Muhyiddin Yassin’s disgraced son-in-law, Muhammad Adlan Berhan, appears to have fled the country in May. Instead of condemning the act, or at least pretend to ask his son-in-law to come back to prove his innocence in court, former backdoor Prime Minister Muhyiddin has instead issued a “no comment” statement. It’s not rocket science that Mr Adlan had been ordered to run away.
The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Chief Commissioner Azam Baki confirmed that besides tracking down 48-year-old Adlan, the authorities are also hunting down 69-year-old lawyer Mansoor Saat. Both fugitives were linked to a scandal involving irregularities in the registration, recruitment and biometric storage of foreign workers in the country.
As a result, the MACC has asked the Immigration Department to freeze the passports of the two men, as well as seeking the help of Interpol in tracking down the two crooks. Apparently, the graft busters were forced to take the action after attempts to contact both individuals failed. If indeed Muhyiddin’s son-in-law was innocence, why fled the country in the first place?
After the MACC’s revelation, Adlan’s attorney denies that his client has fled Malaysia to escape questioning from the anti-corruption agency. However, the half-baked denial invites more questions than answers when attorney Baljit Singh Sidhu said Adlan will return home only if he is not persecuted. Going by the silly logic, every criminal could use such excuse to run away and escape prosecution.
Hilariously, the half-past-six lawyer also claims that his client has the right to travel and will protect his rights and liberty from being taken away. In truth, a passport belongs to the country that issued them. Therefore, the Malaysian government can freeze or cancel the passports of any suspected criminal, effectively ending the so-called rights and liberty to travel abroad.
A crook like Muhyiddin’s son-in-law has no rights, let alone liberty, to demand that he is allowed to travel unrestricted. Just like former PM Najib Razak’s partner-in-crime Jho Low, whose passport was cancelled following a request by the MACC to the Immigration Department, Adlan cannot hide abroad while claiming innocence and refused to return home to clear his name.
The despicable Jho Low too was never arrested and never called by the MACC for a meeting or to assist in any investigations before he fled the country. Yet, the whole world knows he is a fugitive who ran away from prosecution for his involvement in the 1MDB scandal. Hence, Muhammad Adlan is a fugitive like Jho Low – hiding in a foreign country for fear of being sent to prison.
If Adlan is clean and has nothing to hide, he should return home immediately and bravely face the judiciary system, and not using the freezing of his account as an excuse to accuse the MACC of harassment and persecution. After all, MACC chief Azam Baki was appointed under Muhyiddin administration. Is Adlan trying to say that the MACC was fair and clean only when his father-in-law was in power?
Obviously, he had decided to run away after being ordered to do so. And the man who told him to temporarily hide in overseas was Muhyiddin himself. But why did the ex-premier tell his son-in-law to abscond? It’s not hard to see that it is an attempt to avoid of stall investigation over Adlan’s corruption and money laundering on behalf of Muhyiddin.
On January 5 this year, the MACC arrested a chief executive officer of a private company. The 42-year-old man – Adam Radlan Adam Muhammad – was detained over his role as “middleman” in brokering government projects related to Covid-19 stimulus packages worth RM92.5 billion (US$21 billion) in exchange for bribes. He turns out to be Muhyiddin’s right-hand man.
A former chief executive of Maju Assets Sdn Bhd, Adam is also Segambut divisional leader of Muhyiddin’s political party – Bersatu (Malaysian United Indigenous Party). The best part is Adam is the cousin of Muhyiddin’s son-in-law, Muhamad Adlan Berhan, who in turn was involved in several scandals as part of a web of Muhyiddin cronies of corruptions.
Adlan married to Muhyiddin’s daughter, Nabilah, who is a shareholder of Agathistwo Jia Sdn Bhd, a company involved in the scandalous RM1.2 billion NIIS (National Integrated Immigration System) concession. The NIIS was hatched by Muhyiddin (then-Home Minister under the Pakatan Harapan government) after cancelling its predecessor Sistem Kawalan Imigresen Nasional (SKIN).
Muhamad Adlan was also linked to 1BestariNet, a 15-year project worth RM4.47 billion introduced by then-Education Minister Muhyiddin in March 2011 to provide 4G broadband connectivity and virtual learning environment (VLE) to 10,000 government schools nationwide. However, the “failed project”, awarded to YTL Communications, has been plagued with slow internet access and problematic Frog VLE, which could easily be replaced with Google Classroom.
Now, the MACC is investigating the possible abuse of power in the award of contracts for Muhyiddin’s son-in-law in the NIIS project, which could lead to the former prime minister charged and jailed. So, crooked Muyiddin is facing two scandals – money laundering in the RM92.5 billion Covid-19 stimulus packages and corruptions in the RM1.2 billion NIIS projects.
Actually, the RM5.7 billion Jana Wibawa is the third scandal involving Muhyiddin. But during his questioning, Muhyiddin has pointed his fingers at his self-appointed finance minister Tengku Zafrul. He argued – “Jana Wibawa was a programme by the Ministry of Finance proposed by Zafrul to help Bumiputera contractors during the Covid-19 pandemic”.
Adam Radlan’s involvement in Muhyiddin’s web of cronyism, nepotism and corruption was exposed after Muhyiddin-led Perikatan Nasional coalition failed to form a government post 15th General Election. And this is precisely why the power-hungry and corrupted ex-PM desperately wanted to return to power by hook or by crook – to “cover up” the skeleton in the closet.
But the biggest problem was his son-in-law’s key role in the RM1.2 billion NIIS (National Integrated Immigration System) scandal. The MACC had begun investigating the case years ago and basically has established the money trails which could easily implicate Muhyiddin if his son-in-law talks like a canary. So, in order to keep Muhamad Adlan’s silence, he was told to flee and hide.
Muhyiddin’s, whose given name is Mahiaddin, plan was to hide his son-in-law at a secured location and hopes opposition Perikatan Nasional could win big in the upcoming six state elections. Only with Muhyiddin returning as PM can Adlan return home, and all his charges dropped. Muhyiddin knew that once the trial starts, all his past dirty wheeling and dealing would be exposed.
In the same breath, it also suggests the Perikatan Nasional chairman lacks confidence that the opposition can grab Selangor, Penang and Negeri Sembilan from Anwar-led Unity Government. Otherwise, Muhyiddin would not have told his son-in-law to run away as it could backfire spectacularly due to perception that Adlan was the ex-premier’s bagman.
Source : Finance Twitter
The Coverage Malaysia