Sivakumar says frogs freed under BN ‘package deal’

Ousted Perak Speaker V. Sivakumar denounced today's acquittals of two former Pakatan Rakyat (PR) colleagues as part of a “package deal” offered by the Barisan Nasional (BN) to wrest the state government last year.

“I am not surprised by the court decision. I expected it. Do you think that after all they had done to grab power, they would let them go?” he told The Malaysian Insider when contacted.

In today's highly-anticipated case, Behrang assemblyman Jamaluddin Mohd Radzi and Changkat Jering assemblyman Mohd Osman Mohd Jailu were acquitted and discharged from their corruption charges after a six month-long trial.

Ipoh Sessions Court Judge Azhaniz Teh Azman Teh said that the prosection from the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission had failed to prove a prima facie case to convict all five of the accused in the case.

He said that the acquittal, as well as the Datukship award conferred to Jelapang assemblyman Hee Yit Foong, was a part of a whole “package deal” given to the three protagonists in the fall of the Perak government last year.

“They (the two frogs) were promised they would be acquitted of the charges already. It was all set up from the beginning when they put us in trouble by resigning.

“If these fellows were convicted, they would put Perak in a total mess,” said Sivakumar.

Besides Jamaluddin and Mohd Osman, PKR politician Usaili Alias, former Perak Tengah district councillor Zul Hassan and businessman Fairul Azrim Ismail, were also jointly charged for corruption.

They were accused of soliciting for bribes from MACC agent provocateur Mohammad Imran Abdullah in exchange for helping the latter obtain a RM180mil housing project on a 36ha piece of land in Seri Iskandar, just outside of Ipoh.

“It was all a part of one game. They used the May 7 assembly sitting, the Oct 28 assembly sitting and everything. So you can already foresee the outcome of today's court decision,” Sivakumar continued.

He pointed out that if Jamaluddin and Mohd Osman were charged, their seats of Behrang and Changkat Jering would automatically be declared vacant.

“Then the mess begins because what happens then?” he said.

If by-elections are called for the seats, the Pakatan Rakyat may likely wrest the Perak government back from the Barisan Nasional.

“That is why we still maintain that it was all just a plan from before,” he said.

The plan, he said, was for Jamaluddin, Mohd Osman and Hee to desert the PR and become BN-friendly independents in order to trigger the fall of the PR government.

“Now we can see their plans unfolding one by one. It is all surfacing. However, we cannot do anything about it now. We will just continue our struggles and wait for the next general election,” he said.