I am confused: if Mahathir was aware that there was corruption of the sort of levels revealed by the reason AP debacle, does it make him anymore blameless now that he’s exposed them?
Questions of that aside, the burning issues still on the minds of many at the Autoworld Forums is how the APs awarded to the main recipients have been used. Paultan.org notes that there has been a discrepency of conditions required for the receipt of APs. Weststar purports to own several service centres and showrooms with which cars imported are sold. Among the cars purported to be sold are Honda and Chevrolet cars. A recent discussion on this in the Autoworld forums can be found here, and a pertinent question that Paul Tan has noted is this: aren’t Honda cars distributed and sold by Honda Malaysia Sdn Bhd? And aren’t Chevrolet cars distributed by Hicomobil?
When I first saw this in the Autoworld forums, I was incensed. I thought the money was only really being made by those who could secure Open APs, a recipient of which could import cars of any model or make, kinda like an ‘open license’. Franchise AP holders are supposed to have in place the necessary infrastructure for distribution within Malaysia; it makes me wonder just how many of those 100s of distribution centres claimed by Weststar are nothing more than shell companies.
***
You know, when faced with situations that are seemingly hopeless, laughter becomes the only possible response. I wonder just how many people are incredulous with the recent revelations running up to the UMNO General Assembly. I wonder, too, just how many non-Bumiputras listened or read with horror the pronouncements coming out from various parties. Seeing Hishammudin brandishing the kris splayed across the front page of one of the dailies gave me the shivers, and the subsequent announcement by Badawi that UMNO had never, to paraphrase, deprived non-Bumiputras of their rights gave me the chuckles for a brief moment.
Badawi’s conclusion becomes only superficially true because, yes, non-Bumis have rights just like everyone else does, prescribed by the Constitution. But what do “special rights” represent? Special rights seem to be rights normatively prescribed for one class of people in Malaysia. The positive and concealed fact affirmed by his pronouncement, however, remains that there are some people who deserve more than others.
