Joseph Tawie
A ruckus at an Election Commission briefing has left the opposition here seething.
Shocked state PKR leaders who attended the briefing said Assistant Minister of Youth Development Abdul Karim Hamzah had behaved “like a gangster” towards the party’s Senadin candidate Dr Michael Teo.
According to one of the leaders who declined to be named, during the question and answer session, Teo had claimed that the postal votes cast by uniformed personnel could be manipulated if the ballot boxes were not placed at the tallying centres after voting process. Teo also alleged that it might lead to vote tampering.
“Karim became angry and told Teo to stop asking stupid questions. Teo then replied that he was not talking to him but to the Election Commission chairman and other officials.
“This rattled Karim who almost attacked him,” said the leader.
The leader went on to add that Karim’s hooligan-like behaviour was well known in the State Legislative Assembly.
“During Dewan Undangan Negeri (state assembly) meetings, he used to disturb opposition assemblymen by interrupting them so much so that (during one sitting) the Kota Sentosa assemblyman (Chong Chieng Jen once) told him to behave like assistant minister.
“Karim used to tell Sarawakians to be wary of PKR’s politics of gangsterism and chaos. It would appear that he is the one who is resorting to gangsterism in order to intimidate his opponents,” he said.
‘Behave like a minister, Karim’
Meanwhile Teo, when contacted by FMT, confirmed the incident, saying that Semop assemblyman Abdullah Saidol had restrained Karim, otherwise there may have been a brawl.
“All this happened in front of the Election Commission officials and reporters.
“All I did was tell Karim: ‘I was not talking to you. I am here not to fight anybody’.
“This made him very angry which led him to open his shirt and asked me to go out to fight him one to one,” said Teo who is still puzzled as to why Karim considered his question stupid.
Teo said Karim’s behavior was “more like a gangster and (it was) unbecoming of an assistant minister.”
Sarawak PKR chief Baru Bian, who witnessed the whole incident refused to comment except to say that ‘you know what type of a person he (Karim) is”.
“It is not worth commenting,” Bian, who is the Ba’Kelalan assemblyman, added.
Hmmm…one on one….no lah he is too old for that kind of behavior but wait a minute..he is a BN Rep.so what do we expect when thats their standard including threatening phone calls!!
Comment by Brian — August 6, 2012 @ 1:14 PM |
We will do all we can to put you, Taib, Taib’s families, Hamed Sepawie, Awang Tengah, Len Talip. James Masing, Alfred Jabu, Geroge Chan, Stephen Rundl……..dozens of them in Jail. Just wait and see. We are in touch with international NGOs, with Adrian Fozzard, International Coordinator of the Stolen Asset Recovery…….Ask your conscience, pray to God! Twitter quote: ‘Mubarak cried and resisted leaving the helicopter that took him to prison.’ Let this, Gaddaffi & Saddam etc be a warning to others.
Comment by alan newman, new zealand — August 5, 2012 @ 10:34 PM |
Abdul Karim, am speaking from NZ, ranked among the top for transparency & democracy, I tell you straight to your face, you are the lowest of the low, moron, idiot, bastard, crim, ball-sucker, you should be tied to a tree in central city, be spat on, stripped naked, knifed, whipped and let the birds and flies finish you off. I call the biggest Curse from God on you. You and your Taib cronies have destroyed your country, you millions of people. I have zero no tolerance for evil! Alan Newman, NZ.
Comment by alan newman, new zealand — August 5, 2012 @ 10:28 PM |
Even in far-away, neutral New Zealand we are boiling mad, your PBB/BN Gov’t is outrageously crooked and dishonest, & for how many decades now? daily plunder and robbery, skinning & fleecing the whole country. Taib in Sarawak, holding 3 supreme portfolios of Chief Minstr, Finance Minstr & Planning & Resources Minister, plundering for 31 yrs. Your PM pretends nothing’s there…..now he revenges on Rafizi for the NFC cows, even after 3 murders: Ross Boyert (Taib’s former US aide), Manser (native & rainforest activist) & Altantuyaa (Scorpene $$ claimant), & after BN lost over RM300billion in 55 yrs. Yr PM flies a new RM200m plane & Taib rides Rolls Royce. In NZ our PM flies 2nd Class; here Taito P Field, an MP was jailed for a few years for corruption (using Thai immigrants to paint his houses). How long would yr Dr MM, Najib, Taib all the BN/UMNO/PBB cronies, MACC, Police chiefs last in a democratic country like NZ, Aus, UK, US or Canada before going to jail? 1 mth? We now call the most horrific curse on these PBB/BN criminals.
Comment by alan newman, new zealand — August 5, 2012 @ 10:21 PM |
QUESTION TO EC OR QUESTION TO YOU, KARIM?SO WHAT YOUR ANSWERS….
Comment by magnum5583 — August 3, 2012 @ 11:46 PM |
How did a juvenile and brain dead moron get to be elected as an assistant minister? Is Taib really so shot of at least an average intelligent person to be put as a junior minister. He’s just a kampung samseng. Someone should teach him a lesson.
Comment by time2kickbnout — August 3, 2012 @ 4:38 PM |
Must have been watching too much boxing. YB, an Olympic enthusiast.
Comment by Edward, M — August 3, 2012 @ 3:17 PM |
Before he was selected to strand as PBB candidate in his first debut for a state seat, he was most bookies’ favourite as he would be betting big in football. He would also be “hiding” in some hotels on weekends gambling with friends. His close and personal friends also revealed that when he was a partner at Hamzah and Ong Advocates, he never issued official receipts for payments made to him for preparing legal documents. Do you trust this guy to be your business partner, and state assembly man?
Comment by Nasi Lemak — August 3, 2012 @ 1:30 PM |
It’s well known that a lot of the BN Politicians have “Big Taiko” behind them. Karim, do you dare to stand as a BN candidate for Bandar Kuching ?
Comment by gagojackman — August 3, 2012 @ 12:50 PM |
Send him to Tanjung Rambutan !!!
Comment by Mike- Johor — August 3, 2012 @ 12:30 PM |
Just another kampung idiot with big mouth.
Comment by rc — August 3, 2012 @ 11:20 AM |
Wow!….. what sort of assembly man is he? An educated moron who doesn’t fit to live in a civilised society, and I think he has a barbaric attitude in his blood. I agree with tigeryk’s comment and he should undergo a total rehabilitation programme.
We don’t need such wakil rakyat who condones nepotism, cronyism and rampant corruption.
Comment by Justice Lover — August 3, 2012 @ 10:09 AM |
Pick your choice. A barbaric Lawyer 2. An ill mannered Assemblyman 3. An august gangster 4. A cheat.
Comment by miaOwkia — August 3, 2012 @ 8:38 AM |
Somehow it’s better to defend Yang Di Kasehi Taib rather than you own father….
__________________________
Abdul Karim: ‘Unfair’ to stop Taib from amassing fortune
By Keruah Usit, Malaysia Kini, 8 Dec 2010
Abdul Karim Hamzah, chief political secretary to Sarawak Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud, has told Radio Free Sarawak (RFS) that it is only “fair” that Taib should accumulate wealth in public office.
In an interview with RFS, a shortwave station outside the control of the government, Abdul Karim dismissed criticism of the enormous wealth of Taib’s family, as reported by the Sarawak Report website. He also discussed the controversial Sarawak Government White Paper on ‘unhealthy political practices’, proposed by Abdul Karim himself.
“Personally, I see there must be limitations to everything, you cannot have a free flow of everything… the freedom of speech, there are limitations. I mean to take up an action (for libel) is not as simple (as it seems)… sometimes it’s better to just leave things as they are, because it will, after a while, quieten down.”
He brushed off the furore surrounding detailed descriptions on Sarawak Report of Taib’s property fortunes in Europe and North America, and land acquisition schemes in Sarawak.
“The way I see it, it’s not causing any problem, lah. What is the problem with Sarawak Report? Have they been saying something that is very defamatory or bad? I don’t think it’s wrong to be rich.”
Asked how Taib and his children could have achieved their fabulous wealth based on his modest ministerial salary, he replied: “How can you use that salary as a yardstick, you know? I mean, you must give people an opportunity…I mean, if Taib is the chief minister, I don’t think we should stop the children, (that) the children cannot be rich or the family cannot be rich.
“He has been in power for the last 40 years… he has been open to a lot of opportunities, whereby his children also can participate in business, and then, using the kind of networking that they can have, and then build up their riches.”
Asked what these opportunities were, Abdul Karim explained: “Well, opportunities to participate in business and things like that, you know? Take for example… if you are a minister or chief minister, then somebody comes to you and wants to sell a piece of land at a very cheap price… and then through the years, that value of land suddenly shoots up 1,000 times… and you sell it off and make some money, is that tantamount to corruption?
“If you use your position to secure certain businesses or certain contracts, then I would say that would be an abuse of power, but then that depends again, whether that is happening or not…”
He avoided the topic of allegations of Taib distributing contracts to companies under the control of his family members, including CMS and Naim Holdings.
Asked whether cronyism exists in Sarawak politics, Abdul Karim said: “You cannot, you must not equate Taib’s family with himself… he has got a lot of ‘cronies’. Everybody knows him.
“So, after 40 years in the government, don’t you think he deserves to have some level of satisfaction, or some level of wealth that he could accumulate in the right way? Are you trying to tell me politicians must be poor? Only businessmen are allowed to be rich? That’s very unfair!
“I mean, if that is how we look at it, then we are not practising democracy, because you are depriving a politician from… having a good way of life. Only the businessmen are allowed to be rich, to fly around, have holidays? The politicians are not?”
“The purpose of the White Paper is to… to… to… more or less define what are the… who are those people who are undesirable, I would say, who could be a threat to the… there are certain… certain quarters of people, whether they are politicians, whether they are NGOs, or whether they are from the media even, whether they are from Malaysia or from overseas, who seem to be wanting to break us up, who seem to be… I mean they couldn’t be bothered, they don’t have any love for us.
“That’s why we want the state to set a proper guideline, who can be welcome and who should not be welcome, to identify what are the things that we can consider as a threat, who are those people who we know have blatantly tried to run down the government, tried to create instability, whether economically or politically, in the state.
“These are the people we should stop, whether they are from the government or not from the government, or whether they are from overseas or whether they are from Malaysia itself, or religious… this covers every angle, I would say.
“We have every right to look after our state… Immigration is in our hands, when we formed Malaysia… we have got that right, that immigration right.
“If we feel that they are not desirable to us, if they are known to be… who have been running us down, from their writing, from their blogs, I think if they are not a friend to Sarawak, I would say, then we stop them!
“The opposition always thinks it is against them, not realising that it is also against certain people in Barisan Nasional (BN).”
Abdul Karim declined to name those in BN who may be kept out of the state.
In response to speculation that the state government wants to muzzle websites like Sarawak Report, Abdul Karim replied, “We can’t stop them from publishing, they can have their own right, because the world is free, you see… the Internet world, you can put anything inside there. But then when it comes to coming into our state, we do not want them.”
Abdul Karim concluded his RFS interview by alleging that US president Barack Obama, and British leaders like former Prime Minister Gordon Brown, are all “filthy rich”, and that Taib has done nothing wrong in accumulating wealth.
_________________________
Has ‘bootlicker’ Karim forgotten Taib disgraced his father?
by Joseph Tawie, FMT, 7 May 2011
Former deputy Education Minister Salleh Jafaruddin has slammed Abdul Karim Hamzah for calling Movement of Change Sarawak chief Francis Siah a ‘soldier of fortune.’
KUCHING: Chief political secretary to Sarawak CM, Abdul Karim Hamzah, appears to either have a short memory or is simply lacking in moral values and dignity, according to former deputy Education Minister Salleh Jafaruddin.
Barely a day after Karim blasted the Movement for Change, Sarawak (MoCS) for threatening mass protests to oust Chief Minister (CM) Taib, Salleh reminded Karim that it was Taib who had thrown his father Abdul Rahman Hamzah in jail under the Internal Security Act (ISA).
“I am ashamed to see how low Karim could stoop doing dirty work for the chief minister (CM) who once blatantly disgraced his own beloved father by putting him under ISA for a year.
“A political leader who has courage, moral values and religious principles will never stoop to that level because of purely economic benefit and political convenience at the expense of family dignity and status. ,” said Salleh, who is Taib’s cousin and ex-PBB leader.
Speaking to FMT Salleh, who contested in Balingian and lost to Taib in the April 16 state election, said “only members of society who suffered from special down syndrome hereditary behaved in that irresponsible way.”
“I hope he is spared from the influence of Taib’s bomohs. Only leeches and termites behave that way.
“These species have no function for the owner or the host except to be a destroyer. They cannot lead because they are not responsible.
“My advice to this wayward son of my late good friend is this – ‘Karim, before you open your mouth to condemn others and MoCS leader Francis Siah, please do not be a mere parrot for this semi-insane leader whom you are now serving.
“Otherwise the influence of his insanity may put you in the same shoes where your late father landed.
“Your late father was a man of principles while you are very different,” added Salleh.
MACC urged to probe
Salleh was responding to Karim’s stinging remarks about Siah in a local daily yesterday.
Karim alleged that both MoCS and Siah were ‘security threats’ and urged the police to monitor the statements made by Sia and to investigate the work of the grassroots movement .
In response, Siah called Karim as a well known ‘bootlicker and sycophant’ of Taib whose only job as the chief minister’s political secretary was apple-polishing.
“And Karim gets paid from taxpayers’ money just for singing songs which Taib likes to hear,” Siah had reportedly said.
Salleh, in turn while expression his ‘appreciation’ for Karim’s concern for the “overall security of the state,” said “we are also equally worried over the massive abuse of political power employed by State BN leaders to plunder and squander the state’s assets in billions of ringgit over the last 30 years.”
“I believe that you, Karim, are one of the recent recipients of these loots.
“You are enjoying the financial shares of the land deals which you jointly owned together with the former PBB assemblyman for Semera.
“In return for your call to the police to investigate, I am also calling on the MACC (Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission) and the Income Tax Department to immediately conduct an investigation as to how the land deal which Tabong Haji brought from both of you came about.
“I also request Inland Revenue Department to find out whether the personal income tax was paid by both of you as the amount is substantial. It is easily more than RM10 million,” Salleh said.
“So who is the real soldier of fortune here?” he asked Karim.
Not a loner
In his tirade against MoCS and Siah yesterday, Karim described the Siah as a ‘soldier of fortune’ and a ‘loner’ and that the people should not listen to him.
“As far as I know Francis Siah, he is not a politician but a journalist by profession. He can work anywhere with his alert mind, writing skill and a computer.
“He does not need politics to survive, unlike Karim Hamzah who is dependent on Taib for his survival.
“As for him being a ‘loner’, let me tell the likes of Karim that Siah had travelled throughout the country to promote MoCS and its agenda for change for Sarawak.
“He is well received everywhere he goes and MoCS is gaining momentum among Sarawakians throughout the country.
“I was with Francis Siah in Kota Kinabalu last week and we met many Sarawakians in Sabah as well as prominent personalities in the state.
“We are encouraging the setting up of the Movement for Change, Sabah and the idea is well received by our friends in Sabah,” Salleh revealed adding that ‘Siah is not alone in MoCS”.
Salleh said that he and his supporters are committed to pursuing the MoCS greater agenda for Sarawak and the people.
“To Taib and his bunch of shady characters like Karim, let me warn them that their days of plundering the state and blatant abuse of power are numbered.
“Sooner of later, they will have to face the wrath of the people,” added Salleh.
Comment by Teddy Gumbang — August 3, 2012 @ 8:34 AM |
THIS KARIM IS FAMOUS FOR SHOUTING ‘KURANG AJAR” AT MY HERO,MR CHIONG.THIS “KURANG AJAR” FELLA IS TRYING TO PROVE HE IS STILL A WINNABLE CANDIDATE. NOTHING MORE.
Comment by VINCENT AK PAUL — August 3, 2012 @ 8:23 AM |
This is the quality of our Yang berhormat ( YB) konon. I never thought that this YB would try to demonstrate himself to that extend. But judging from the way they behave, all of them are alike. They are just trying to protect their own interest in politic and income. Hidup SARAWAK !!!!!! STAND UP FOR YOUR RIGHT SARAWAKIAN. SHOW THEM WHO IS THE REAL TAUKEYYYYYYY……….
Comment by simple guy — August 3, 2012 @ 8:11 AM |
Mentally unsound … he should be sent to 7th Mile “Hotel” for rehabilitation … very shameful indeed
Comment by tigeryk — August 3, 2012 @ 6:21 AM |