The Parliment Shocks? Not Shocking Really!

He was the member of the legislation body who complaint about the executives who behaves like political masters than a civil servant.

He criticised the Director-General of the Customs and Excise Department, Datuk Abdul Rahman for being fond of taking the media along on his visits and behaves more like Barisan National poltician.

He claimed that since the appointment of Abdul Rahman as D-G, the Custom department’s revenue had dropped from RM8 billion to RM6 billion for the period from January to April 2006.

He castigated the D-G and tell him that he should concentrate on his work rather than spend time announcing to the media about staff transfers or take them to venues to announce seizures.

He is none other than:

Jasin MP Datuk Mohd Said Yusof.


The D-G had to defend himself. He is new to the chair and he has to show what his predecessor had not done before.

I am only doing my job, says Rahman.

Abdul Rahman said he was saddened by Jasin MP Datuk Mohd Said Yusof’s allegations.

"I am only a civil servant doing my job to the best of my ability," he said. He said the figures cited by Said on the revenue collection in the first four months of this year were incorrect. The department collected RM8,075,792,009.05 in the first four months of this year, against RM7.96 billion raised in the same period last year, he said. "That means we have actually collected millions of ringgit more this year and this does not include the duties on petroleum.

"The figures are right in front of me and I monitor them every day," he said, expressing confidence that the department would be able to achieve its target of collecting RM27 billion in taxes and duties this year.

Then came the shocker.

The NST reported this:


A Member of Parliament allegedly asked the Customs and Excise Department to "close one eye" in a case involving the import of sawn timber.

Customs officials did not heed his request and went ahead to seized the consignment of timber.

The timber-import agent of the Malacca-based company is said to have committed at least 14 offences this year alone.

Then came another shocker:

Datuk Shahrir Samad, the ruling party's backbenchers club chairman dropped a bombshell by quitting as he was unhappy that his fellow MPs did not support him in a motion to refer the New Straits Times to the House’s Rights and Privileges Committee.

The motion was moved by Opposition leader Lim Kit Siang, following a report in the NST yesterday on an MP who allegedly asked the Customs and Excise Department to "close one eye" in a case involving the import of sawn timber.

Shahrir spoke in support of the motion but many backbenchers could not favour of it. The motion was rejected by the House.

Why? Why didn't the MPs support their colleague and their chairman?

Maybe, one can observed, is that most of them are wearing pampers ... they too had plenty of shits wrap inside them; and in layers.

Speaker Tan Sri Ramli Ngah Talib said: "The report was written in such a way that it implied that an MP had instructed a government officer to close one eye on the case. "Although it did not name the MP involved, it cast both the House and the MP in a bad light," he said.

Shahrir said the motion was aimed at protecting the integrity of Parliament and its members. "I see the committee as a tool for us to manage our own affairs. We are responsible for our actions and I agree with the motion." But the motion was defeated.

Nobody need to speculate who the man in black was.

Datuk Mohd Said Yusof, the Barisan MP for Jasin admitted that he was the man involved in the "scam".

Mohd Said admitted that he had asked the Customs and Excise Department to close an eye over a case involving the import of sawn timber.

He said he went to the Customs office in his capacity as a Member of Parliament as well as a forwarding agent.

"I went there to ask the Customs officials to be lenient. They seized the sawn timber but I went there to seek their help in getting the sawn timber released.

Mohd Said admitted he told the department to "close one eye" (tutup sebelah mata).

“I said yang mana lebih sikit, pejam matalah. Biasalah itu (whichever that is a little bigger, please close one eye. That is normal),” he said.

Is that normal? Really? Ya! It is! It really is!

Because most of the parliamentary members of the ruling party had consistently seek the eyes to be closed to their business needs. That's our parliamentary convention and UMNO's convention.

We don't call this corruption, neither an abuse of power; neither kleptorism.

It's call normal; that is, the enforcement officers must try to close one eye, and very often, where necessary, close both eyes, and go to sleep and, get paid.

Normal? Ya, yes sir!

It is normal too that taxes and duties and local councils and utility companies are going to increase tariffs, rates, assessments and contributions as the government needs more money to feed the sharks and crocodiles within the stable.

We had to bear with it as we choose to elect them and not only that, we sent in a massive mandate to have them do this. Thank ourselves and kiss our own asses.