Never a dull moment news-wise

THERE'S never been a dull moment on the news front since the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government took over Putrajaya following the May 9 general election.
Gone are the days when journalists as newshounds had to deal with run-of-the-mill news stories coming from ministers or government officials as was the norm in the past.
This past week or two has been particularly stimulating for reporters, always on the lookout for what they call a good story or a story with a high news value. In fact, they have never had it so good as now.
One such news story is the revelation by Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng that the previous Barisan Nasional government had failed to return over RM16 billion in income tax and real property gains tax refunds to individuals, businesses and organisations over the last six years due to a shortfall.
Prior to this, Lim had also disclosed that the previous government had not returned more than RM19 billion in goods and services tax (GST) refunds to businesses although it was statutorily required to do so within 14 days.
The finance minister said this was because the then government had considered the money as revenue and used up the funds.
I spoke to one of the country's top corporate leaders on this and he admitted to being thoroughly disgusted after knowing such things were happening.
"People like us have to slog so hard to pay hundreds of millions in taxes to the government only to know so much money has gone haywire," he said.
Commenting on this, former second finance minister Datuk Seri Johari Abdul Ghani said questions over unreturned income tax returns should be directed at former treasury secretary-general Tan Sri Mohd Irwan Serigar Abdullah and Inland Revenue Board (IRD) chief executive officer Datuk Sabin Samitah.
Irwan was relieved of his duties soon after the new government came to power.
Johari told a daily that the government should lodge a police report if there were elements of criminal breach of trust. Besides being head of the treasury, Irwan was also then chairman of IRD.
"I'm surprised that he didn't pick up all this," Johari told me.
Then came another startling news the PH government had terminated the privatised contracts awarded to two companies, which have been collecting traffic offenders' summonses under the Automated Enforcement System (AES) in what has been described as one of the most lopsided deals ever signed.
Transport Minister Anthony Loke announced that over 3.1 million unpaid summonses worth RM435 million would be cancelled and the Road Transport Department would fully take over its operations from next month.
The juiciest bit in this remarkable political will to nullify summons arrears had to come from Loke himself when he described the AES agreement as a document that "only a fool would sign".
Even if all the outstanding fines were collected, the money won't go to the government but would be paid to the two concessionaires whose operating expenditure was mainly in installing cameras to nab traffic offenders.
God only knows how such a deal was worked out and clinched in the first place and some have questioned, too, the role of the Economic Planning Unit (EPU) here. The EPU is supposed to be the agency to scrutinise privatised deals and protect the nation's economic interest.
"It was a very lop-sided deal that mostly benefited the two companies, which was why the government decided to cancel it. We also disagree that enforcement be privatised," said Loke. The AES took off in 2012 and almost RM129 million was paid to the two companies since then in two-tier payments.
After the fines were later reduced from RM300 to RM150 following a public outcry, the companies virtually laughed all the way to the bank because the whole amount from the reduced summonses went to them with the government never benefiting from it.
Another shocking news that Loke unravelled was that in 2015, the government instructed Lembaga Tabung Angkatan Tentera or the Armed Forces Fund Board, which was set up to help boost the welfare of ex-servicemen, to take over the two companies by paying a whopping RM555 million in compensation.
Some NGOs, concerned with our ex-soldiers and the like, have cried foul over this and have demanded a further probe. Such sweet deals given away at the public or nation's expense should no longer be allowed in the future.
But to me as a journalist, the best news story of late came from none other than Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad himself.
He told civil servants as well as military and police personnel not to be so blindly loyal to the government to the extent they are willing to break the law if asked to.
In other words, government officers who find that their instructions, usually from ministers, are clearly wrong or criminal in nature should not obey such orders.
Using an extreme analogy, he said: "If, as the prime minister, I order you to kill someone, should you do it? There's a difference between an instruction in accordance with certain policies and an order to commit a crime," he said.
This is the first time in the history of the civil service as well as the police and the military that such a clear-cut instruction has come from the prime minister himself and it would make people, like the secretaries-general of ministries and the directors-general as heads of departments, have a clear directive and conscience in this crucial matter.
I know for a fact that there have been cases in the past when these top civil servants had been transferred out or put to pasture so to speak for not obeying such orders from their political bosses because such instructions were against rules and regulations.
The prime minister put the icing on the cake on Wednesday when he announced in China that the East Coast Rail Link, originally slated to cost RM55 billion and the contract already awarded to a Chinese group, would now be cancelled.
There is no way that this project, whose final costs were reportedly expected to hit over RM70 billion, would ever be viable whichever way we look at it and are the kind of ventures that Mahathir said could only worsen the country's debts and lead to bankruptcy.
While Loke had said only fools could sign a contract such as for the AES, Mahathir pointed out when referring to the ECRL that Malaysia had never before witnessed such foolishness in negotiating contracts.
As he put it: "Such stupidity has never been seen in the history of Malaysia".
This would result in massive compensation, which would be worked out while Malaysia must find a way to exit the ECRL at the lowest cost possible.
"But this is our own people's stupidity. We can't blame the Chinese for that," the prime minister said.
The cancellation of the ECRL under construction once again not only is a manifestation of the government's political will but political will of the highest order.
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