Mariam Should Stop Living In Denial

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From Zulkifli Mohd Salleh

I am writing in response to Mariam Mokhtar’s piece, “KJ’s excuses and denials“, published in FMT.
Clearly, Mariam has employed the strawman strategy in the piece with the sole purpose of running down BN’s Sungai Buloh candidate, Khairy Jamaluddin.
First, she accused Khairy, or KJ as he’s popularly known, of washing his hands off the RM100 million corruption scandal in the youth and sports ministry when he was at the helm from 2013.
But as Mariam has rightly pointed out, the scandal did not occur under Khairy’s watch as it happened during the tenure of his predecessor. She picked a bone over Khairy’s claim that the matter had been resolved and wanted to know what action had been taken against the perpetrator.
A cursory Google search about the case would show that the perpetrator has been convicted.
Since when has a minister’s job scope included keeping the public updated about criminal proceedings in a case that he is not even implicated in? Do we want Cabinet members to also moonlight as journalists?
Mariam further questioned if Khairy would be able to shine as science technology and innovation minister if there was no Covid-19 pandemic. What kind of question is that?
It is public knowledge that Khairy was instrumental in the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme, especially in the early procurement of the vaccines and the speedy inoculation.
The speedy and efficient rollout helped the country in its efforts to transition to the endemic stage and this was recognised by entities like the World Health Organization (WHO) to which he was elected vice-president at its 75th World Health Assembly.
The next point Mariam raised was about Khairy’s past, such as his influential role during the administration of ex-prime minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, or Pak Lah, who is also his father-in-law. She questioned if Khairy had done enough with regards to 1MDB when Najib Razak was the prime minister.
Digging up the past is a common tactic to smear someone when one can’t find the person’s present weaknesses. It’s been 13 years since Pak Lah resigned as prime minister. And KJ had spoken up against the shenanigans in 1MDB. Has KJ pocketed any kickbacks?
Didn’t people like Lim Kit Siang, Anwar Ibrahim and Mohamad Sabu call Dr Mahathir Mohamad all sorts of names like “Mahafiraun” back in the day? And how is it that they could side with him in 2018 for political expediency? Why didn’t Mariam question their hypocrisy?
So, my advice to Mariam is this: if you want to change Malaysia, stand as a candidate in elections. She may have missed the boat for GE15, but elections for several states are due soon.
I hope she will throw her hat into the ring. Stop giving excuses and living in denial. It’s easy to be an armchair critic but much harder to actually roll up her sleeves and get her hands dirty. Unless her purpose is to smear politicians according to her whims and fancy. - FMT
Zulkifli Mohd Salleh is an FMT reader.
The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.

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