Why does Din Merican hate Abu Kassim so much?

Updates: Wah! Spa time? Jom ke Holiday Villa ...


Original posting
DEFENDING FRIENDS, NO MATTER HOW CROOKED. On Mothers' Day I wanted to write in defence of my blogger friends and my comrades at Utusan Malaysia with regards to the Pastors meeting in Penang, but then I discovered that they are in good hands. The good hands of the cops, that is.


Unlike some, I have faith in our public institutions like the police. They are not perfect, but they are trying to do their job. Some of them have gone beyond the call of duty. In the Pastors-in-Penang case, the police have started investigation, so let's wait for it. 


Another institution that deserves a pat in the back in my book is the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission. It has done great in their fight against graft, even to the extent of coming down hard on other government agencies. Last year, under Abu Kassim, the MACC made the most number of arrests related to graft in more than 40 years.


When you come down hard on the crooks, you don't expect them to kiss your hand or be nice to you. You expect vicious counter-attacks. Corruption benefits a lot of people and these people will defend their benefactors. They will retaliate.They will threaten you and your family. They killed Jalil Ibrahim and they gunned down an IGP to protect their loot. In "The Untouchables" - the 1987 movie starring Kevin Costner, Sean Connery and Robert deNiro - we see how lonely and dangerous the crusade against corruption is. This was in the 30s and even back then, it was not easy to get Al Capone on corruption and his other vices. Even the Mayor of Chicago was on his payroll. In the end, Eliot Ness took Al Capone down for tax evasion. Tax evasion!


I'm not equating anyone in the MACC to Eliot Ness or anyone in PDRM, our police force, to the incorruptible Malone but I know a few them and these are the good guys.


Which is why I felt obliged to highlight a posting by Din Merican,  MACC: The Destroyer of Public Institutions. Abu Kassim is one of the good guys in my book but this posting makes him out as a crook. If he hasn't read it, he'd better.


Funnily, Din Merican claimed in the comment box that he knew Abu Kassim well and he meant him no malice. But how one can claim such, after clearly suggesting that the MACC boss had abused his position to have a good time on our taxpayers' money at a wellness centre accompanied by three burly officers, etc., is beyond me.

If my source tells me that Abu Kassim had gone to a "wellness centre" to have "a good time", I would expect my source to be very, very sure, very very graphic, and very very specific. I won't need a video clip of him having a good time, although that would do nicely, but I won't take my source's words for it. I would grill my source. I cannot assume that he was there to meet the kind of "whistle" blower that Din Merican or his commenters seem to want us to think.


What Din Merican wrote about Abu Kassim reminds me of the Statutory Declaration that RPK wrote and signed under oath, claiming that Rosmah Mansor was there that night on a hill when Altantuya was murdered with the use of C4 explosives! RPK should have demanded that his "reliable informers" give him more evidence. In his interview with TV3 and his subsequent postings recently, two years after the SD was made, he admitted that he had doubts about the info he was getting. But he went ahead and did the Statutory Declaration as told. 


RPK was working for his political masters and people who were trying to stop Najib Razak from becoming the Prime Minister.


Who is Din Merican working for?


p.s. To Abu Kassim, soldier on. But I must say I agree with Lord Denning, who was quoted by Tun Salleh Abas and requoted by Din Merican: Silence is not an option when things are ill done. An accusation has been made, an ill done upon your integrity, you have no choice but to speak up and defend yourself and the Institution you represent.