[ Laman Ehwal Semasa ReformIS ]
Date: 20 Aug 1999
Time: 00:07:18
Remote User: -
NST chief joins Rafidah as panic runs high over 'secret documents'
Signs of panic are running high within cabinet ministers and loyalists of prime minister Mahathir Mohamad as Anwar Ibrahim continues to issue from behind bars damning police reports of corruption. Ministers and chief ministers have recently joint in the chorus of condemnation of Anwar for threatening to "blackmail" them with proofs of their corruption.
Rafidah Aziz, the minister who was first cited for corruption by Anwar in a detailed police report on July 9, was among the first to condemn the hoarding of documents which could expose corruption in high places. Rafidah, who lost to the Anwar-backed Wanita UMNO head Siti Zaharah Sulaiman, called for an investigation of alleged involvement of civil servants in leaking out corruption files of ministers.
But the individual who is clearly the most obvious among those in the "anti-Anwar" bandwagon is none other than Datuk A. Kadir Jasin, head of the staunchly pro-UMNO New Straits Times Press media group.
Kadir, a self-confessed admirer of the embattled UMNO president is said to have issued instruction to editors of the New Straits Times to "play up" Mahathir's recent outburst at Anwar for stashing away "secret documents".
In its front page article on August 14, the paper reported that many "lawyers" have called for action to be taken against Parti KeADILan Nasional youth head Ezam Nor over his "admittance" that he was keeping documents overseas to be exposed one by one. Without naming who its sources and lawyers were, the paper again on August 15 splashed out a story saying that the police were to summon Ezam to face charges under the Officials Secrets Act. The police had however not issued any statement with regards to the "secret documents".
But the fear over the documents are warranted, for obvious reasons, in particular for misusing funds belonging to UMNO.
The NST chief's fear was made even more revealing when he decided to write about the "secret documents" in his column "Other Thots", in the New Sunday Times. Critics have regarded the column as a weekly endorsement of the BN government's actions, and particularly that of Mahathir.