The culprit steps forward -- 'Harakiri' anyone?

Hura-hara, yes. Harakiri? This is not Jepun-lah!
I serve my ER this as BF starters because one faithful commenter in the steal of last night wrote:

"Mr Pak should ask the MP to own up and be made known. No need to commit hara-kiri, just stand up and be counted (among the corrupt).

By fishtail, at 11:38 PM

Now let's plunge inmto the BF proper as I'm famished, not finished nor furnishedlike the MP hot under his colar~~~

Now, Drum-roll!~~~From the newspaper that "broke" the nu'es
about an initiative MP from Malacca, the targeted
representative caught with his pants down steps
forward in all his half-naked glory, to say:


I am the one, says Jasin MP
05 May 2006

TheSun has a better header:

JASIN MP: I asked
Customs to close
an eye

Back to the NST report:

KUALA LUMPUR: The Member of Parliament for Jasin, Datuk Mohd Said Yusof, has admitted that he asked the Customs and Excise Department to close an eye over a case involving the import of sawn timber.

He said he was the person mentioned in yesterday’s front page report in the New Straits Times.

"I am the one in the story. I went to the Customs office after I got a complaint from an entrepreneur from the Sungai Rambai port. The port is in my constituency," he said.

He said he went to the Customs office in his capacity as a Member of Parliament as well as a forwarding agent.

"I went there to ask the Customs officials to be lenient. They did their job in seizing the sawn timber but I went there to seek their help in getting the sawn timber released.

"I asked for the agent to be compounded and the timber released," he said calmly in the lobby.

Mohd Said admitted he asked the department to "close one eye" (tutup sebelah mata) and to let the consignment through after issuing a compound.

"The Customs Department was right in holding back the consignment. I only asked for the compound to be issued and the consignment to be released.

"But they seized it. I don’t know what happened after that," he said of his April 14 meeting with Customs officials at the Sungai Rambai Port office.

Mohd Said said his reason for asking the Customs Department to close an eye was based on a technicality.
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DESIDERATA: I can only say that no one is gpoing to commit "hara kiri" over this technicality. It such were to happen, it would be SE7EN times the Shahrir Shocker, wouldn't it? And the majority of the 24million populace in dear NegaraKu don't have a stout heart to withsatnd such a shock, greater than a 2,400 volts from the mains!

But I know one former MP -- oh, a former DPM-cum-Finance Minister no less!, yes, also from UMNO! -- went to serve SIX YEARS for "corruption" in allegedly committing abuse of power by interfering with the Police work. Or have we -- many are masochistic!-- Malaysians forgotten?

But the Yang Berhormat MP for Jasin is an "honourable" man -- he steps forward to say: "I am the one."
And aren't all his compatriots in the RUMAHSsParlimen all "hobnourable" men?


But one piece of writing troubled Desi this moUrn -- and it's Friday, a day for loving and gifting. So I'll give the papers the benefit of the doubt that they aren't expected to go nigh Shakespearean English. Or could the culprit in the original Motion wording -- maybe the HANSARD will reveal, I'm not telling because I can't tell.

The English press headlines this morning centred on one and only one personality, even eclipsing the nation's CEO now overseas -- it's none other than the MP for Johor Baru, DATUK SHARIR ABDUL SAMAD.

For once I think the national press got IT right.

But wait a minute! The opening paras of the NST could be "very misleading"!
Or was it the original wording of the motion filed by the Opposition Leader Lim Kit Siang, MP for Ipoh Timur? I stand to be educated!


The NST which broke the news about an MP from Malacca allegedly interfering with the Customs Department by asking it to "CLOSE AN EYE" to an offence by a timber forwardiung agent, had the headline SHARIR SHOCKER. TheSun had an identical header.
The Star had this neutra -- emotionless -- one:

Sharir quits as Backbenchers Club chief.

From The NST first:

Shahrir shocker

KUALA LUMPUR: Datuk Shahrir Samad yesterday dropped a bombshell by quitting as Barisan Nasional Backbenchers Club chairman.

He was apparently unhappy that fellow MPs did not follow his cue and support a motion to refer the New Straits Times to the House’s Rights and Privileges Committee.

The motion was moved by Opposition leader Lim Kit Siang, following a report in the NST yesterday on an MP who allegedly asked the Customs and Excise Department to "close one eye" in a case involving the import of sawn timber.

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And compare the above with The Star's:
Friday May 5, 2006


Shahrir quits as Backbenchers Club chief


KUALA LUMPUR: Datuk Shahrir Abdul Samad dropped a bombshell in Parliament yesterday by resigning as Backbenchers Club (BBC) chairman.

He had earlier walked out of Dewan Rakyat disappointed that his colleagues had distanced themselves from a DAP motion related to alleged interference by an MP in the work of the Malacca Customs Department.

The motion called for a newspaper report containing the allegation that the unnamed MP had asked the department to be lenient with those caught importing sawn timber from Indonesia to be referred to the Parliament Rights and Privileges Committee.

Opposition Leader Lim Kit Siang had proposed the motion, which was debated for 20 minutes.

Voicing support for the motion, Shahrir, who is Johor Baru MP, said the matter should be investigated by the committee to clear the air as “integrity should begin in Parliament.”

“The problem with the civil service is that it has become an old body that refuses to take action against itself.
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DESIDERATA: The NST's purported reason that Shahrir "was apparently unhappy that fellow MPs did not follow his cue and support a motion to refer the New Straits Times to the House’s Rights and Privileges Committee


HAS A DIFFERENT CONNOTATION:
That the motion was to refer the newspaper, the NST, to the House's Rights and Privileges Committee.
I might not be present at the august House, but I think that definitely was not the aim of the DAP motion.
But as I stated TWICE -- what was the actual WORDING in the original motion?

I think the heart of the matter was correctly centred by the Star report ~~~
"The motion called for a newspaper report containing the allegation that the unnamed MP had asked the department to be lenient with those caught importing sawn timber from Indonesia to be referred to the Parliament Rights and Privileges Committee.

One of my ER -- ANAK MERDEKA -- likened Sharir's episode as a "hurricane" out there. (I have to spotlight this Y&A not compleatly out of altruism, jest wait for a stolen NUTGIFT from her Blog later ~~ COMING.)
My response via Comments yesterday as we learnt online about a truly remarkable event in that august House, reprised here with some editing. This is for the benefit of some Readers who had not much interest in Politics until they descended on Desi's Place (Trumpet-roll! ... if someone could have a Drum-roll, why not a blardy, half-past-SE7EN scribe doing his own blowin' in the wind?)


"anak merdeka:

It's healthy development for Malaysian poltics that one UMNO MP dared to support Oppo Leader's motion -- it's a day to celebrate! Yeah, yeAH, YEAH!

This is only Act 1, Scne 1;
Let's await Secne 2.
Don't under-estimate Sharir -- he survived by resigning as JB MP once to contest as an Independent and WON the seat back! How many UMNOputras dare even to resign on Matters of Principle?

Hi Salute, MP of JB -- GOoD Role Model -- even DAP MPs are NOT UP TO IT! I know at close hand, many FROGGED over to MCA in mid-term or when they knew they would be dropped for following GE. One even got himself a Gomen supported foundation scholarship to do Law in UK, Howsy's that?!

By desiderata, at 5:53 PM "~~~

PS: May 4, 2006 -- In Desi's record, a momentous day in Malaysian politics -- healthy for progress towards a more responsive, less partisan, democratic Parliament as is to be promoted.