FEB 3 — Shahrizat Abdul Jalil, the Women, Family and Community Development Minister is reported to be returning to work next week, after a three-week holiday, purportedly intended to allow the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) and the police to carry out investigations into her family-owned National Feedlot Centre (NFC).

The minister and her family are under investigation, the assets of the NFC are frozen and the Deputy Prime Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin is leading a task force to find a solution to the cattle-rearing project.

Meanwhile, during her holiday, Shahrizat filed a libel suit against PKR’s Rafizi Ramli and Zuridah Kamaruddin for their allegations on the misuse of RM250 million government soft loan meant for the NFC, by Shahrizat’s family. The allegations that the family used the soft loan to purchase two luxurious condominiums raised questions over whether there has been an abuse of public money.

That her husband and children are drawing huge salaries from the NFC has also raised questions as to whether the soft loan was for personal gain or to build a local industry to reduce Malaysia’s dependency on meat imports. During her holiday, more issues related to the NFC were raised such as that Shahrizat’s husband was cheated of RM1.7 million in fraudulent consultancy news by a Datuk who is now facing criminal charges. Then the Auditor-General, after three month’s silence, issued a statement saying he had not called the NFC project a “mess “ as has been repeatedly stated in the press. To this, Shahrizat’s family responded through press statements in all media that they had been “vindicated”.

The family’s response to each fresh allegation raised even more questions. At the end of her three-week holiday, the question still remains, “Is Shahrizat, like Caesar’s wife, above suspicion?”

Public opinion is not on Shahrizat’s side.  The public demands transparency, accountability, truthfulness and ethics from its political leaders. For example, did Shahrizat, in any way, use her position to influence the award of the RM250 million public money to the NFC? The abuse of power to influence decisions related to public contracts is defined as corruption.

Wasn’t Shahrizat aware that the soft loan to the NFC was used to purchase luxury condominiums? 
Did Shahrizat, in any way, “twist the arm” of the Auditor-General into issuing a statement denying that he had referred to the feedlot project as a mess?

These and many other questions on the accountability of public officials have put Shahrizat and her family under public scrutiny. The pain for Shahrizat, as a wife and mother is understandable. But Shahrizat as a public official must place truth, ethics, social justice and public interest before personal/family interest.

Members of her own party, Umno, have called for her resignation as a Cabinet minister. On February 1, in The Malay Mail, Tan Sri Rafidah Aziz minced no words in calling for tainted leaders to leave the party and government …”That’s for everyone, whether it has got to do with cows or anything else”.

In 2010, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s government was caught up in a credibility crisis as a result of a series of corruption scandals. The prime minister offered to appear before Parliament's public accounts committee (PAC).

“I sincerely believe that like Caesar's wife, the prime minister should be above suspicion and it is for this reason that I am prepared to appear before the PAC even though there is no precedent to that effect," Singh said addressing the plenary in Burari on the concluding day of the two-day Congress Party Conference on December 20, 2010.

It is crucial that family members or the associates of public figures must not even be suspected of wrongdoing. To lead effectively, public figures and all those associated with them must be of “absolutely impeccable conduct; totally beyond reproach; without even the implication of impropriety”.

Recently on January 9, 2012, Philip Hildebrand resigned as chairman of the Swiss National Bank, less than a week after he denied any wrongdoing in a scandal surrounding his wife’s currency trades and rejected calls to step down. He said, “I came to the conclusion that it’s not possible to deliver a definite proof that my wife requested the currency transaction without my knowledge. Unfortunately, mistakes were made around this transaction”, referring to the conflict of interest involved in his wife’s sale of dollars to Swiss francs that made a profit of SFr 75,000. (Financial Times, January 10, 2012).

Shahrizat, like Caesar’s wife, must be above suspicion to sustain her position as a public figure and Cabinet minister.

* Josie M. Fernandez is secretary-general of Transparency International Malaysia.

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication. The Malaysian Insider does not endorse the view unless specified.