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Friday, September 23, 2016

Reading between the lines on why Rosmah’s name was dropped


This is my own analysis, an attempt to read in between the lines just to see what had transpired.
When news broke out that Rosmah Mansor’s name had been dropped, Malaysiakini highlighted that the Malaysian News Agency (Bernamahad said that the event was a Unesco event.
In his immediate response, editor-in-chief, Zakaria Abdul Wahab clarified that its news report was based on Malaysian National Commission for Unesco vice-president, Alias Ahmad.
Zakaria is right, in that his reporter would not invent stories or add things to the story; otherwise, all hell would break loose since this had become a controversy in the past few days. Everything was based on the source, which had to be an official press statement from Alias.
So, the blame seems to fall squarely on Alias. He is also Education Ministry’s newly- appointed secretary-general. While I buy Zakaria’s explanation, it is hard to believe that Alias could make a big mistake over an important announcement like the Unesco.
Alias to take the brunt?
To be fair, I do not believe Alias is the one who should take the whole brunt. Alias only came on the job on Sept 3, during which chief secretary to the government Ali Hamsa said that his “experience, knowledge and credibility will enable him to carry out his responsibilities effectively and he is capable of continuing the ministry’s mission in sustaining a quality education system to build an individual’s potential to meet national aspirations.”
This was the amount of trust that the government has on Alias, a civil servant of 32 years, who was earlier the secretary of the National Security Council in the Prime Minister’s Department. He was also the secretary-general of the Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism Ministry; director-general of Immigration and secretary of the Human Resources Management Division, Home Ministry.
Unless we are saying that Alias sailed through the rank and file because of his political connections, or his willingness to lick the boots of his political masters, it is hard to believe that Alias could make such a blatant mistake.
As a civil servant, he receives instructions and execute them accordingly, sometimes grudgingly out of compliance or for fear of losing his job.
If you ask me, such an announcement should have come from the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) since it involves Rosmah, but as usual, it is the civil servant who becomes the scapegoat.
If the award was a Unesco award, and as important as it was made to look, and if Permata was so important to the country, why was the announcement not even made by a cabinet minister?
The other recipient of the letter purportedly written by Unesco director-general Irina Bokova was Foreign Minister Anifah Aman. Understandably, even Education Minister Mahdzir Khalid would have been kept in the loop.
Whatever the case
In its response to the controversy, Putrajaya issued a statement.
However, I feel that Putrajaya should at least reveal to us the original correspondences where it claims that Irina had written to Najib, Rosmah and Anifah in her capacity as director-general of Unesco.
I would assume that there was an attachment as well, which had to be a letter from the Antiquities Coalition signed by Prof Tudor Parfitt, who chairs the academic advisory board of the organising committee, which we do not hear about.
Except for a press statement from the PMO, without showing us the full contents of the letter, one can only make inferences that Irina, who was also named as director-general of Unesco on Antiquities Coalition’ website, was merely writing the letter as a partner of the coalition, not forgetting that it is a coalition like the Bersih coalition.
Tracking back, I would not be surprised that Irina may have been the person who nominated Permata through the organising committee; or else, she would not have been the one to write the letter to inform the relevant parties to congratulate them.
This is probably her efforts to go beyond her call of duty to build bridges with the Malaysian government as the chief of Unesco. I would imagine her letter had read like this: “Dear Sir/Madam, Congratulations for being awarded “Lead by Example”, a prestigious award by the Antiquities Coalition (see letter attached, probably signed by Prof Parfitt), which will be presented in conjunction with the 71st United Nations General Assembly on Sept 22.”
At the same time, it is also likely that Irina may have been tasked with the job of communicating the committee’s decision with the winners. It is technically correct for Unesco to use its letterhead.
Interestingly, in the PMO’s press statement, Prof Parfitt only appears in the picture when he wrote an email dated Sept 18 to Malaysia’s permanent representative to the United Nations to inform that the award had been deferred till 2017.
If Prof Parfitt had issued the letter announcing the award officially as the organising chairman, why was it not mentioned so that we get the full picture? Why did it appear as though the blame is now on Irina?
To be fair, I doubt that Irina in her capacity as the chief of an international body like Unesco would have given the impression that the award was a Unesco award without making any reference to the Antiquities Coalition. The reason is simply because Unesco is not the party giving the award; it may be a co-host or one of its partners, but the award certainly is not from Unesco.
As Antiquities Coalition spokesperson Andy Beck had put it clearly, “the event was never a Unesco event, nor is Unesco giving the award.”
On the coalition’s website, Unesco is listed as one of its partners, which is again why I believe Irina could have been the one who had originally nominated Permata. It is unlikely that besides Unesco, any of the Antiquities organising committee or its team members or even other partners had much exposure of the Permata programmes.
How then did we get the impression that the award was from Unesco? It sounded so prestigious when I first read it. Of course, like most other Malaysians, I was shocked to horror to think that the award was titled, ‘Lead by Example’.
Could it have been an instruction from someone? Did someone interpret the content of the letter wrongly just because it had come from the director-general of Unesco? Was it done intentionally or unintentionally?
That is for you and me to guess, but I do not think that the blame should even be placed on Irina or Unesco for the so-called ‘misleading’ information. Unesco is an international body, and if it is only a partner in the coalition, it will not pretend that the award is from Unesco. Period.
All hell broke loose
Why should all hell break loose over the eleventh hour announcement that Rosmah’s name had been dropped?
Rosmah has suffered her embarrassment, but I questioned why both Ramesh Rao, president of Pertubuhan Minda dan Sosial Prihatin and MyKMU.net portal jumped in to censure both Unesco and the Antiquities Coalition?
What do they have to do with the entire controversy?
As the awarding body, Antiquities Coalition reserves the right to present an individual with an award or even withdraw it after it has been given. There is no reason why Rao should protest or even creating impressions that some Jewish-based agency is involved in another plot to embarrass Rosmah.
When Rao said the agency is Jewish-based, did he also mean those Muslim leaders named in Antiquities Coalition’s website are also Jewish agents?
Put bluntly, the Antiquities Coalition can choose to proceed with the award for Rosmah or drop it. This is to protect their own reputation. In this case, the Antiquities Coalition had decided to defer the award till 2017 until they could verify the facts.
And since Rosmah has already declined the award after her name was unceremoniously dropped, there is no reason for even MyKMU.net to dare Education Minister Mahadzir Khalid to close all Unesco offices in Malaysia.
Such action would create more international publicity for the country especially since Rosmah is also the wife of the Malaysian Official 1, and will become the target of international press. There is enough negative publicity worldwide as a result of our poor handling of the media.
When both the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s journalist and photographer were detained in a police lock-up, what did we achieve? Nothing but more negative publicity from the international press! Have we not learnt the lesson?

MyKMU.net’s demand to close Unesco offices in Malaysia would therefore not go well with the recognition originally intended by the Antiquities for the “efforts undertaken by the government of Malaysia to counter extremism through the educational system, and specifically the approach taken by Permata founded in 2007 by Rosmah”.
By not reining in loose cannons like Rao and the ‘ghost’ blogger behind MyKMU.net, it goes to show that we have double standards. I hope my efforts to get us on the right track would make sense to those in the corridors of power.

STEPHEN NG is an ordinary citizen with an avid interest in following political developments in the country since 2008. -Mkini

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