Monday, July 13, 2009

Muhyiddin Publicly Bribes Voters

On Saturday, Najib promised all Malaysians that he will "fight against corruption". On Sunday, his deputy offered a big bribe to the Manek Urai electorate. What great hypocrisy.

Yes, it is none other than the Deputy Prime Minister himself, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, attempted to bribe the electorate by the promise of a new RM10 million bridge, with the blatant condition that it'll only be granted if Barisan Nasional wins.
Muhyiddin, who is Umno deputy president, told the remote constituency's 12,293 voters that should they back Barisan Nasional on Tuesday, they would get a 300-metre bridge connecting Manek Urai Baru and Manek Urai Lama in Kuala Krai.

“We can build it (the bridge), insya'allah, but there is a condition. It is easy - all you need to do is to 'pangkah' (vote), but you must vote for BN. If not, there would not be any new bridge. If you want the bridge, vote BN,” Muhyiddin said.
It is an outright corrupt practice to offer monetary or financial inducements to a voter to influence his choice in the elections, and here we have the DPM himself offering the bribe, within a day of the Prime Minister himself promising to stamp out corruption. What great credibility.

For those unaware, the Election Offences Act 1954 says:
10. The following persons shall be deemed guilty of the offence of bribery:

(c) every person who, before, during or after an election, directly or indirectly, by himself or by any other person on his behalf, makes any such gift, loan, offer, promise, procurement, or agreement as aforesaid to or for any person in order to induce such person to procure or endeavour to procure the election of any person, or the vote of any elector or voter at any election;

(d) every person who, either before or during an election, upon or in consequence of any such gift, loan, offer, promise, procurement or agreement, procures or engages,
promises or endeavours to procure, the election of any person, or the vote of any elector or voter at an election;
And anyone committed the above election offence, he or she:
...shall be guilty of a corrupt practice, and shall, on conviction by a Sessions Court, be liable, in the case referred to in paragraphs (a) and (b), to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years and to a fine of not less than one thousand ringgit and not more than five thousand ringgit, and, in any other case, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding one year and to a fine not exceeding two thousand ringgit. Offences under paragraphs (a) and (b) shall be seizable offences within the meaning of the Criminal Procedure Code.

(2) Every person who is convicted of a corrupt practice shall, subject to any specific provision to the contrary in any written law relating to any election, by conviction become incapable of being registered or listed as an elector or of voting at any election or of being elected at any election, and if at that date he has been elected at any election, his seat shall be vacated from the date of such conviction: Provided that such disability shall cease on the expiry of five years from such conviction.

Hence the punishment is obvious enough. Be fined up to RM5,000 or imprisoned for up to a year. But most significantly, the guilty party will be disqualified from public office, and be banned from contesting in an election for 5 years.

So, will Muhyiddin even be investigated for the above offences, much less charged and banned? Yes, I'm sure Najib can be trusted, he will do the right thing and he is a man of his words.

18 comments:

Richard Cranium said...

Does anyone have the verbatim speech where he made the offer?

We can all collectively dissect that in the blogs, so that he can next tell us our grasp of the bahasa is too subtle for us non-Malays to understand.

Remember his interview with Utusan when he said the Chinese was not "appreciative"?

Tommy said...

Tony,
It's a fat hope that he will be investigated. Y? Because to them that's not bribery. They can have their own interpretation of the law!Seen enough of that!

Emily Pratt said...

Dear Sir,

What are you waiting for, off you go to the MACC office. Chop chop.... Godspeed and good luck.

No tardiness on this matter.

Emily Pratt

Anonymous said...

Emily Pratt,
Even the boss of MACC is corrupt to the core and acts like an UMNO's god. Don't expect any actions from them, see what happened to PKFZ, Toyo's mansion, etc.. you still believe in MACC meh alamak!!

Anonymous said...

lodge police reports all over malaysia.

4RAKYAT

denzook said...

sometimes i wonder if opposition understands what is development and what is corruption ....

Anonymous said...

While Najib may not represent real significant change, Muhiyiddin is worst in that he represents a throwback - a anachronistic mindset whose vision of the future is trapped in the past, It shudders me that Badawi almost made him his deputy..

Holding the peasant hostage is what Sultans did. Sultans were in the protection racket. This is no different, - make me king or I will let bad things happen to you.

Emily Pratt said...

Anon,

I know that most of the Govt agencies, are compromised.

But nonetheless please lodge the report as well, compile it. Come GE-13, when there is a change of Federal Govt, reopen all these NFA cases and let the great Malaysia Trial begin.

Emily Pratt

kopitelp16 said...

For the rest of us, that's corruption/bribes. For them, it's contribution to the society. It's Kerajaan Prihatin. See the difference? Anyway, it's open secret that there are 2 sets of law in Bolehland.....

Damansara Utama voter said...

"...every person who, before, during or after an election, directly or indirectly, by himself or by any other person on his behalf, makes any such gift, loan, offer, promise,..."

YB,

Plese note offence of bribery includes "promise"


During your numerous ceramah, Tony, you have also promise us of local government election.

Will you be guilty of bribing us?

Satish said...

Not surprising for BN to shower the people with gifts before by-elections.

BN sucks.

Anonymous said...

why should u as a writer are so bias and like to twist people words... u are not credible to be a writer... bribe?? when anwar tell people to reduces oil price if he wins the previous election, will you classified that as a bribe? be fair la friend.....

Peter said...

Please organize a class action to sue Muhyiddin for using our (public) money to try to bribe the voters to vote for BN. I will contribute to the legal costs.

Simon H said...

Anon@7.03pm,
I think with Anwar's statement, he is still pushing for the federal government to reduce prices. I guess there is a fine line with this. You could say politicians could set their objectives of what they want to achieve for the people, but it doesnt mean that he/she shouldnt carry out these objectives if they lost in the elections. Ultimately, its the federal government who has the financial means to see most of those 'promises' through and its sad to see it holding the people at ransom with 'promises'. I sincerely hope that the 'promises', or objectives I would call it, would still be fulfilled either way, win or lose. Develop the country as it should, not for winning some votes. I wouldnt put the next Silicon Valley in Manek Urai if its not strategically viable ;)

Anonymous said...

i think many who wrote in missed the point altho some in principal are the same about making promises.

point is: "rm 10million" for 300m bridge (that's RM 33,333 per meter) if BN wins. apa bridge ini? probably cost rm 5million but mark up rm 5million. who is the dumb ass here? these are the kind of promises that makes bn think the people are all dumb asses. in short, vote bn if you want to be screwed.

local council election...cost is rm xx?? so, vote p-r if you don't want to be screwed.

what our dpm made was not a promise. it is an old bn tactic of positive threat. it's a form of threatening or extorting the people. this is the difference. nothing to do with contribution.

why must the people vote bn if they want the bridge...should not it be the fed gov natural obligation to all the people.

so what bn is openly saying is: if we vote bn, we will be rewarded. if we vote p-r, we get punished. is this the kind of government we voted for? regardless ruling or opposition. the ruling government of the day is obliged to serve ALL rakyat. regardless of political fence.

so, i find this a little disturbing & how some of the comments in this blog was thinking otherwise.

Zhengdong said...

Tony,
Publicize this article, show it to everyone, let the people see what Muhyiddin done. BRIBERY!! he is guilty, bring him to court and be liable for his deed. As a DPM he should have been a good role model. We do not want this type of people to be the DPM. No wisdom in his speech.

Ghenzis said...

Agree x 3. This is the 2nd blunder he made in his first 100 days as DPM!!
The bridge should have been there with or without vote. It is the Govt's responsibilities. They took the rakyat's money for their own pockets and not only bribe but hold the people at ransom.So one time vote equals to one new facility (trademark of BN/Umno).
What the #$#%#$#$#%^#$%^$%

Anonymous said...

why MACC don't investigate what DPM promised the MU voters?