let the police investigate," Fadzil, the PAS president, said to the press.
He added that the case had nothing to do with party discipline and that the police should, by right, investigate the matter. The opposition also said they feared the police would not investigate the matter, as has been the case with several police reports lodged by its members over the past three years.
The opposition also said several ministers have been accused of abuse of power and misuse of funds in shares of Anwar Ibrahim companies, but that all the reports made to police remained closed. No investigations were carried out, they said.
Wan Azizah Wan Ismail of the National Justice Party (NJP) agreed with the PAS leader that the minister, who is close to Mahathir, should have temporarily stepped down from his post pending full investigation into the police report.
She hoped the investigation of Yakoob's case would be done in a fair and open manner.
"The police should be allowed to take action without any interference from the executive," she said.
However, Yakoob supporters told IslamOnline that they doubted he committed the crimes he is being accused of. They say he is a valuable element within the UMNO and that he delegates his job as minister and UMNO secretary with diligence.
Yakoob supporters also dismissed the police report as a rumor and said Yakoob would emerge victorious in the case. They blamed Rahman for attempting to "get back at the Minister who he believes abandoned him and did not support him to become Chief Minister in Pahang," a UMNO supporter told IslamOnline.
According to sources, the report by Fauzi Abdul Rahman stated that while serving as Chief Minister, Khalil, who also served concurrently as a member of the National Forestry Council, agreed that Pahang could, according to a yearly quota, only log approximately 28,000 acres of land.
However, the Chief Minister, the police report said, flouted the quota. Yet it was not made clear how the quota was flouted and in favor of whom it was done. Observers believe the case could cost the UMNO support if proven true.
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