E Contrario

In another interview with Bangkok Post, Pak Lah revealed his bitterness at Dr Mahathir for exposing his practice of nepotism. Referring to Mahathir as “the old man”, Pak Lah said the former PM has smashed Khairy’s “rice pot”. Poor Khairy, now he has a lot of debt to settle. Pak Lah feels “sad” for Khairy because he had to sell his ECM Libra interest at a loss.

Sadness aside, Mr Prime Minister, millions of Malaysians remain puzzled, wondering who was so generous in lending Khairy the money.

Well, Pak Lah still did not explain whether Khairy’s venture was irregular or illegal. Why should Khairy be concerned at all with Mahathir’s attack if he were innocent? Why should he dump his shares in ECM Libra, if he had done his business legitimately?

Pak Lah did not forget to defend his own son Kamaluddin. Again, he dismissed the allegations that his son received favours from the government.

Abdullah said Kamaluddin worked overseas and won contracts with Petronas through open international tender.

Open international tender?

It’s interesting that Pak Lah seems very familiar with his son’s business. He told the paper Kamaluddin “does not build the company organically. He goes for mergers and acquisitions. That’s his style of business”.

The PM is certainly very proud of his high-flying child. Kamuluddin was said to have refused many joint ventures with government-linked companies. The very successful Umnoputra said, “No, I have enough money, I am rich”.

Rich? Why don’t all of the PM’s family members openly declare their assets? Pak Lah has said that fighting graft was his main concern. Let’s set an example and start with his family.

Finally, the PM concluded that all these charges of nepotism were part of the conspiracy (we presume he meant Mahathir’s) to bring him down. Nonetheless, Pak Lah is still trying hard to look good rhetorically:

“You want to speak the truth, by all means, I have no problem. You want to tell me something’s wrong somewhere, tell me. Tell the leadership the truth. I am happy for people to help me see things that are not doing well”.

Just ask Mukhriz what response he got when he gave a helpful comment to the PM on his speech at the Umno general assembly.